FAQ: Upgrading Serpentine Belts & Pulleys?

and another

pic

one more

How about the tensioner?
Is this tensioner adjusted correctly, or is it close enough?


Bert:tavis:

There is no way to answer your question from the pictures provided, except to say that with the printing still visible on those belt backs most likely they were changed at least once. And with the GM numbers on them, the change was at the dealer.

Look - all you need to do is look at the back of the belts and make sure there are no cuts or abrasions that fray or cut the fabric in the belt. You then need to look at the grooved side of the belts and count the breaks in the rubber. If there are no belts, great. If there is one break per inch, or so, plan to change the belts the next time you have service done like a state inspection or a tire rotation. Serpentine belts are designed to warn you by having the grooved face crack up VERY LONG before they fail. In my personal experience, I've run belts about a year after seeing that they had a crack or two per inch on the face. Actually, I think the thing to look for as a signal for 'change belts soon' is that there are bits of rubber missing out of the face (grooved side) of the belts.

Dayco has a video about this at --> http://www.daycoproducts.com/daycoweb.nsf/cf652a4feb630ad0862571a4005ae40c/45ddb8bb3b44d189862571d400512bc7!OpenDocument

Albertj


Last time I replaced my belts, I used Dayco "PolyCog" belts and did it myself.
Albertj

theres one way to be safe, replace them for the hell of it

albertj wrote:

There is no way to answer your question from the pictures provided, except to say that with the printing still visible on those belt backs most likely they were changed at least once. And with the GM numbers on them, the change was at the dealer.

Look - all you need to do is look at the back of the belts and make sure there are no cuts or abrasions that fray or cut the fabric in the belt. You then need to look at the grooved side of the belts and count the breaks in the rubber. If there are no belts, great. If there is one break per inch, or so, plan to change the belts the next time you have service done like a state inspection or a tire rotation. Serpentine belts are designed to warn you by having the grooved face crack up VERY LONG before they fail. In my personal experience, I've run belts about a year after seeing that they had a crack or two per inch on the face. Actually, I think the thing to look for as a signal for 'change belts soon' is that there are bits of rubber missing out of the face (grooved side) of the belts.

Dayco has a video about this at --> http://www.daycoproducts.com/daycoweb.nsf/cf652a4feb630ad0862571a4005ae40c/45ddb8bb3b44d189862571d400512bc7!OpenDocument

Albertj


Last time I replaced my belts, I used Dayco "PolyCog" belts and did it myself.
Albertj

Thanks Albertj, they should be fine then. There are no cracks in the belts.
It is odd that the SC belt is black and the accessories belt is brown.
Bert:burnout:

palermocorey90 wrote:

theres one way to be safe, replace them for the hell of it

Thanks Corey, I will keep that sage advice in mind.
Bert:burnout:

ibmoses wrote:

How about the tensioner?
Is this tensioner adjusted correctly, or is it close enough?


Bert:tavis:

How do you read/interpret the lines on the pulley in relation to the notch on the housing?
There are four lines that divide the "indicator" into four segments...
If tension is correct should the notch be aligned with the indicator line as shown in the attached pic?
Bert

Actually, Bert, the different color belts - well, it's not odd. Most likely belts are different composition. There's Gates, Dayco, Goodyear, Ningbo (China), Bandu (Japan) and others. Replacement belts for just about every car on US roads are sold under the AC Delco name - I suspect they are from one or more suppliers (mostly Goodyear) but don't quote me on that 'cause I am only guessing.

Watch out for the belts becoming noisy for no apparent reason. If that happens, check the pulleys (take belt off track at tensioner and turn pulleys by hand). If they do become noisy, they can't really be fixed so just replace them.

And that tensioner in your picture looks fine to me, the index ridge is in the middle of the 4 marks.

By the way, if your car was serviced at the dealer, then service records are available by asking the service manager at the dealer. You have to ask real nice on a day that is not busy, though, because the records take a while to pull from their computer system and although they can give you what they have they can not warrant that it's complete service history.

Albertj

I am pretty sure that they need to be replaced, but I just wanted to double check.

I would.

They could last quite a while longer, but I'd go ahead and change them if you have the time.

It would be a wise move.

1998 Riv wrote:

They could last quite a while longer, but I'd go ahead and change them if you have the time.

AHHHHHHH you dont want to buy a underhood fabric thing

I would change them.

Mine looked like that at 90k miles. That's when my mechanics started getting on me about changing them. And I did.

I just had them changed about 5 years or so ago. Only put like 25,000 miles on them. I thought they would have lasted longer.

It's not just the miles, it's also exposure to the elements that will cause deterioration over time. How is the backing? After 5 years, it's probably time for a swap.

1998 Riv wrote:

It's not just the miles, it's also exposure to the elements that will cause deterioration over time. How is the backing? After 5 years, it's probably time for a swap.

The back of the belt seems ok. You can't see the writing on the belts anymore. The tensioner mark is in the correct spot.

If it's your DD car, I'd do the belts. Or if you drive somewhere that you don't want to lose belts unexpectedly.

Gates warrants their belts as long as the writing is still visible. I could barely read mine when I changed them. Also, I've been told that more than one deep crack per 1" of belt length means to change the belt.

Are yours Gates (NAPA) belts?

AA wrote:

Gates warrants their belts as long as the writing is still visible. I could barely read mine when I changed them. Are yours Gates (NAPA) belts?

I think they are AC Delco.

I think I will go ahead and change the belts. I am already changing a lot of parts, so might as well do the belts to. I will try to follow these steps to replace the belts to see if it is any easier.

Quote :

Best way to do all this is to:

- Put on the parking brake
- Block the rear wheels (safety first, you know)
- Jack front of Riv
- Support front using jackstands
- Remove passenger side wheel
- Remove plastic splash shield pins from plastic shield and remove shield (or remove the back two or three and rotate shiled forward out of the way)
- Remove nut and stud from center of TAM sleeve (sometimes the nut and stud come out as one unit and sometimes the nut comes off then the stud), Stud is an external torx but can be removed using a regular socket that fits tightly over the torx head of the stud (may be a 5/32nd...i can't remember exactly)
- Remove metal sleeve, I found for my car that pushing the sleeve up, towards the hood area, from underneath the car, was easier than trying to pull it striaght down and out of the bottom of the car. Also may need to wiggle the sleeve, and eventually ist will come out.
- Slip belt off and past any pullies. (notice belt path so you put it back on correctly)
- Slip new belt on and reverse the above.

Are you only doing belts? How is your lower SC idler pulley? I hadn't examined mine until the past couple months when I was running without the SC belt. I'd guarantee it was the 118k mile original, and was in much worse condition than the other pulleys I'd already changed out. It was plastic and badly deforming. The smooth surface wasn't even flat across anymore. Unless you have time constraints, or know that pulley is good, I'd recommend going the long way about it, and pull the engine mount to get that pulley changed. Dayco 89006. Gates 38001. $20-ish.