Whiney engine

[Lil bastard]

Originally Posted by MN 986

I just replaced both idler pulleys and the tension pulley this afternoon. I had heard some whirring/whining that changed with the engine speed and I suspected at least one of these pulleys so I pulled the front engine cover and checked them with a mechanic's stethoscope. One idler pulley was definitely noisey and another was questionable. The tension pulley was probably OK but I decided to order all 3 from Pelican and followed the instructions in Wayne's book (also online, with corrected torque specs). It was pretty easy and now I am going on a test drive!
I had replaced the serp belt about 6k miles ago and I remember reading a few cases where people had pulleys fail a while after putting on a new belt. Not sure if it was related, but I am happy nothing failed on the road and left me stranded.

Recommend using only the oem Continental belt. The Gates and Goodyear Gatorback belts are a tad too tight and this is what can cause the idlers to wear prematurely. It's been a while since I did the belt replacement on my former Boxster, but I'm not even sure the Continental belt from the dealer is any more expensive.

Cheers!

[bulkman]

Very normal if your not use to it, I wondered the samething when I bought mine!!! As mentioned earlier the motor is behind you and sounds very different then in front of you. I'm oftend told it sounds like VW when starting it up....but sounds nice when your on the gas.

Andre

[MN 986]

Originally Posted by Lil bastard

Recommend using only the oem Continental belt. The Gates and Goodyear Gatorback belts are a tad too tight and this is what can cause the idlers to wear prematurely. It's been a while since I did the belt replacement on my former Boxster, but I'm not even sure the Continental belt from the dealer is any more expensive.

Cheers!

Thanks LB, I had read that and I did use the OEM belt, but it is a good reminder to anyone else thinking of replacing their belt soon. It was definitely tighter than the old belt when I put it on (as expected) but maybe the pulley noise a few thousand miles later was just a coincidence.
Either way, I am glad it was easy to do and it sounds great again!