Colin995

So Tuesday evening, My 996 with no warning, normal engine sound. Fantastic to be honest. I can hear what I thought was a drill or similar sound in the distance, metal in metal?.

Called into my normal Ind garage pulled the boot, and they said and pointed out I had a pulley missing, I mean gone sheared off. Part of the bolt is in the bloc. And the area where the pulley was is slightly jagged so the bloc surface is also gone.

Any advice would be great, is it a fix my garage can do.

Has anyone heard of this happening and how did they fix it.

Thank you

Ahsai

A photo will help but in general, the broken bolt will need to be extracted and a new one put in.

Looneybin

So did it throw the belt?
I would think the alt gauge and warning light would have illuminated

Schnell Gelb

Colin,
It should be an easy fix. The big question is collateral damage. When the belt is thrown off it could do lots of damage or none.There are lots of electrical connections in the "firing line"
The other question is "while they are in there" -what else? Fortunately, not much.The pullies and belt are all generic and easy to source .
The only tedious aspect that your Indie may need sympathy for is a concealed and difficult 15mm bolt head for the tensioner pulley.But they will know all about that !

Colin995

Many thanks for the replies. The garage have updated me this morning being a day the Uk is closed due to a bank holiday. The engine block is missing the area the pulley would have been located so that went with it. They are talking about removing the bolt grinding the area and using washers to pad the pulley as compo for the bloc missing the location. They have never done in 40 years of trading. Great guys and honest. Any suggestions I can offer would be great, I will post a pic ASAP. Anybody ever hear of this before, the belt is only 3 months old done by Porsche and is not damaged I was a mike from the garage so limped in. Thank you.

5CHN3LL

I have never heard of the idler on an M96 breaking/fatiguing off...that's a new one on me.

It will probably never happen again - but...when you have no serp. belt, you have no power steering, no alternator, and (perhaps most crucially) no water pump, so it's a good thing you were only a mile from the shop.

Colin995

Thanks for the reply. I am not mechanical but a 996 is my dream car, do you think the grinding down and washer plan will work as permanent fix. Cheers.

Imo000

Post pictures of what exactly happened.

Oregoncoaststi

Yeah, post pictures, the car won't even run if it throws a belt

Colin995

I will post pics on Tuesday as we are on a long bank holiday weekend here in the UK. To recap the drill sound started 2 mins from home and I recall being almost stationary with the noise, no bang or loss of anything all dash lights as normal. I drove to my garage a mile or so very slowly. The sound was a grating sound belt in as new condition missing pulley 8. Lower left of the be two the block is jagged and looks white where the bolt was and a skim of the bloc. I hope this is going to be repairable. Cheers Colin

Colin995

As promised a picture of my 996

frisbee91

I had my idler pulley bolt shear off a few years back. Just the bolt. The engine block wasn't damaged.

Strangely, it didn't throw the serpentine belt. Car kept running. It was a simple fix, once I got the broken bolt out using a left-hand drill bit.

edit: Here's the thread describing my issues (with pics)
https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...al-solved.html

Colin995

It is in the Garage Wed so finger crossed!

Colin995

Does the picture suggest a repair is possible.

DBJoe996

Wow. That's a difficult one. From this diagram it is Part #'s 12, 13 and 14 that attach directly to the engine block. It is hard to see from your picture how much of the original bolt hole is left, and how deep it goes. It looks like part of the engine block has broken off and there is not much thread left in the hole. You might be able to thread as much of the remaining hole as you can and shim the bearing, but it looks iffy to me, and how long it would last is questionable. Good luck. http://www.autoatlanta.com/porsche-p...section=101-10

The only other thing that might work, aside from engine disassembly and replacement of the left engine block, would be to TIG weld a nut on there. Highly specialized welding and you run the risk of that part of the aluminum block becoming brittle. Probably an engine out job given the constraints of access and extreme difficulties of getting it right. It really sucks to be in this position.