serpentine belt pm
 

My 2001 986 is approaching 72k miles. I believe the 60k maintenance was skipped by the previous owner so I'm slowly catching things up via diy.

I bought a new goodyear gatorback belt and planning to change it today.

Removed the engine access panel and was very surprised at how clean everything is in there. The current belt looks great. No cracks, abrasions, glazing, etc.

My question is: Since the belt appears to be in such good shape and a belt failure is not catastrophic, do I do the preventative maintenance anyway? I'm thinking about buttoning it back up and taking another look next Spring.

Opinions please!

thanks

If you notice no issues, I would button it back up and then buy a factory OEM serpentine belt, to do at a later date, instead of using the Goodyear belt. One Boxster owner on another board actually kept his serpentine belt on for about 100k miles before his belt crapped out on him, but it was an OEM belt.

At $28 dollars for the OEM part, I'd go OEM: http://e-partssales.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=P&Product_Code =99610215166&Category_Code=ENGMECH

I changed mine at 48k miles as a preventative thing, but my old belt was still in good shape, so I kept it in my front trunk as a spare in case something happened to my replacement for any reason.

Here are the DIY instructions on how to replace the polyrib belt: http://www.realtime.net/%7Erentner/Blog/B600322026/C1691662107/E397927809/index.html

Unless you like being stranded on the side of a dark country road, or in a bad neighborhood, change the damned belt……….for $24, it is cheap insurance!

thanks for links and quicks answers.

yeah, being stranded on the wrong side of the tracks doesn't sound fun.
you convinced me and I'll replace it now.

when i wrote a belt failure was "not catastrophic", I meant that I didn't think it would cause an expensive shop visit.

if the belt breaks, i think it would affect immediate use of power steering, a/c, charging system and engine cooling.

those of you that carry an extra belt in the trunk, has it ever come in handy? have you replaced a belt on the side of the road in the bad neighbourhood?

The point of keeping the spare belt in my front trunk is so that in case it fails when I'm on a weekend trip (let's say on a Sunday), when no dealer is open, and I can't order any parts, I'll have the part in my trunk, and even if I don't carry the tools in my car to change the belt, all I have to do is get towed to a gas station and borrow their breaker bar etc., to change out the polyrib belt myself, instead of having to wait until Monday to swing by a dealer to order a new belt or pick one up. The belt is small enough to put behind the spare tire, so it doesn't do any harm I figure.

But you are right- the belt going bad will not harm the car....just that you won't be able to drive the car very far because the water pump is driven off of it. I would get an OEM belt though, as I've read of others using the Gatorback belt and it failing rather quickly.

A visual inspection of the belt is absolutely useless unless the belt is well past it's change interval, and then, you don't need to inspect it - you need to change it.

The rubber compound in the belt hardens with age and the many heat cycles it's forced to endure. This can cause sudden failure, but maybe more importantly slippage on the pulleys meaning the ancillaries aren't operating up to snuff. Also, most of the belt's strength comes from internal cording similar to that used in your tires and there's no way of inspecting this. Because of this, realize that there is also a time interval as well as a mileage one. Gates (world's largest mfr. of drive belts) recommends swapping the belt at the mileage interval or every 5 yrs. whichever comes first.

The belt is cheap, the procedure is simple. If it's at/beyond the change interval - change it. It's unwise not to.

:cheers:

On my boxster the Gatorback belt did not seem to track in the pulley grooves like the oem belt I replaced it witha continental # 6pk2115 & it runs like the oem & may be oem

it was recommended to me to keep the old belt in the frunk behind the spare tire for emergencies. I thought it was GREAT advice so i'm passing it on.

Printing off a copy of the belt diagram might be good to keep with a spare belt no matter where you decide to store it. Lord knows I'd get it wrong on the side of the road and STILL be stranded even though I had the belt and the cheater bar and the right socket and the right socket wrench, and a flashlight, etc.

>> Printing off a copy of the belt diagram ...

that's exactly what I did yesterday after changing the belt! I had the diagram with me in the garage while getting that beast on. Afterwards, took the old belt plus diagram and put them into the trunk behind spare tire.

I did use the gatorback since I already had it in hand. It went on without probs and seems to be quiet. I'll post back here if I have any problems over the next months.

That was the right thing to do. Maybe the OEM is better, maybe it isn't. I put some other brand on mine at 32K but it was 7 yrs old and it's been fine for 7000 mi. Considering the labor involved with getting to the belt, I'd never go in there to just inspect it. While there, change it and be safe for another 60K, perhaps longer than you'll have the car.