Rubber belts & hoses should be inspected periodically. They last much longer than in the old days.
Rubber can dry rot & crack, attacked by hydrocarbons or swell & soften if exposed to oil.
Belts & hoses can last the life of the car. If it is quiet, the belt is probably OK.

 

. . . .Our car has 165,000 miles and the serpentine belt still looks brand new. There is no mention in the owners manual about any scheduled maintenance. Has anyone had their belt fail? If so, at what age or mileage, and was the failure due to something freezing up or was it due to the belt deteriorating? . . . .

What requires more attention other than the serpentine drive belt is the 3 idler pulleys that are used in the belt routing. If a bearing fails and allows any idler to fall out of alignment, the belt may come off all pulleys. Also it is possible that a pulley bearing could fail and cause the idler to freeze. If this happens there will be a loud screeching sound, the engine may stall and the belt destroyed.

Attached image shows the belt routing and the three idler pulleys (#5, #8, #9) in question. I would suggest removing the belt and spinning the idler pulleys freely. Any strange noises or wobble would warrant replacement or just replace as part of preventative maintenance.

 

What requires more attention other than the serpentine drive belt is the 3 idler pulleys that are used in the belt routing. If a bearing fails and allows any idler to fall out of alignment, the belt may come off all pulleys. Also it is possible that a pulley bearing could fail and cause the idler to freeze. If this happens there will be a loud screeching sound, the engine may stall and the belt destroyed.

Attached image shows the belt routing and the three idler pulleys (#5, #8, #9) in question. I would suggest removing the belt and spinning the idler pulleys freely. Any strange noises or wobble would warrant replacement or just replace as part of preventative maintenance.

View attachment 110287

Thanks for that diagram, I will need it next week. The belt routing is not even in the Haynes manual I bought, or shown under the hood with a decal like most cars do.

 

Thanks for the info. I did buy the Gates serpentine belt kit along with a serpentine belt kit installation wrench set. I just didn't do the job yet because the belt still looks new. I was worried that maybe the belt could have a catastrophic failure even when it still looked new. I hope if any of the parts using bearings show signs of failing on the belt before anything goes completely bad. I check the engine compartment regularly to make sure all looks good. In 62 years of driving, I only broke down on the road once about 2 AM shortly after buying an 83 Mercury Topaz from a friend. I thought he kept the car in good shape, but man was I wrong.

 

. . . . I did buy the Gates serpentine belt kit along with a serpentine belt kit installation wrench set. I just didn't do the job yet because the belt still looks new. I was worried that maybe the belt could have a catastrophic failure even when it still looked new. I hope if any of the parts using bearings show signs of failing on the belt before anything goes completely bad. I check the engine compartment regularly to make sure all looks good. In 62 years of driving, I only broke down on the road once about 2 AM shortly after buying an 83 Mercury Topaz from a friend. I thought he kept the car in good shape, but man was I wrong. . . . .

In my experience drive belts have a very long life, much longer than bearings in the pulleys. But there is no way to determine if the pulley bearings are starting to fail unless you remove the belt, spin the pulleys and listen for strange sounds. Since you have already purchased the belt kit, I would urge you to install it and enjoy many more carefree miles knowing that preventative maintenance pays off in the long run.

Here is a link to a video showing how to access the serpentine belt and idlers and tensioner. Note that at time 3:50 the tensioner pulley is removed first from the tensioner assembly. It is a left hand thread.

 

For cracking belts, cracks across the belt are OK. Longitudinal cracks are not. Do not spray dressing on the belt.

 

We own a 2011 and a 2012. I replaced the belts proactively before 120K miles.

 

That video gave some good advice, but my 2012 Chrysler 200 has a large motor mount between the overflow bottle and the motor, so the top access sucks and I think the bottom end may also be a little more difficult. The fact the tensioner has a left-hand thread was good to find out, and seeing that by watching the pulleys, etc. with the engine running is a good idea to keep an eye on any potential bearings starting to become worn and loose. I watched my belt with the engine running, everything is motionless and noiseless except for the spinning of the belt. All looks good, so I am going to wait until I am in the mood for the challenge.

