Serpentine Or Fixed

[Shinyoung Gedris]

Mymechanic says my serpentine belt and tensioner need to be replaced and quoted me $400 for the work. I have a 2004 Pontiac Vibe that might be nearing it's retirement time and am skeptical about putting this much money into a simple belt replacement before it is absolutely necessary. How critical is it to have this replaced when a mechanic identifies it as a problem area, and is $400 a reasonable quote?

That is way too much money for a serpentine belt and a tensioner pulley on any vehicle. If you cannot do this yourself, take it to a different mechanic and have them do it. A serpentine belt is not at all critical to the overall health of the engine. If it fails, you put a new one on. It may be inconvenient after it breaks, but it's not going to ruin anything in the mean time. It's inconvenient because your alternator, power steering, and most importantly, air conditioning will no longer function. The engine, however, will continue to run.

NOTE: While no major evil effects will happen, it is important that you wouldn't run your engine too long as it is at this point, only running off of battery power. You will eventually drain all the juice from it and the car will die. Once the new belt is put on and the battery recharged, everything should be back to normal.

EDIT: @yaymuffins pointed out that the serpentine belt also runs the water pump in this application (the Toyota 1zz-fe engine). If the serpentine belt completely fails, this becomes a major concern. Serpentine belts do not usually fail so spectacularly, but it is a concern. If the serpentine belt fails completely (you'll see a lot of dash lights come on), you'll want to shut your engine down rather quickly to avoid over heating damage.

Now, with all that said, are you sure they said serpentine belt? They surely could have said timing belt, which is very important in the grand scheme of things. If it were to fail, it could destroy the upper end of your engine. Please take this into account when you are making your decision as to whether you are getting the work done or not.

Regarding your question of how critical the belt may be, it is very critical. The 4-cyl Vibes run the water pump with the serpentine belt. If the water pump is not running it can overheat your car very quickly.

If you are at all mechanically inclined and have tools , I would recommend giving this repair a try on your own. There are plenty of how-to videos, here is a link to one so you can decide if you want to give it a shot. =IDPFq-9jnXE

Just do it yourself. It is a beginer's job. Parts only costs less than $100. Watch Youtube to learn. The belt is quite important as it powers everything from alternator to powersteering and could leave you stranded. However nowadays most cars have automatic tensioner, which is a bit like point and shoot camera, not much can go wrong.

Just replaced both serpentine belts in my car, was not running into any kind of squealing before, but had not replaced the belts yet and the car was up to 90k miles. After replacing the belts, they started squealing.

I am getting the impression this is due to load on the alternator, but the tensioner pulley (which is my immediate thought of what would be causing this slipping and squealing noise) is for the other belt, the one that connects the power steering and such.

Anyways, there is no tensioner between the alternator and the motor, it's just one belt that connects the two with nothing in between - at seemingly a static distance. It's installed by removing the bolts on the alternator so it can be moved into and out of place.

The alternator actually pivots around the lower bolt, so you can remove the belt. The other bolt will be in a slot not a round hole, and the position of the bolt in the slot adjusts the belt tension. You didn't tension the belt enough when you refitted the alternator.

If you can find some instructions on how to change the belt they should tell you how tight it should be, but if you can depress it more than half an inch with your fingers (when the engine is off, of course!!!) it's probably too loose.

You can see the guy demonstrating how tight the belt is, at about 3:20 in the video you linked to, but there wasn't a very clear description of how he was judging the tension was correct (and to my eyes, in the video it looked a bit loose).

I just had the same issue after replacing my serpentine belt and tried lots of things and read through lots of blogs. I will say I did not read through this one but I wanted to share what solved my issue and the blogs I had read have already been archived. So, if this has already been offered as a solution forgive the repetition. There were little pieces and strips of the old belt that were stuck down in the bottom of about 25% of the grooves in the pulleys. I took a little pick tool and carefully cleaned out the remnants of the old belt. Sprayed it off with some electronics cleaner (just the pulleys not the belt), ran a clean toothbrush along the grooves in the belt. Put it back together and noise was no more. Hope this helps someone.

