Your serpentine belt is a vital component of your vehicle. And if it breaks, you might end up stuck on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. The serpentine belt is a long rubber belt that transports power to the engine accessories—the alternator, power steering pump, air conditioning compressor and sometimes the water pump. You may have heard a serpentine belt referred to as a fan belt or accessory belt. This is because vehicles used to have multiple drive belts that connected the engine to the accessories such as the radiator fan.
But modern vehicles usually just have one belt that winds through multiple pulleys to power all the accessories. Plus, it could also damage the engine accessories it controls. The serpentine belt and timing belt have very different functions in your vehicle.
The timing belt is located inside the engine and keeps the crankshaft and camshaft in sync. This ensures that the engine intake and exhaust valves open and close in time with the pistons so the engine runs smoothly. One of the most common causes of excessive and premature belt wear is a misaligned alternator.
When the alternator is misaligned, so is the pulley that moves the belt. Another cause is a missing or damaged engine under shield, this is what protects the belt from water, dirt, small rocks, and other compounds that can cause it to wear more quickly. Oil or coolant leaks and improper tension can also cause wear. The last thing you want is to end up roadside with an overheated, badly damaged engine because your water pump or cooling system failed, or to lose your power steering on a tight curve.
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How do you know if the belt needs to be replaced? What causes drive belt wear? Home Articles. The statements expressed above are only for informational purposes and should be independently verified.
Please see our terms of service for more details. Excellent Auto Repair Ratings. YourMechanic Auto Repair. Here's what you'll be looking for:. Next, you should use a serpentine belt rib tool — available at most auto parts stores — to take a closer look. Sometimes the belt is worn but you cannot see any of the wear by just looking at it. When you remove the belt, you can use another tool called a belt wear gauge, says Reader's Digest Canada. Setting this tool on the ribbed portion of the belt will reveal how much wear there is.
If you see any oil or coolant saturation on the belt, Firestone Complete Auto Care notes that this means it's definitely time to replace the belt and fix those leaks. In addition to normal wear and tear, other types of failures can happen, says AutoBlog. For instance, a complete failure of a serpentine belt is when the belt breaks or comes off the rollers.
This means the accessories are not being driven, so you are going to run into problems. When this happens, you may not have any charging voltage, which means no air conditioner and no power steering. For some vehicles, you may also experience overheating. For replacing the serpentine belt, all you need is a new serpentine belt and belt tensioner tool, according to AutoZone.
For most DIY mechanics, the toughest part of the entire process is getting to the serpentine belt in the first place, they say.
They recommend that you take a picture of it with your phone before you remove the old belt. This will make it easier to remember how to route the belt when replacing it. The first step is to remove the old serpentine belt using the belt tensioner tool, says AutoZone. They caution you to take the belt off carefully, making sure you don't damage the nearby network of pulleys and peripherals.
Next, thread the new serpentine belt into position, cranking the tensioner tool and slipping the belt over the tensioner pulley. When you are working on your own car, having the appropriate safety gear is just as important as having the right tools. Make sure your toolbox contains everything you need to make necessary repairs — and protect your safety. Retrieve a saved quote.
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