My '08 C2S has 47,500+ miles so it's time to inspect and possibly replace the serpentine belt... the job took about 45mins from start to finish. Total cost was $53.50 for genuine Porsche s-belt from Pelican Parts.

Vehicle History: 1st owner drove her for 2.25 yrs. I purchased her 3+ months ago with 46K miles on her. 1st owner did all scheduled maintenance at Power Porsche in Newport where she was purchased by him. All service records were provided by PP when I in turned purchased her from them. There was no record of the s-belt being replaced by PP.

The original S-Belt looked decent enough for a car with 48k miles but I could see small fraying on the edge as compared to the new belt so I replaced it while I had it all apart.
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Tools and parts required: 24mm socket, break bar and/or drive ratchet, flat head screw driver, and a new serpentine belt.
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Procedure: I followed the instructions on RennTech:
http://www.renntech.org/forums/tutor...-polyrib-belt/.

Here are also some additional pics and notes which may help others with this job.

Disconnect and remove the air box per these RennTech instructions: http://www.renntech.org/forums/tutorials/article/52-air-filter-change-instructions/

I pulled the connecting plug off the mass air flow sensor to make the job of getting in there with a drive wrench easier.
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I also unclipped this part from the air box which allowed me to place the airbox outside the engine compartment.
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Here's the air box outside my engine compartment.
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As a reference I took a pic of the s-belt routing before removing it.
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Turn tensioning pulley (#7) clockwise to loosen the s-belt and remove it.
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This is a good time to inspect all the pulleys and tensioners for damage, free play, and proper movement.

Slide/feed the new s-belt in thru and between the bottom pulley (#1) and the rear of the engine compartment at the bottom... it's a little tight here
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I found it easier to start the routing process by feeding a small part of the s-belt thru/between pulley #1 and #6 from the bottom.
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THIS IS IMPORTANT/HELPFUL: once the routing is done make sure that the slack is near pulley #3, turn the tensioner pulley clockwise, slide the s-belt under pulley # 3... I found a screw driver very useful to help slip the s-belt into place.
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Again, thank you Renntech.org for some excellent instructions... even though they were for the 996.

Previous Maintenance Jobs: I replaced the air(with a K&N) and cabin filters when I purchased her 3 months ago. The dealership replaced my RMS and oil/oil filter as condition of my purchase. My PPI found an RMS leak... Last week I replaced my spark plugs and coils.

Next job will be to bled the brakes... waiting for Fedx to deliver my jackpoints to make that job a bit easier and safer.

Note: I kept the old s-belt JIC.. it's in my p-car emergency bag. Even though it's an old belt... it might be the only one available should I get stuck in a remote part of the country where there are no p-car dealerships in sight.

 

Awesome man! So good to see more DIY type members posting here. I was getting a little frustrated with all the see the dealer/ file a warranty claim type responses.

Getting your hands dirty is so much more fulfilling!

Tag for reference.

 

Thanks IslandS52. Wish there was more posted for the 997.1 especially on Renntech. I'm just glad the 996 and 997.1 are similar enough that I can leverage some of their DIY's.

 

did mine last week too. hardest problem was wiggling the damn airbox out! but otherwise, very easy.

 

USMC_DS1,

Great write up.
Any time I save old "rubber" products, I give them a good coating with 303 Aerospace Protectant (http://www.303products.com/shop303/i...protectant.cfm) and store them in a zip lock bag. I learned the hard way w/ my '71 MGB when I replaced my fan belt only to learn 3 miles down the road it was dry rotted.

 

I had a similar experience on a '69' MGC.

 

Thanks for the rec NA011. Just ordered a spray bottle of 303. The s-belt was already in a zip lock but it could use some protectant... plus I have tons of SCUBA gear which could use this as well.

 

You can also find the 303 at West Marine, NAPA & sometimes at Walmart.

 

I'd like to add an additional tip to make this project a little clearer or easier.

Make sure that you cinch down on the adjusting roller pulley (bright green here) as far as it will go--it will be nearly touching the left come-along idler pulley (lower yellow one in this image). Otherwise, you can't get the belt over everything. This means if you're using a combination wrench (24mm) that you need to make sure the air box is fully removed to give you complete access, and that you start your wrench at least at the 10 o'clock position or better. Otherwise, you will run into a conflict on the other side of the engine. Of course, as demonstrated here on this thread, if you use a ratchet, it's not a factor--but make sure the handle is long enough to provide sufficient torque! You will turn the ratchet or wrench clockwise, and the pulley will move to the left closing the gap between the bright green pulley and the lower yellow one.

Tools needed--24mm head combination or ratchet, a #2 or 3 flat head screwdriver or a 7mm nut driver (for the rubber boot).

 

Could not do it myself, but thanks ,very informative.

 

Great job with the step by step instructions and pictures!

 

The frayed edge of the belt suggests the belt is not tracking properly and my (admittedly very limited) experience (with my Boxster) is the belt is not tracking properly because an accessory drive pulley/shaft has some play and this is very likely due to wear.

In my Boxster's case it was the water pump which upon checking for play I found some while none of the other accessory drives had any play. Now what prompted me to check was the engine was making some noise and I removed the relatively new belt and started the (cold) engine and ran it just long enough to determine the noise was not present.

This prompted a check for play. But I also noticed the new belt -- just weeks old -- had a sharp edge (inner edge) while the old belt with at least 60K miles on it still had rather dull edges.

Sincerely,

Macster.

 

That's interesting... I was just going to ordered a new water pump from Suncoast as a preventative maintenance measure. The car has 50.5K miles on the clock now. Before I install the 3rd radiator and flush the coolant I came across several threads re the WP and potential issues with broken impellers. Will be interesting to see if the fraying shows up again on my new s-belt. The idler pulley was fine when I replaced the s-belt last year but I may just go ahead and replace it as well while I have everything out.

 

I just replaced my belt a week ago, It was a lot easier to slide the last step around the lower yellow idler pulley. NO screwdriver needed just a 24mm socket and a breaker bar. A 15 minutes task.

 

That's exactly the way we did it yesterday--no screwdriver needed.