Hi gang, I just bought a Testarossa this W.E;it has covered 72.000km's now,the last belt change was made by 65.000km's in 2002.That means the belts have only covered 8.000km's,but are 4 years old. I am not planning to change them yet,the engine does not leak oil,and most of the bearings were replaced at 65.000km's... Speedman Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Currently doing an 87 TR. According to the new owner the engine has NEVER been out of the car. Before removing the engine I looked very closely at all the fasteners which hold the frame section to the car, none has evidence of being removed. Infact the forward nuts and bolts, still had the factory undercoating drips on them, and the waterpump hose still had the original clamp index mark on it. Engine is out of the car and I inspected the timing belts..in very good condition for the age. But i would not ever rely on them.
My mechanic told me today normal servicing twice a year ( I think I will do once a year) . Belt change every 3 years. I clock less than 5000km a year, do I need to change belt every 3 years ?
I know of one guy in Canada whose 91 TR has never had the engine out, so this approach is not that uncommon. I do my TR belts every 5 years, but usually am in there to clean things, fix leaks, etc. I kind of enjoy doing it, but I am weird that way. My BB is currently getting new belts, plus just about everything else, such as valves, pistons, bearings, etc. Belts were about 7 years old with hardly any use, but seemed fine. One tensioner bearing was squealing though. Is it just me, or do the tensioners wear our before the belts? I once spent a day in the Ducati Corse Wsb pit at losail, Qatar for practice and qualifying. They raced the 999 back then which had Kevlar reinforced belts. They changed them after every session as they stretched after hard use. Fortunately, about a 10 minute job. If only the TR belts were at the back of the block...
Just in time. One more year and who knows.. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iBZVYSIt8c]Studio 47 - 1986 Ferrari Testarossa that has never had a belt service - Part 2 breaking the belt - YouTube[/ame]
the belts were fine. i put them back into the packaging from the new set and you could not tell the difference. i dont know what it is with these belts, some people have stories of ragged edges, missing teeth etc, but then almost everybody i know that looked at their old belts sees nothing wrong with them at all.
Did Porsche make theirs in 1985? As has been mentioned before, there are other reasons besides the belts to have a full engine out service done on these cars at 5-7 years AS A MINIMUM. Inaccessible accessories are just one other reason. Seals, belts, tensioners, the water pump, etc... This is like someone bragging (while drunk) that they have played Russian Roulette dozens of times and nothing (so far) has happened to their head.
BTW - I forgot to mention: Thank you so much for bringing back up a badly needed TR Timing Belt thread. This subject is often ignored, and we should be talking about it more.
How many belt changes between post #28 and #29? haha. That video where you break the belt by hand was certainly a close call.
7 years and 22K miles since last belt change at 30K. I plan on changing belts/tensioners again in about 30,000 more miles. When I last changed the belts after 5 years and 18000 miles, I could not tell them from the new ones.
It's a strainge thing. I had inspected the testarossa in the video before it was purchased from the currant owner 15 years ago. The guy selling the car wouldn't let anybody drive it because it had never had the belts changed. As fate would have it the car showed up last year for timing belts and thats when I did video. The customer stated he always drove easy but thought it was finally time to do the service. I was amazed it hadn't failed considering years ago I had encountered a testarossa with 1200 miles and ten years that broke a belt and destroyed a head. Looking at the crispy rotted belt it is incredible it kept going.
