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Major Service items

B

BugBoy

New member
Hi,
Im after a bit of advice, I have just bought an 87 lux with about 155,000 miles on the clock, it looks to have been quite well looked after and has a good service history but it now has about 25000 miles and 3 years on the cam and balance belts. Should I change them now or will they be ok for another 12months/5000 miles, I know its a risky item but I want to avoid the work if its not necassary as Im a skint student! Im planning on doing at least a major service and checking everything, just need to decide about the belts.

Assuming I do them I could do with a list of the parts I should be looking to change whilst I am at it, so far I think I should be doing the following:

Cam Belt
Balance Belt
Cam Belt idler
Balance belt tensioner
Balance belt idler
Front crank seal
Oil Filter
Air Filter
Fuel Filter
Plugs
Engine Oil
Gearbox Oil
Brake Fluid
Clutch Fluid
Engine coolant

Are there any other items either for the belts or just general service items I should be looking at? Also what engine/transmission oil should I ideally be using, and is it worth using any kind of flushing fluid?

There is also the issue of tensioning the belts, I know I can join the PCGB and borrow a tool but as I said I'm trying to stretch my budget so are there any other options?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Tim
 
The official belt schedule from Porsche is 4 years or 48000 miles whichever comes first however most of us err on the side of caution and follow 3 years or 36000 miles as the cost of a belt failure can run into thousands ££££££ for the sake of a few hundred.

You have listed all the main items for a major service so the only extra item I would add is a water pump if you have no history of it being changed in the last 10 years. It is another expensive part but they have been known to seize and fail catastrophically taking the belts with them and if you are doing the belts anyway you will be 90% there as regards labour.

There are two aftermarket belt tensioners that I know of made by Krikit and Arnworx (but a quick Google is not revealing the websites at the moment[&:])
 
There are two aftermarket belt tensioners that I know of made by Krikit and Arnworx (but a quick Google is not revealing the websites at the moment)
Click to expand...

They sometimes come up for sale, as people have no use for them when the car's sold.

As here:

http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=428975

I'd have thought it was worth a year's membership just to have the free use of the tools, remember you need to check the tension after 1000 miles really, so that's 2 free uses. Not counting all the other benefits! [:)]

You might find that an indie near you would check the tension, but I'd guess that the charge to check it, and the re-check, would be more than membership anyway. And, most won't get involved unless they've fitted the parts for obvious reasons.


 
I would probably avoid replacing any front engine seals (crank seal, balance shaft seals) unless they need doing. The timing belt replacement schedule is frequent enough that if you do develop a leak in any of these seals, and generally they will weep / cause a minor drip for a very long time, it wont cause any problems and can wait until your next timing belt replacement interval.

Also i'd add the fuel filter to this list. As a general rule the fuel filter should be replaced every two or three services and since you probably don't know when it was last done you can zero the clock.

Also check the condition of your HT leads. Mine were in pretty bad shape, really perished, so I replaced them.

Other than that I think you've pretty much got it covered.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. The water pump was replaced in 2000, I would like to do it to be sure but due to the price I will have a look at the condition of the current one and decide based on that.

On the subject of joining the club, would it give me a discount with any parts supliers? Considering I will be spending in the region of £300 for just these parts that could almost make it worth joining alone!

Also does anyone have any advice on specific oil types, and is it a good idea to use some kind of flushing product in the engine?
Cheers

Tim
 
I've always had a greater than PCGB discount from OPC's so joining the club for the discount is a false economy.

Regarding oils this is a well discussed topic and will always be discussed again at frequent intervals so there are hours of reading for you to catch up on if you've nothing better to do with your time. For normal road use with the odd trackday a good fully synthetic from 5w40 to 10w50 range will be perfectly adequate and a yearly or 12k interval is fine. No point in going semi-synthetic - they are a marketing scam.
 
If you do the front crank seal its likely you will also need an oil pump drive gear and 0 ring - £30 +.
Then you'd have to decide on whether to balance shaft seals while you were there which involves - top hats at £12 each a couple of o rings etc etc.
To reseal the front is likely to cosy £100+.

Just bought a turbo waterpump+gasket+thermostats x2. cost £200 as an indication.

Rich
 
belts and guides are not the only issue. if you decide to change them it is a big job and expensive and it would be false economy not to change the water pump whilst you are in there. Pumps tend to pack up after belt changes because of the extra strain on the pulley bearing with a new tighter belt. Once the bearing and seal go you looking at major expense with the whole lot coming off again.

If I were you and a 'skint student' I'd just change the oil filter engine and G/box oil and drive it .
There will be lots of other stuff you'll probably need like brake disks calipers pads etc which will eat into your resources. Don't go looking for stuff
 
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