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N-Dub

So I was out on a joyride with my father and heard a pecular squeel coming from the engine bay. I ruled it out as just a squeeky belt and kept driving. I watch my gauges probably more than I check my mirrors, and the voltage gauge starts to go down a bit. THis was interesting but had happened before. The battery light turned on. Once again interesting but hadn't ever happened before. The temperature gauge was on the rise and not stopping. Luckily I was within a quarter mile from my house when the temp went in and off of the red. A suspicious popping sound had just started. So we coasted almost all the way home with the heater on. I popped the hood when I got home to see the Audi, he he he, coolant tank's fluid boiling. Now I am smart enough to not open the lid while it is boiling, so I got a fan to aid the cars fan. I found bits of the belt in the engine bay, but the main belt was gone somewhere down the road.
How much should a new belt run?
Is it so easy as to unbolt the alternator and slip on the new belt?

Input would be appreciated,
Nate
_________________
'79 924 now Totaled! Carrera GT bodywork for sale!
'87 951

Tigger937

924RACR · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:47 am Post subject:

Yeah, uh, people, pay attention!!! How many occurrences of this have we had in the past couple of months?? Somebody loses the belt for the waterpump and alternator, sees all the signs, keeps driving through the overheat, and wonders if they can get away with just replacing the belt???

GET WITH THE PROGRAM, PEOPLE!!!

Do NOT drive the car when the temp's in the RED, unless you LIKE doing headgaskets!!! WTF!?! I can swap them in 3 hrs, and I still don't like doing them.

REPLACE YOUR BELTS NOW, if you haven't already. There's no excuse for this kind of failure. Just how flexible and functional do you think rubber is after 20 years??? Would you drive on 20-year-old tires?? I sure as hell hope not.

And the belts are cheap and easy to replace. IF you don't know how old they are? Pitch 'em. Timing belt's around $8USD, alt/water pump belt is around the same. You need these to keep driving your car.

Plan ahead, or suffer the consequences.

'Nuff said.
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

924RACR · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:48 am Post subject:

PS - if you can't keep track of replacing stuff like belts on a 924 - you're definitely not up for handling any Italian machinery...
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

N-Dub · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 7:42 am Post subject:

Just for the record, 924RACR, I didn't overheat.
_________________
'79 924 now Totaled! Carrera GT bodywork for sale!
'87 951

Paul

Paul · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 8:36 am Post subject:

You will need to replace the belt and bleed the cooling system and hope like hell that you have not warped your cylinder head.

NEVER DRIVE A CAR WITHOUT A WATER PUMP BELT!!!

Once again the idiot lights are smarter than the driver.
_________________
White 87 924S "Ghost"
Silver 98 986 3.6l 320 HP "Frank N Stein"
White 01 986 "Christine"
Polar Silver 02 996TT. "Turbo"
Owned and repaired 924s since 1977
Porsche: It's not driving, it's therapy.

Chrenan · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 3903 Location: Canada

Agreed, that is overheating.
_________________
1987 951 - M193 Version for Japan

Tigger937 · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 8:49 am Post subject:

N-Dub, unfortunately, these cars are very sensitive to overheating. Once the needle hits the red, usually it's too late. The fact the coolant started boiling and you had a popping sound is not a good sign. I would not get my hopes up. You're probably going to need a head gasket at the very least. If not, consider yourself lucky.

All you can do now is replace the belts, top off the coolant, bleed the cooling system and test it out while keeping a close eye on the coolant level and looking for excessive pressure buildup in the overflow tank, oil in the coolant and/or coolant in the oil. The damage, if any, will already have been done.

Paul · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 8:59 am Post subject:

You should drain your oil before doing anything else and see if there is any coolant in it. Ignore this and you may need new rod and main bearings very soon.
_________________
White 87 924S "Ghost"
Silver 98 986 3.6l 320 HP "Frank N Stein"
White 01 986 "Christine"
Polar Silver 02 996TT. "Turbo"
Owned and repaired 924s since 1977
Porsche: It's not driving, it's therapy.

Paul · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 9:03 am Post subject:

BTW it is very common for a water temperature gauge to actually read lower once the coolant starts to boil. It was designed to measure the temperature of a liquid, not air pockets.
_________________
White 87 924S "Ghost"
Silver 98 986 3.6l 320 HP "Frank N Stein"
White 01 986 "Christine"
Polar Silver 02 996TT. "Turbo"
Owned and repaired 924s since 1977
Porsche: It's not driving, it's therapy.

D Hook · Joined: 02 Nov 2002 Posts: 3158 Location: Omaha, NE

Before you slip on the new belt maybe you ought to see why the old one broke. Water pump or alternator locked up?

BTW, you need to add more choices to your poll.

_________________
'80 924 n/a SOLD

timstar92404 · Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 2075 Location: richmond BC

that happened to me before but I was like 2 minutes from home the belt wasn't tight enough and it came off, I didn't know while driving, my battery light came on and I thought my alternator was bad.

belt is easy to change, you adjust the tightness of the belt my moving the alternator
_________________
78 924 sold.
85.5 944

924RACR · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:32 pm Post subject:

Paul's right.

Having the belt come off, rather than break, is far more likely and common - this can be caused by old, worn out alternator bushings allowing the pulleys to be misaligned. However, there's no good reason to keep driving it hot. Even my mother knows better than that - she parked it and called me!!! It's right in the owner's manual - turn it off and let it cool fully before driving again.
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

Stu2j · Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 12:25 am Post subject: