[ImperialCrown]

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?

 

[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? View attachment 110994

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

 

[ImperialCrown]

OEM should be a perfect fit.

 

[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.

 

[Lon Johnston]

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.

 

[Bob Lincoln]

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

 

[Lon Johnston]

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.

 

[Lon Johnston]

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

 

[ImperialCrown]

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.

 

[Lon Johnston]

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

Lon Johnston

 

[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.

 

[AllanC]

. . . . 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.

 

[Lon Johnston]

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.

Yes i did, noise is gone and ac seems to working fine. Thanks for the information you supplied.