Glad I came across your video. I have had this exact bolt break for a second time in 3 months on my 987.2 Boxster S. I've been told that the bolt will have more tendency to shear when a non factory drive belt is used. The reason being that the aftermarket ones are just a few millimeters shorter that put enough extra tension on the pulley to cause the shear. I never questioned anything as far as replacement parts used when I had the 60k service completed. Hopefully, I can remove the bolt without having to trailer it to a shop for repair.
Glad the video can help. I guess I used an aftermarket belt, continental, when I changed mine. It was a bit tricky to get over the idler pulley. The old came off with ease. Did you have the 60k service done at Porsche? It’s my understanding that they have had several hydraulic tensioner redesigns as this is actually a fairly common problem. Good luck and fight the good fight.
Wow! What a challenge. If that happens to my 997.2, I may heat the aluminum around the bolt, hoping that the expansion will free up the broken stub. I am about to replace my acc. drive belt and will make sure that nothing is seized.
Yes I almost lost my composure multiple times during the repair. That being said, I got it out and fixed. Hopefully it never happens to you but my understanding is that Porsche has had several redesigns of the serpentine belt tensioner pulley bracket.
The reason this happens is the pivot in the lever arm seizes, this then loosens the bolt, which then puts all of the force onto the now loose bolt which then, shears. When the bolt is torqued up, you should be able to move the arm with the 30mm spanner against the tensioner. If you can't the pivot in the arm is seized.. Replacing the bolt without checking the pivot is free, means it will loosen again.
Very interesting video, my belt went 3 years ago (same car and model as yours), I was told by the garage that the bolt had not been torqued correctly, hence the siezure.
Thanks for the feedback. When you say seizure, are you referring to the belt tensioner bearing or the belt tensioner bolt? My bearings seemed fine. I assume that the breakage of the belt tensioner bolt is fairly common issue. Apparently Porsche had redesigned this part several times due to the issue. It was definitely a what the heck moment when I discovered what happened.
I think the reason why Porsche uses a softer bolt is that the block is made of alloy, they don't want the bolt messed up the block, but the Torx pattern sucks, super awesome job tho!!
Many Thanks for making this video, My 2009 997.2 S just had the same bolt break, After messing with it for a while, I thought the engine may have to be dropped. I will use your solution to see if I can replace the bolt. Sincerely, Schnellmeister!
Maybe the issue is more common than I think. Glad it helped you out. Best of luck to you. Also I think the piece that the bolt is broken off into is a plate that can be removed from the engine instead of dropping the engine. It looks like it may be a miserable job to remove that plate.
This just happened on my 2011 997.2 C2SCab. Took me a while but your video got me thru it!.Many, Many thanks to you my friend, By any chance do you know the torque spec for the bolt? Thanks
I’m sorry I don’t but if you over tighten the bolt, the pulley won’t spin. Also I unfortunately do not have the car anymore. I was hit and car was totaled out. Glad the video helped.
It’s maddening that you had the same issue. I’m bribing to realize that this has happened to quite a few people. Just take your time and be patient and don’t curse too much. Good luck with the repair. Keep me posted on how it turns out for you.
There is no reason to replace with a Torx bolt Manufacturers use Torx for cost ease of assembly and increased tool life. Replacement with a regular bolt of the equivalent quality steel is not only accepted practice but often an improvement for future maintenance and ease of servicing. Exhaust manifold bolts are a prime example of that. Well done on the fix 👍 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx
Yeah that was a sucker to get off. If I’m not mistaken from the underside but I can’t totally remember and I no longer have the car. I got t boned and it totaled the car.
Thanks for sharing, now I'm worried about this happening haha. Did you come across any reason of this happening in your research? I wonder if I should get the bolt out/replaced while it's still holding up, thanks again
Not sure if they had a bunch of defective bolts or not? I don’t think that there was anything wrong with the car or alignment of the pulleys. Only think I can attribute it to was a defective bolt. What I did find was that it isn’t necessarily an isolated event. Several others have had this issue. I did however appear with the 997.2 cars. I don’t know if you would consider this preventive maintenance but the upper tensioner bolt is fairly easy to get to and the bolt from Porsche was around $2.
Glad I came across your video. I have had this exact bolt break for a second time in 3 months on my 987.2 Boxster S. I've been told that the bolt will have more tendency to shear when a non factory drive belt is used. The reason being that the aftermarket ones are just a few millimeters shorter that put enough extra tension on the pulley to cause the shear. I never questioned anything as far as replacement parts used when I had the 60k service completed. Hopefully, I can remove the bolt without having to trailer it to a shop for repair.
