Our 1986 944 has a hard life but always been serviced and oil changed etc.The belts were done along with water pump at 79000,five years ago by Dick Lovetts at Swindon .At 116509 the belts were inspected and found to be showing no signs of wear.It was decided however that at next big Service that despite Peter Morgans assertions that the new ones last forever we would replace them ,this would be at about 122000 .We had been rushing up and down the M6 ,42 ,40 ,4 recently 600 miles return for a couple of months and an oil change was well over due.On returning from one of these forays about two miles from home a strange tinkling sound made itself known a bit like having picked up a wire coat hanger or the like.We decided to carry on as nothing else seemed to be amiss.ONE mile from home we stopped at a junction on a slight incline,Oh! the sound was still there, deciding to stop at the other side of the junction,we pulled away or rather we didn't pull away. As I let the clutch in the was a loud clunk and the engine stopped-------[:'(]forever.I guessed it was the cam belt. RAC He guessed it was the cam belt..Towed home.Phil Clark of TPC 300 came and picked it up the next day.On investigation it was clear that the cam belt was still whole but the tensioner had disintegrated so wrecking the otherwise perfectly sound engine.It is not really feasible to fix it, labour costs can't even be estimated, however I got lucky ,there was a very good engine with almost a full service history at Simon Butterworths Porschapart .New belts were fitted oil and filter and it is in and running.At the tension check shortly, a new tensioner will be done and a new water pump .Moral--- new belts ,better fit a new tensioner just in case, its got to be cheaper than a new engine . Finally if you hear sudden changes in sounds from your car, STOP, it took one mile for mine to destroy itself.[&o]
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