The pantyhose trick was for v-belts, as they have much deeper grooves on the pulleys. Most serpentine belts use a flat multi-groove belt, and pantyhose would probably slide off, especially on the smooth pulleys.

As stated by @Bustedknuckles it is a vbelt fix.The replacement of the belt is the best fix. OK,so I am on the road and the belt breaks, If I was desperate i could probably fashion a belt out of duct tape, fold it in half and overlap the cnd connections and make it a little bigger than oribinal serpantine belt to reduce stress, a 20mile fix maybe, but AAA should take care of towing me to a shp for a new belt.

What connects your vehicle's power steering, electrical, engine cooling and even air conditioning? The serpentine belt! For this key component, rely on the Jiffy Lube serpentine belt replacement to help keep your vehicle on the road.

Jiffy Lube visually inspects the serpentine belt for fraying, splitting, glazing (the working edge of the belt becomes shiny from age and wear) or any other damage. If necessary, your Jiffy Lube technicians remove the current serpentine belt and install a new one.

The serpentine belt is a single, continuous belt that drives multiple devices in your engine, such as the alternator, power steering pump, water pump and air conditioning compressor. If your serpentine belt breaks, all of these systems will shut down and your vehicle may overheat.

There are many critical parts to a vehicle that contribute to the way it operates, and one of those components is your vehicle's serpentine belt. It is important to understand what the serpentine belt does and when it will need to be replaced to avoid a broken one unexpectedly.

The serpentine belt powers many important parts of your Porsche car or SUV, including the power steering, water pump, alternator, and air conditioner. Your serpentine belt needs to be strong enough to power these parts of your vehicle and you can ensure it is strong and powerful through proper maintenance.

Your vehicle's serpentine belt should last between 50,000 to 100,000 miles your vehicle has been driven. Due to prolonged exposure over time to heat and friction, your belt can wear down and need to be replaced. This is one of your vehicle's parts that our Porsche certified technicians will check when you bring it in for maintenance, especially if you have noticed any issues.

When a serpentine belt begins to age and wear down, its rubber parts may start to peel off which will cause the belt to crack, slip, or fray at the ends. When this happens, it can cause the tension required in the belt to loosen and not reliably power the core components it's responsible for.

If your serpentine belt begins to chirp or make a squealing sound, this means the belt is slipping. If you notice cracks or wear and tear in the belt, it is time to bring it in for an inspection by our certified mechanics. If the many parts of your vehicle, such as the air conditioner or power steering, that are powered by the serpentine belt begin to break or fail to work properly, you should have the belt checked and possibly replaced. If your serpentine belt completely breaks, it can cause your vehicle not to run at all, which means you could end up stranded in the middle of nowhere. That is why you should have the belt checked when you have regular maintenance done to your vehicle.

The staff at Tom Wood Porsche in Indianapolis, IN and serving the areas of Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, and Lawrence, IN are here to serve you and all of your vehicle's needs. We offer free Wi-Fi, business workstations, business workstations, and a quiet room to relax in or get some work done while you wait for your vehicle. We also offer loaner vehicles and courtesy transportation shuttles, as well as rental cars, are available. We offer an array of hours, including Saturday service, to accommodate anyone's schedule. Call today for an appointment!

Aside from the engine itself, there are various accessories that run off it, such as the generator and air conditioning compressor. These are usually driven by V-belts, multi-V-belts, or serpentine belts, though some are driven via an electric motor. Most modern vehicles use electric cooling fans for the radiator, but most older vehicles had a belt-driven fan and usually a belt-driven water pump, often on the same pulley.

Via a series of pulleys, fan belts enable to engine to do more, such as running accessories to provide electricity, air conditioning, power steering, and engine cooling. Depending on engine and accessory design, fan belts could be absolutely critical to engine function and longevity. in such cases, a broken fan belt could lead to engine overheating and possible engine damage or a dead battery and dead engine. Other fan belt failures might result in difficult steering or inoperative air conditioning, for example.

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