Glad the video can help. I guess I used an aftermarket belt, continental, when I changed mine. It was a bit tricky to get over the idler pulley. The old came off with ease. Did you have the 60k service done at Porsche? It’s my understanding that they have had several hydraulic tensioner redesigns as this is actually a fairly common problem. Good luck and fight the good fight.
Wow! What a challenge. If that happens to my 997.2, I may heat the aluminum around the bolt, hoping that the expansion will free up the broken stub. I am about to replace my acc. drive belt and will make sure that nothing is seized.
Yes I almost lost my composure multiple times during the repair. That being said, I got it out and fixed. Hopefully it never happens to you but my understanding is that Porsche has had several redesigns of the serpentine belt tensioner pulley bracket.
Man… kudos for managing to get that broken bolt out without dropping the engine.
Thanks man. The struggle was real.
The reason this happens is the pivot in the lever arm seizes, this then loosens the bolt, which then puts all of the force onto the now loose bolt which then, shears.
When the bolt is torqued up, you should be able to move the arm with the 30mm spanner against the tensioner. If you can't the pivot in the arm is seized..
Replacing the bolt without checking the pivot is free, means it will loosen again.
Thanks for the explanation. There got to be a better design for this piece but Porsche hasn’t designed it yet.
Very interesting video, my belt went 3 years ago (same car and model as yours), I was told by the garage that the bolt had not been torqued correctly, hence the siezure.
Thanks for the feedback. When you say seizure, are you referring to the belt tensioner bearing or the belt tensioner bolt? My bearings seemed fine. I assume that the breakage of the belt tensioner bolt is fairly common issue. Apparently Porsche had redesigned this part several times due to the issue. It was definitely a what the heck moment when I discovered what happened.
I think the reason why Porsche uses a softer bolt is that the block is made of alloy, they don't want the bolt messed up the block, but the Torx pattern sucks, super awesome job tho!!
Your probably right about the metal hardness. Miserable job but now you know what to do if it happens to you. Thanks for watching.
Many Thanks for making this video, My 2009 997.2 S just had the same bolt break, After messing with it for a while, I thought the engine may have to be dropped. I will use your solution to see if I can replace the bolt. Sincerely, Schnellmeister!
Maybe the issue is more common than I think. Glad it helped you out. Best of luck to you. Also I think the piece that the bolt is broken off into is a plate that can be removed from the engine instead of dropping the engine. It looks like it may be a miserable job to remove that plate.
This just happened on my 2011 997.2 C2SCab. Took me a while but your video got me thru it!.Many, Many thanks to you my friend, By any chance do you know the torque spec for the bolt? Thanks
I’m sorry I don’t but if you over tighten the bolt, the pulley won’t spin. Also I unfortunately do not have the car anymore. I was hit and car was totaled out. Glad the video helped.
I am going to do the same for mine. My 2009 carrera has 70k miles and it bolt broke when I drove it hard
It’s maddening that you had the same issue. I’m bribing to realize that this has happened to quite a few people. Just take your time and be patient and don’t curse too much. Good luck with the repair. Keep me posted on how it turns out for you.
There is no reason to replace with a Torx bolt
Manufacturers use Torx for cost ease of assembly and increased tool life.
Replacement with a regular bolt of the equivalent quality steel is not only accepted practice but often an improvement for future maintenance and ease of servicing.
Exhaust manifold bolts are a prime example of that.
Well done on the fix 👍
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx
Good to know. Just wish I could have found a grade 10.9 bolt prior to assembly. Arghh! Dang Porsche.
How the hell did you get the bottom bolt off?
Yeah that was a sucker to get off. If I’m not mistaken from the underside but I can’t totally remember and I no longer have the car. I got t boned and it totaled the car.
@@didifixthat7910 sorry to hear that. I finally got it off from the bottom.
Thanks for sharing, now I'm worried about this happening haha. Did you come across any reason of this happening in your research? I wonder if I should get the bolt out/replaced while it's still holding up, thanks again
Not sure if they had a bunch of defective bolts or not? I don’t think that there was anything wrong with the car or alignment of the pulleys. Only think I can attribute it to was a defective bolt. What I did find was that it isn’t necessarily an isolated event. Several others have had this issue. I did however appear with the 997.2 cars. I don’t know if you would consider this preventive maintenance but the upper tensioner bolt is fairly easy to get to and the bolt from Porsche was around $2.
That was a shit job !!
I couldn’t agree with you more.