 

Low-profile socket wrench sets are great for tight places & yes, you may need to add more leverage. 😉

 

Getting ready to replace my serpentine belt and pulleys. I have been hearing a droning noise, last about 2 seconds, gone for a second and then keeps repeating. I thought it might be a wheel bearing or maybe the AC compressor. I noticed this morning that the noise is coming from the belt tensioner. When the noise is happening, I can see the tensioner pulley vibrating ever so slightly, so i think the bearing is going bad, or something else is maybe going bad. I bought the Gates serpentine kit a year ago but was waiting until I had a reason to change everything. I hope it is the tensioner and I hope the noise and vibration is gone after changing everything. I hope it is not the air compressor, noise goes away when the AC is off, but when the ac is on, it puts more load on the tensioner, so I guess I will find out after changng everything.

 

. . . . Getting ready to replace my serpentine belt and pulleys. I have been hearing a droning noise, last about 2 seconds, gone for a second and then keeps repeating. I thought it might be a wheel bearing or maybe the AC compressor. I noticed this morning that the noise is coming from the belt tensioner. When the noise is happening, I can see the tensioner pulley vibrating ever so slightly, so i think the bearing is going bad, or something else is maybe going bad. I bought the Gates serpentine kit a year ago but was waiting until I had a reason to change everything. I hope it is the tensioner and I hope the noise and vibration is gone after changing everything. I hope it is not the air compressor, noise goes away when the AC is off, but when the ac is on, it puts more load on the tensioner, so I guess I will find out after changng everything. . . . .

Another item to check is the alternator itself. Do the bearings in the unit make noise? Also check the decoupler pulley as they can wear and cause noise. Attached link shows how to check the decoupler pulley. In the video the presenter uses a short 1/4 inch socket extension to block the shaft from rotating. I would suggest using a lead pencil since it is wood and less likely to damage internal parts.

Approach is to block the internal fan from rotating. Then turn the pulley counterclockwise. It should turn freely without noise or vibration. The alternator is mounted lower on the engine so access is not the easiest.

 

Thanks for that info. I never knew that decoupler even existed. My alternator seems to be charging okay, so I hope when I check it, it is okay. Does the AC compressor cycle on and off in cycles of around 2 seconds?

 

Rapid A/C compressor cycling can be a sign of low refrigerant pressure. Use gauges. Look for a leak?

 

I checked the ac pressure it is okay, cools very well and it looks like it is not short cycling. The sound I hear sounds kind of like a noise the ac compressor would make if it was short cycling.. That tensioner pulley shutters when I hear the noise,so I hope it is the bearing either loose or starting to bind. Very consistent on the noise, on 2 seconds, off 2 seconds. It has been doing this for about 6 months maybe more.

 

Going to change the serpentine belt and pulleys tomorrow, I hope all goes well.

 

I changed the belt, tensioner and the 2 idler pulleys. The noise is gone that I was hearing and no shuddering of the tensioner pulley. But I notice on the 2 idlers, the belt is sticking out about 1/16" on both idler pulleys. I didn't notice if the originals were doing that, is there spacers that go behind the idler pulleys to center them on the belt, or is this normal?The belt is on all the accessory pulleys correctly so the only think I can think of is the grooves on the belt is off a little. It was a Gates kit that I used.

Any thoughts, I want to but it all back together after I get some response from the group.

thanks,
Lon Johnston

 

No. not normal. The belt should sit squarely within the confines of the pulley edges. Does the # of ribs on the pulley & vees on the belt match & mate up? Is the belt shifted over?

 

That is what I thought too. But the manufacturers tolerances may have a big effect on how close to perfect they get. All the component pulleys look just like your pictures. I did take a look at the old idler pulleys (they do not have grooves or side flanges) to see if I could tell where the belt had been running on them. Both show the belt off to one side. there is a .100" wide area on inner side, a .030" on the outer side, so the belt had been running towards outer side of the pulleys. The pulleys are .960" wide, and the belt is .825" wide. The one by the alternator is the worst, the other one is about flush with the outside of the pulley. I am thinking about putting a .030" shim under the one by the alternator. I checked everything before I did any work on changing the components. This could be problem with the bearings getting worn on the alternator, or the belt is unevenly stressed, maybe not the best quality. It's a Gates belt but quality from all the companies we used to use for quality, aren't what they used to be. The Gates kit was made in Mexico. If I showed you the 2 belts, the original one 13 years old and 165,000 miles to compare with the new Gates belt, I bet you would pick the old belt as the new belt. It looks pristine, the Gates belt looks like junk compared to it.

