WHO HAS (unintentionally, of course) PUSHED THE LIMITS ON A BELT CHANGE

I drove one home across the country on 7 year old belts...they are 12 - 14 years old now....

The car is parked, waiting on the funds to repair...NOT recommended!

 

Did they break?

 

And people wonder why shops with any reputation at all or any signifcant amount of experience go with factory recommendations.


This guy is exactly why every customer signature on every repair order here is directly above bold red type quoting TSB 1215 and TSB 1003.

 

7 1/2 years, 7500 miles and ran trac with it once.
Also Not recomended

 

My 308 is in the shop this very minute getting new belts and tensioners. 3rd time in 11 years for me.

The car ran fine, made no noises, but it was time.


These are things you simply HAVE to do. There should be a law...

 

Not a 308 but I bought my 348 drove it for 3 years 15k miles.

This is before F-chat So to be straight I didn't even know it had belts. The car came with no records either.

So I didn't worry one bit. Sometimes not knowing is the best course of action.

 

The last documented belt change when I bought my car in 2007 was in 1985. I drove the car home (3+ hours on the freeway) on those belts.

 

please

someone,


make the pain go away....

 

I always change my belt just before it breaks. Works for me.

 

What??? You don't push the clutch in and turn off the ignition just before?

 

ignorance is bliss ....... but, not for us all here unfortunately, wrong personality type I guess.

 

My dad's car currently has 271,000 miles on it. It had one belt change, at around 165,000 miles.

 

When my 308 arrived, I spent near $7K at Norwood for a major service and minor-sorting but deeply-buried items that showed up during their thorough process.

Belts and bearings from previous 3-year and 7k-mile-old major were perfect, but I'm over-anal and believe in starting at a baseline.

Personally, I think Ferrari is running a scam with very-close-interval change recs. I'll have them inspected at 3 years ownership, and get a complete engine detail-out if it hasn't been done by then.

Timing chains were the best idea, but my guess is that a lot of folks that buy a long-ownership or neglected vintage 12 find that the chain wasn't kept at proper tension, and needs replacing...might as well do all this other crap while we're in here, big $$$ job.

 

I bought my 1986 328 in 2003 (just 21.000 miles on theodometer). It was still running on original belts. I drove it carefully to my mechanic place (20 miles). Now it is 3 years interval for me (just installed 3rd set).
BUT... I am still on original bearings.
Ciao
Eugenio

 

I bought a 308 in 2006 that had 20 years on the belts. Last change was in 1986. There was only 3000K on the belts but 20 years. I did a major service right away. The belts looked fine but were real loose. Tensioners needed to be replaced like now. Hard driving this one would have been stupid. My personal ride gets belts anywhere from 3 to 5 years depending on use. Sitting time is also seems bad for the belts.

 

last belt change on mine prior to purchase was 9 years earlier in 1997. Only 6k miles were put on those belts. They were loose when I changed them but the tenioner bearings still felt new. I changed everything regardless.

 

My car came from Utah to Cal, then i put another 3 hour drive home on 10year/10'000 mi belts. Got home and changed immediately. Belts and tensioner looked perfect. Simply front belt was loose.

 

I think the better question to ask is if anyone has experienced a broken belt on their Ferrari, or any other car for that matter, and what were the circumstances leading up to the breakage (mileage, maintenance history).

There's little doubt in my head that the timing belt maintenance interval is excessively short. There isn't anything particularily unusual about the design of the 308 engine or the quality of materials used for Ferrari belts that would make it more susceptible to failure than other cars. The costs of failure are very high though, so it's not a tough sell to get customers to believe that the belts need more frequent changing.

My point is moot; mine were just done with 3K and 4.5 years on 'em, so I'm just as much a victim of fear mongering maintenance as the next

At least it helps to preserve the value of the car and other minor issues (leaking seals, updated bearings) were addressed so I can rationalize the expense.

Cheers,

-w-

 

I was driving my little 1990 Ford Ranger home 2 years ago when it just stopped running.

The timing belt broke. At least you can simply put a new one on those and drive it again as is, which I did.

I think that belt had 17 years and 190K on it.

 

When I bought my car, back in '86, the belts had just been done at the Bob Sharp in CT. In '98 after 1000 miles of track use, I changed the rear bank belt; it was pretty easy to do. The front bank takes a lot more work because of the A/C compressor so I just left that one.

 

"When I bought my car, back in '86, the belts had just been done at the Bob Sharp in CT. In '98 after 1000 miles of track use, I changed the rear bank belt; it was pretty easy to do. The front bank takes a lot more work because of the A/C compressor so I just left that one."

NOW that is brave!!!!!! not to sure about that one!!!

One little story, the guy who I bought my 328 from, had a '79 308 that had low miles prior to getting his 328. His car was owned by Rick Mears sometime previously, and after he got it, his belt broke!!! He was lucky (or smart) that he had a warranty on it, and they "rebuilt" that bank of the motor. He said the sound was "something he will never forget". I hope I don't have that experience.

 

I, for the life of me, don't know why some 308 owners out there are such *******. The belts and bearings that I just bought didn't cost $250. Barring issues with the A/C compressor (removing it), you're looking at a two-weekend job for one person that 'might' prevent $20,000 in engine damage. The people who bring up these threads probably need a manual and 20 hours of instruction to operate a screwdriver. All they know how to do is write checks to their mechanic who probably rapes them royally on their repair bills because the owners don't know any better. Then they come on FChat and whine about belt service.....please. Just Stop. Its not that hard to do. Its not that expensive to do. It doesn't take that much time to do. And its once every five years. Do it or sell the car to someone who cares about it.

 

I knew that car, used to work on it. When Rick Mears had it the license plate was 1INDY79. The car was part of the prizes he got for the 79 Indy win.