Do you subscribe to the "3 year belt change" rule?

If the owners manual says 3 years, then 3 years is the correct time to change belts. Could you wait? probably, but the odds of a belt failure increase every year, at 3 years the belts are something like 99.99+% reliable, by 5 years it's more like 99.9% and at 10 it's 99%...or there abouts so your belts probably won't break....but man is it expensive if you happen to be the 1 in 1000 who's belt does break......

 

I think even Honda recomends belt change every 6 years regardless of milage. Having said that my 348 went 7 years. Yes the belts showed some wear, but no fraying or signs of impending failure. I would guess Ferrari's recomendation is on the very conservative side. Read some of the other threads about this. The right answer is 3 years, but ....

 

I do it every 3 years regardless of mileage. Too much to lose if you don't.

 

I replace the cam belts and tensioner bearings on my BB512i every 7 years whether it needs it or not. I do make a visual inspection of the tensioner bearings and belts every couple of years though. Ferrari recommended cam belts every 52,500 miles for decades. It was only after FNA dealers got greedy was that time shortened...

 

The problem is that unlike v-belts, toothed belts fail with no outward signs of wear or damage....there is no way to inspect a timing belt and assess it's condition....and replacement ferrari heads are much harder to come by than replacement honda heads.

 

It's almost always the cam belt tensioner bearings that fail which then causes the belts to fail...and you can check those bearings relatively easy without removing the engine...

 

every five years...except for the 348 every 3 on that bad boy is the time period I go with.

 

Ah, the great belt debate.

As I have seen and said before, we here on FChat have seen examples of 20 + years on the same belts (308 series, at least 1 GT4 recently advertised as original owner/original belts).

The flip side is the cost of failure, because of the interference engine, its a very costly mistake (12-20K for a 308 give or take). So the concensus is, change the belts.

TMobileGuy had a belt failure on his 348. Dont know if he is still subscribed, I heard he "sold his 348 for scrap" so-to-speak. (Sold the body only after having failed to find a suitable used engine).

However, a recent 355 ad on ebay (95 black/tan) said that the owner owned it since 98 and put 30,000 miles on it on no belt service.

Caveat Emptor ....

Luckily, my little 308 has had a recent belt service, but depending on how much I drive and the conditions I drive in, I MAY (may?) wait for 5 years....... not sure yet. Also luckily, the 308 is an engine-in service.

There were a few former FChatters (who recently left) who have plently to say about this, were's rifle-whats-his-name when you need him .

James in Denver

 

real questions are:

1. what do you think you will save?

2. how much do you like to gamble: would you gamble on a race track with the CS's poor tires, or spring for better?

you are seeming to make things relative here according to your pocket book, and if so, then you have hit your limit otherwise just do the change...

this has been discussed to death...some like to gamble, and believe they can out do Ferrari technicals, then go for it....we'll hear your story about 'how I blew it' more than likely someday.

I am not trying to diss you, but, why bring this old hornest nest up again?
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If you will look in the 348 OM you will note Ferrari recommends cam belt change in 52,500...which, at 15,000 miles per year would equate to every 3.5 years...

 

They don't list it as miles or years which ever comes first?

 

As recall in my 1993 348 Spider OM it only specified every 52,500 miles...which for most non-Ferrari and/or other Italian exotic cars would only be between 2 to 5 years...

 

Mine are at the 5yr mark now, but way low on the mileage factor. I'll do mine this winter. Along with hopefully a few other items too!

 

Because there aren't a ton of Ferraris out there, they needed to shorten their maintenance schedules to keep the service dept. operating. When a dealer only sells 50 cars or so a year, I guess you can't blame them. If you're easy on them, you can extend---if you drive hard or race, you gots to break them down & rebuild!

 

Too bad Rifledriver has quit this forum. This would normally be the time he would berate and insult anyone who hadn't read and re-read all previous posts on this subject

Seriously; there are many good posts on the subject on Fchat. I tend to think, better safe. Each of us needs to find their own comfort level, however the belts, tensioners and variators (in some cases) need to be serviced to prevent potential catastrophic engine failure. Why risk it ?

Regards,

Stew

 

But if the failure is usually not the belt but the bearing causing the belt to fail, then replacing perfectly good bearings with news ones which may have a manufacturing fault could ...

 

The most recent issue of Forza maganzine has a write-up regarding our 'classic mid-engine' Ferrari's in the market updated section. In the write-up, they state belt replacement every five years. I will still adhere to the 3 year rule. After jjsut one year on the current belts, I am not going to take the chance.

 

Because quite simply this is where we come to discuss Ferrari's and their maintenance. If we have some technical areas that are taboo, like talking about belt replacement, pretty soon we won't have anything car related to talk about.

 

What? There have been plenty of photos posted here of belts with teeth sheared off...

And going with that train of thought of yours, you should never change plugs because the new ones could be faulty, or belts or tires or pretty much anything. How about you just leave the car as is? Change nothing and get a new car when it finally rots apart or blows up?

 

From all I have read, these type of failures are very rare. So, in the end, I'd go with what the manual says. Not more often.
Of course, it all depends on the car. On my Mondial, which was worth about $20,000, it was NOT smart to change every three years at $4,000,

 

I believe in doing it every 3 years or as mileage dictates... if you choose not to you are only gambling money so if you can afford to lose it no worries.

 

Once upon a time, Ferrari prescribed a 5 year or 30K mile timing belt replacement IIRC. But one day a great Giant named EPA came along and told Ferrari, that henceforth from this day, anything emissions related to the car will carry a 5 year or 50K mile warrantee. And said Great EPA giant, camshafts and valve timin are emissions related, so 50K for those too. Now Ferrari couldnt very well give us lowly Americanos this kind of warrantee without offering the same to the rest of the world, so Ferrari bucked it up and took it on the chin, and oh woe is me, there were many a broken belt in the land.

But once the cars got old enough, and if Rifledriver were around he would tell ya, Ferrari issued a service bulletin effective to ALL belt driven Ferrari's world wide, that they recommended 3 years or 30K miles. To many have broken, burned, had tensioner bearings fail, or mostly just stripped off teeth.

There are people on here that have really pushed it out there. 10 years or more. Some may never have been changed. Others though have failed just about right on the mark, giving almost 0 time past service limit. But I havnt yet heard any that broke or anything below the mark. So one could say 100% reliability out to three years, then roll the dice. It somewhat appears that keeping the car moving and not sitting extends the life, but your still on your own.

But one thing is known perfectly well. What happens when your number is up. Well, mostly you wont have a car for a long time. If its a 308, and your lucky, youll only bend the valves in one head. If its a 348 your going to bend all 32 valves. Spirot broke his 308, wrecked one head, fixed it himself with some help. Cost him like $6K or something in parts. Tmobileguy broke his 348, ended up selling it basically for salvage cost as the cost to fix it was going to be near $30K no matter what he did. But if you dont believe what a 348 can do when a belt lets go, feast your eyes on this 348 that was sold on eBay some while back. I think it sold for around $18K like this, and the general consensus was whoever bought it was a fool. Probably wasnt worth more than $10K. Only 37K miles. Good luck whichever way you decide. But I dont think the owner of this car saved anything.
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That 348 is/was a SBC transplant candidate =)

 

I've seen many posts on this subject, but not many comments about price. I didn't purchased my 308 at a Ferrari dealer but at place that sells exotic cars and they are supposed to have trained technicians. They quoted 26 hrs. at $85/hr or $2200 for belt replacement. Does this sound like a ball part figure???? Oh yea they recommended 3 yrs.