snaphappy

Watch the video and you'll see my drive belt tensioner is not cinched down. Is it supposed to be loose like this? From what I gather this is a T50 and it's supposed to be torqued to 44lbs...is that correct?




And here's the weird sound I'm trying to diagnose:

dgjks6

That’s loose.

snaphappy

How on earth do I get a T50 on there to tighten it? Remove the bumper lol

cwheeler

May have to remove the bumper. May have to remove the cross pipes.... I had to remove both when changing water pump, and that's just north of the water pump...

My concern would be why it's backing out now. Sheered bolt?

Cw

GTSpure

Are there any schedules to replace this part? How many KM do you have?

Petza914

Yep, that's your problem. I would remove that bolt and put some loctite on it before retensioning it. Be careful when removing it as shearing it off makes for a fun job, but because it's loosening itself is why I think you should remove it to inspect and clean the threads and make sure running it when loose didn't bend the bolt.

dgjks6

For tools you have to make something. I used a tire bit only and put a wrench on it.

Step 1 is back it out and make sure not damage

My guess is someone changed it before and when put it back used the bit and wrench method and did not torque it enough because there is no way to measure for proper torque. Ok there is but most people don't have those torque wrenches.

snaphappy

Totally agree. The pulley spins so perfectly, I’m guessing it’s new and they hand tightened it.

As for me tightening it, I don’t plan to remove the bumper, going to see if Napa has a special tool for it

snaphappy

I can’t even get the bolt all way out. There’s not enough clearance

63mercedes

Spray it with a little penetrating fluid and just take a T50 screwdriver bit and put a pair of pliers on the bit. I don't know how you get a correct toque spec without removing the bumper but that can definitely be tightened. Just like using a wrench on a screwdriver handle just way shorter. This has me quite intrigued because the accessory belt is my next service around November. They said wait a year to change it on my PPI. Thank you for posting and best of luck to you.

63mercedes

Also I imagine if it takes a t50 its got a sizable head which means the shaft of the bolt should be quite thick. To break or bend that I think would take quite a bit of force, I think the belt would break before it had enough force to send the tensioner laterally into the shaft. I bet that bolts fine, I'm rooting for you.

TheTorch

buy a sacrificial T50, cut if off as short as you can but still get bite with a wrench, and use a long wrench or crescent to turn it. might work

dgjks6

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...t-997-2-a.html

you, my friend, have won the luck lottery
multiple posts about this bolt snapping because it came loose

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...tensioner.html

IIRC if you want to remove the bolt you have to loosen the lower bolt on the tensioner then the upper bolt will come out

or you can tighten and pray

snaphappy

Here’s what I did. I bought an extra T50 socket. Grabbed an angle grinder with a metal blade and cut the T50 bit out of the socket. With the bit cut free, there was enough clearance to get the bit on the T50 bolt. I loosened the bolt as far as it would come out and covered the threads in blue locktite. I then hand tightened the T50 bolt as tight as I could get it with my fingers. Next, I inserted the T50 bit into the head of the bolt. Then I grabbed an 8mm ratcheting wrench and tightened the bolt as tight as humanly possible. I think with the locktite it will be fine. If it comes remotely loose again I’ll remove the bumper and torque it properly.

63mercedes

Hell yeah man, congrats. Are Porsche fasteners known to be cheap in general? I guess if the bumper ever comes off you could put some kind of upgraded grade 8 or 9 metric bolt in there. I don't think that would snap. Plus a hex head would have a whole lot more clearance to play with. The engineers never get along with mechanics lol. Designing is one thing, repairing is another lol.

Glad up your up and running, and keeping us informed.