Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi, managed to buy a black 968 Sport from a Porsche Specialist with full service history and 117,000 miles on clock.
It is due a cam belt service last one being 34,000 miles back and 5 yrs ago. In a local Porsche Specialist as we speak, they said would check all rollers, pulleys etc and advice on renewing these (were all done on previous belt change). Question I have is of the VarioCam and it's chain & tensioner. They advised to sort at the same time even though no rattles or noises from engine. Also garage I purchased from says as my car is a later one Jan '95 it would have harder cam shafts (teeth) so shouldn't be a problem, is this right? The only thing that made my jaw drop was £800 for the tensioner. I can't really afford this as well as the belts (& maybe pulleys) so just wondered what you experts really advise on this??

Another thing they noticed is the nice Goodyear 225's at the front are wearing almost bald on the inside edges. Garage I purchased from say nothing wrong with the geomatry and the're known to wear like this, especially with the Goodyear's on. I find the car to track all the cambers, lumps & bumps in the road and you have to force it to stay pointing where you want it to go on some roads. Is this how they drive with the wide tyres fitted or should not do this???? 225's front and 255's rear.

Any advice from experienced 968 people be so much appreciated thanks, just want to enjoy me car.

Thanks

Steve

Steve

I had a 968 with similar wheels and 17's. I found it tracked less than my 944 and 944 Turbo.
Those prices do seem rather high. Why not phone up one of the Technical help lines in the magazine?
Tom Fergusion (30 plus years on Porsches) or Bert Gear would soon clarify things. Good luck.

Stephen

Any car with a lot of negative camber on the front (to help it corner.) Will wear tyres on the inside edges IF it's driven gently! I used to bald the outside edges on a mini running over a degree of negative camber! If you do a lot of motorway work or just don't push that hard you may want to switch to a more conservative setup. Cheaper on rubber.
Which garage wants £800 for a tensioner. I want to avoid them.

Hi Steve

Well done on getting your 968. Don't know much on the engine servicing but when I changed my wheels from 16" to 18" I had a lot of tramlining problems like you describe. Got a full laser alignment done, £28.00, and also found the power steering belts were loose (sorry can't remember the technical diagnosis) but once done steering feel was much much better. I also had to get 968 castor mounts fitted to take the bigger wheels but obviously you've got these already

Hope this helps

Andy

Servicing sounds toppy, I'd shop around around a bit before committing.

They charging me £327 for Cam Belt and Balance Belt, if I need rollers, pulleys etc then more.

They said the actual chain is only about £20 but the chain tensioner itself is £800, they tryed other make tensioner but same.

I will leave the chain and just get belts done, just wondered what experience others have had with this vario cam, chain, tensioner and teeth on cams??

I've chosen La Rose Porsche as it's close by to me, they charge £60 an hour & seem friendly.

Steve, if La Rose are in your area then you are in my patch. Come along & say hello for the next meeting, details are here:-
http://tipec.net/region_southeastlondon.php

As for the tensioner it is a Variocam tensioner which is what makes a 968 different to a 944. The slipper kit is here http://www.porscheshop.co.uk/acatalog/p ... nents.html & under 25 quid. The chain is further down & is 21 quid.
Was this La Rose quoting this?

I had the chain and pads replaced on my 968 last year at Hartech. Unfortunately, the teeth on one of the cams were worn to the point where they would begin to suggest replacement, so I had that replaced too as I plan on keeping the car a long time. There was no suggestion of changing the tensioner at the same time though.

i would change the chain and the slipper, the chain stretches and wears the cam sprockets, and i think you only have to replace the whole tensioner if the slipper breaks

Thanks for the advice guys but I'm still confused on what needs doing. It's done 117,000 with invoice 5yrs back and 34,000 miles ago where it had a complete Cam Belt service including all belts & rollers etc. La Rose were telling me that if they go down the road of looking into the VarioCam, chain etc and find the chain tensioner need to be replaced as well then this item can't be bought for under £800. Another garage says to listen for any chain noises & then renew both Cams (suppose he means the teeth wearing). I just thought that if I can only afford either a Cam Belt service or Cam Chain service the belts seem more important to me as they can suddenly snap without warning, and if Cam Chain has problems won't it let me know first with noises???? It seems you take to garage & they can check chain, then they can say well if ur replacing chain you really should do tensioner as well, and then really those teeth on Cams do show a lot of wear, we would advise new Cams as well and on and on and on.
So your left wondering are these engines so bullet proof & good for such galactic miles compared with your average Ford etc? Well maybe not as it seems you have to almost rebuild them several times in their so called long life.
Sorry to be so negative but just bought her and want to enjoy the car rather than worry myself to death over major mechanical breakdown. I love the car just want it worry free lol

I was all set to buy a 968 from an indy in Peterborough last year, but the cam issues made me wary of any 968 with 100k+ that hadn't had at the very least a couple of chains in it's service life. Unfortunately putting a new chain on worn sprockets isn't good engineering practice and I think the cams alone are around £400 each, you may be lucky if the car has had very regular oil changes but I would budget for replacements if I ever buy a 968 on it's original top end.

There looks to be some confusion here & it appears that La Rose have confused things more... No comment!

Quite agree Pauly it does look to be a potential problem. It is OK putting a new chain on the sprockets as long as the sprockets aren't damaged.

The chain on all the 16V cars is not according to Porsche a service item & never appeared in the schedule. At around 100K the chain will have stretched & if left breaks off the sprocket teeth on the cams, result new cams which on the 968 are around £600 EACH! If the chain breaks it will often trash the head, valves & other bits.
As I posted the other day the chain is circa £25 & the slipper £21 according to Porscheshop. Done while doing a belt change I'd have guessed at 1.5 to 3 hours max extra! As part of the buying inspection on any of these 16V lumps I'd want the cam cover off to check the cams, as it is big money to fix. As a precaution I'd change chain & tensioner as part of a cambelt change as soon as I bought the car.

Hi Jim,
I'm not contradicting you here just sharing what my research turned up, apparently as the chain stretches and the distance between the rollers increases it starts driving higher up on the teeth of the sprockets, worst case scenario it wears the sprocket to the point teeth snap off, earlier replacement of the chain addresses the chain stretch but if the sprocket has wear the chain will stretch again due to not matching the sprockets correctly, some indy's claim a new chain & pads every 30k practically prevents this, but how many 968's have had this done ?. Regarding the cams I think RS Barn in the U.S. can weld on new sprockets and the indy I spoke to showed me an online price of £370 for the cams, in the end I gave up and went turbo


Paul.

Steve. You need to find a good spanner man! You shouldn't have to pay silly money just because its a Porsche. There not that complex compared to many modern machines. (Was looking at a Vtec Honda the other day with the engine in bits.) Other Pork owners in your area can point you to whos been good for them. Speicalist or not. Get over to a Tipec meet & save yourself some money. These prices are silly. If the teeth on the cams have had it then you should be taking it back were it came from. There are good Porshe speicalists & very bad ones. But I cant tell you on here or the forum will be in big trouble. These cars are as good as the last guy that worked on them. A proper inspection will tell you all you need to know. But not from a rip off merchant! Oh & get your self to Gaydon this Sunday.

I would seek advice from Baz Hart at Hartech. He seems to be the font of all knowledge on the 968 and has data from measurement of the cam sprockets and can suggest wear limits. He should be able to clarify what needs to be done.