Thanks for your input, do you see any problem with me putting a .030" shim under the one idler pulley to make the belt run on the centerline of the pulley?

Lon Johnston

 

OEM should be a perfect fit.

 

Without seeing an apparent problem and not wanting to drive the car with the belt not centered on the idler pulley, I can't think of a reason not to put in a shim. But I think it needs to be .06" thick or thicker. I wish I would have paid more attention to how things looked before I took everything apart. For sure, the original belt was not running in the center of the pulleys, off centered by at least .035". I might let it run for 5 minutes to warm up and see if any uneven stresses in the belt from manufacturing disappear and the belt goes back to where it should be on the idler pulleys.

 

The Gates belt that came with the Gates kit that I bought looks older than the belt I took off. I think it may be counterfeit so I sent the info on the belt to Gates to verify that it is really a genuine gates belt. They are having trouble with counterfeit belts being sold as Gates. Their website for checking the belt numbers has been down for 2 days. According to Gates, the packaging since 2015 should have a QR code in the lower right-hand corner, the kit I got does not have that QR code, instead it says, Global OE supplier. The OE belt I took off looks brand new. Clean, no signs of anything and the material it is made from looks far superior to the Gates belt does. The tensioner was the only thing that probably needed changed. Live and learn I guess.

 

Where did you buy it? I use Gates belts from RockAuto, have never had an issue.

 

i bought it at PartsGeek. Gates already got back to me asking for pictures of the packaging and the belt, I just sent them what they wanted.

 

The Gates tech I talked to said the serpentine belt was made in either 2013 or 2023, judging by the looks, I think it was 2013. Gates said the belt life is 7 years or 70,000 miles. If the belt I bought was made in 2013, then it was 5 years past its useable life when it was sold. Does anyone on here know how to read the date code on Gates serpentine belts? The message I got has either some typos in it, or the guy doesn't know what the heck he is talking about. Now I am faced with do I assume the belt will be okay, or do I buy another one? He couldn't explain why there was no QR code on the packaging which Gates started using in 2015 on all of their products. Another example of what I experienced: I bought a Die-Hard battery last year at AutoZone for our 2001 PT Cruiser. I noticed the date code on the battery they went to sell me was made almost 2 years ago, so I told them to find one with a newer manufacturing date on it and they did, the next one was 2 months old. No wonder some batteries go bad in a couple of years, they were old when they were sold.

Buying car parts anymore is really frustrating,

Lon Johnston

 

A 4-digit Julian date code? First digit is the year. The last 3 are the days of the year (365).

I agree with checking date codes, some auto parts are 'perishable'. My wife had a bad experience with 10 tear old 'new' tires once.

 

Here is the numbers on the serpentine belt, does it show the date of manufacture? 6PK2579 K061015

Lon Johnston

 

After replacing the serpentine belt and pulleys, the vibrating noise was gone for about a week, but then started again. I checked the AC pressure and it was right on the high limit of pressure, so I let some out to put the pressure in the middle of the recommendation, and the noise stopped. It looks like when the ac was short cyclijng it made the original tensioner start to vibrate, the new one didn't but after a week or so, it started to vibrate under the higher load of running the compressor that was over pressurized. I hope the ac clutch isn't about worn out, this has been going on for about 6 months or so.

 

. . . . After replacing the serpentine belt and pulleys, the vibrating noise was gone for about a week, but then started again. I checked the AC pressure and it was right on the high limit of pressure, so I let some out to put the pressure in the middle of the recommendation, and the noise stopped. It looks like when the ac was short cyclijng it made the original tensioner start to vibrate, the new one didn't but after a week or so, it started to vibrate under the higher load of running the compressor that was over pressurized. I hope the ac clutch isn't about worn out, this has been going on for about 6 months or so. . . . .

This vehicle uses a variable displacement air conditioning compressor. There is no cycling clutch located on the compressor drive pulley as found in the past. Anytime the engine is running the compressor shaft is rotating. The PCM controls the compressor displacement by energizing the compressor solenoid. This varies the angle of the internal wobble plate and changes the compressor displacement to match the heat load in the cabin.

Did you monitor system pressure with a manifold gauge set before releasing some refrigerant? It is very likely that the system is now undercharged. If the system was showing discharge pressure at the high side limit, there could be an obstruction in the system or the solenoid that controls displacement is not functioning properly.