05-18-2009, 07:13 PM
this weekend was the 6th Annual NorCal / Socal Paso Robles Fun run (you can read more about that in the events section)
i had been meaning to change my belts for the past few months - i don't drive the car a lot - it sits in an airconditioned and heated garage - i maintain this car in top flight condition - i checked the belts a few months ago and everything was great - in fact, i check the belts before every event (except this one) - so, i figured everything was going to be fine for this run
very early into the trip i suddenly developed a vibration in my shifter - also the car seemed to be off on power - when taking off from a stop, it surged and pulsed - when coming to a stop it stalled
at our first rendezvous point i popped the hood to see what was going on - knowing that i had just replaced the rubber plug that covers the inspection port of the distributor and saw that it was missing, and sticking out of it was a string from a belt, i immediately jumped to "ruh roh!"
i then pulled the front cover off to see the belts - what i found was shocking - the balance shaft belt was half gone - while it was still connected, it had split longitudinally - not wanting to risk further damage, nor be stuck in malibu, i then cut the belt, bumped the engine around, and removed it
after replacing the cover, i was off and running, but still very concerned about the vibrations doing damage - it was also no fun to drive - it was definitely down on power - even the exhaust note was off (frappier and louder) - the stalling was a real challenge - i had to blip the throttle on the way to idle to prevent it - had i have had the DMF, i might have been fine, but the revs fell too quickly with the 12lb flywheel - also the surging was annoying - clearly the engine was fighting itself with the masses being out of balance - again, the DMF would probably have masked a lot of that
now, keep in mind that these belts had only 23k miles on them, and they had been inspected regularly - retension was done every 5k - the problem was not mileage - they were 4 years old!
i got home ok, and there seems to be no damage, but i was VERY lucky not to have it snap, get tangled up in the timing belt, and have resultant catastrophic failure
moral of the story - replace your belts! these things age out - it's NOT about mileage alone
unfortunately ds968 was not so lucky
here is a shot of the belt:
i had been meaning to change my belts for the past few months - i don't drive the car a lot - it sits in an airconditioned and heated garage - i maintain this car in top flight condition - i checked the belts a few months ago and everything was great - in fact, i check the belts before every event (except this one) - so, i figured everything was going to be fine for this run
very early into the trip i suddenly developed a vibration in my shifter - also the car seemed to be off on power - when taking off from a stop, it surged and pulsed - when coming to a stop it stalled
at our first rendezvous point i popped the hood to see what was going on - knowing that i had just replaced the rubber plug that covers the inspection port of the distributor and saw that it was missing, and sticking out of it was a string from a belt, i immediately jumped to "ruh roh!"
i then pulled the front cover off to see the belts - what i found was shocking - the balance shaft belt was half gone - while it was still connected, it had split longitudinally - not wanting to risk further damage, nor be stuck in malibu, i then cut the belt, bumped the engine around, and removed it
after replacing the cover, i was off and running, but still very concerned about the vibrations doing damage - it was also no fun to drive - it was definitely down on power - even the exhaust note was off (frappier and louder) - the stalling was a real challenge - i had to blip the throttle on the way to idle to prevent it - had i have had the DMF, i might have been fine, but the revs fell too quickly with the 12lb flywheel - also the surging was annoying - clearly the engine was fighting itself with the masses being out of balance - again, the DMF would probably have masked a lot of that
now, keep in mind that these belts had only 23k miles on them, and they had been inspected regularly - retension was done every 5k - the problem was not mileage - they were 4 years old!
i got home ok, and there seems to be no damage, but i was VERY lucky not to have it snap, get tangled up in the timing belt, and have resultant catastrophic failure
moral of the story - replace your belts! these things age out - it's NOT about mileage alone
unfortunately ds968 was not so lucky
here is a shot of the belt:
94 Midnight Metallic Blue Cab Porsche 968 w/deviating cashmere/black interior and WAY too many mods to list - thanks to eric for creating www.968forums.com
"It isn't nearly as expensive to do it right as it is to do it wrong."
(This post was last modified: 05-18-2009, 07:20 PM by flash.)
