Macster

Nothing gruesome just an observation I thought might prove of some interest.

It has been quite wet here where I live and the Turbo has sat out in the rain. Sorry, but I've been so busy that I have to rely upon rain to wash the cars. Detailing consists of driving the car fast enough to dry it.

Anyhow, I got in the Turbo the other day -- a rainy day -- and started the engine.

I sort of expected to see the voltage reading low and to hear the belt emit a few brief chirps from the water.

Even from a mild dousing when I wash the car the belt gets wet enough to do this even though I make it a point to watch the amount of water I spray on/around the engine cover.

Well, the voltage reading was down under 12V at engine start and then remained there. And stayed there.

At the time I heard not one peep from the belt.

The battery is new and the charging system has not given me any indication it is acting up but I was starting to get worried.

While this condition lasted just seconds -- it seemed like hours -- it lasted long enough that I broke a general rule and gave the cold engine some throttle raising its rpms to around 1500 then releasing the throttle and letting rpms return to their normal cold level of around 1K.

I did this twice.

Finally as the rpms dropped to their usual level I heard a faint chirp from the belt and then spotted the voltage reading climbing and settling in at just under 14 volts.

Whew!

It made me realize how much water can get on the engine of these cars when they are left outside in the rain.

Might mention the 1st time I left my Turbo out in the rain for an extended time -- overnight -- upon engine start the engine misfired momentarily. I was half expecting the engine to misfire this time too but it did not.

Kerrage

My Turbo does this too, Once sitting in the auto carwash my check voltage came on and immediatley i shut off the AC to see if that would help? SHould we tighten our belts?

SSST

Never had this problem. Time for a new belt?

jimq

mine will occasionally do it if it sits in a Florida monsoon. My belt has 11K miles on it.

Macster

No. AFAIK belt tension is not adjustable. If it is weak that's a belt tensioner problem. These can fail at any time but i have not ever had one fail. In fact not too long after I bought my new 02 Boxster I bought a set of new idler rollers and a new tensioner. I have yet to need any of these even after putting 262K miles on the car. With the Turbo while it had a noisy idler roller which was replaced under warranty the rest still seem to be ok along with tensioner.

Macster

While with just 11K miles on the belt your car is not due to have this replaced but it occurred to me mine might.

In fact now that I think about I can't remember when the belt was last replaced, exactly.

I know when a idler roller bearing went all noisy on me and was replaced I had the belt replaced at the same time but that is close to (maybe more than) 50K miles back. If not due just yet the belt is close to being due.

In fact the car recently went through a period of time after which the battery died. The alternator was working harder and thus the belt was too. And this same belt also was in service when the previous battery (in May of 2011) also went bad. Thus this belt has had to suffer through two battery failures and I wonder if this took its toll on the belt?