Serpentine Belt: When to Replace?

PULMEOVR · Jan 24, 2011

So, my car is parked for the Winter and I'm going through the list of maintenance that needs to be done come Spring time. What is the service life of the serpentine belt? I've got 89,000km on the vehicle (55,000 miles). However, the belt itself will be 9 years old in April. It appears fine though with no holes, or cracks.

Should I change it out?

Yes, I searched!

Thanks!

bhuff30 · Jan 25, 2011

I can't imagine a 9 year old belt really looking that pretty. Looked at the ribbed side for cracks. You can remove the belt and bend it so the ribs are on the outside and probably find a huge number of cracks on the ribs. If you see plenty of cracks, replace the belt. If you still don't see many cracks, then the belt isn't really 9 years old or it is made of a special formula of rubber which apparently doesn't age.

trinity_gt · Jan 25, 2011

PULMEOVR said:
So, my car is parked for the Winter and I'm going through the list of maintenance that needs to be done come Spring time. What is the service life of the serpentine belt? I've got 89,000km on the vehicle (55,000 miles). However, the belt itself will be 9 years old in April. It appears fine though with no holes, or cracks.

Should I change it out?

Yes, I searched!

Thanks!

If it's not showing any external signs of wear (frayed edges, for example) and it's not showing any cracking or glazing, you probably don't have to worry about it.

Having said that a belt isn't that expensive. If you're concerned, purchase a new one and put the old one in the trunk as a spare (or use the new one as a spare...whatever...)

flstang65 · Jan 25, 2011

New belts don't actually crack any more, for the most part. What happens is that they stretch. There is a special tool you can get to test belt stretch and tension. That being said, usually going off a mileage is usually a better route to go. My wife's car and my explorer, I change every 45-60K miles. The Mustang doesn't get driven that much so, I go with every other year for replacement, along with all the fluids. Maybe I am a little overly anal?

nancygrl · Jan 25, 2011

I saw on one of the saturday/sunday morning car shows, they had a belt that appeared to be ok visually. They had some sort of plastic gauge that fit in the groove of the belt. It was basically a good/no-good type of tool.

I just found it doing a search, it's made by Gates, and it's free. Here's the link to what I found. Hope it helps

Serpentine Belts

trinity_gt · Jan 25, 2011

Some belt tensioners actually have a mark on them that shows whether the belt is excessively stretched or not. Here's an example of such marks on an SHO tensioner:

I can't recall if the Mustang tensioner has such a mark or not (sure would be nice to help spot belt stretch...)

PULMEOVR · Jan 25, 2011

Actually, I think we might have a belt length indicator on our years. I'll have to check it out. I didn't even think about how the belt could wear out by being stretched. Good advice. Looks like I'll be changing this out.

Thanks!

cronin49 · Jan 30, 2011

This probably doesn't mean crap for your application, but my guy who installed my Paxton 2000 insists that I change out the belt AND the plugs every 10,000 miles. I have let the belt go for 20,000 miles with no problems, but he was right about the plugs... I run one level colder than stock, Autolite 764 coppertops, gapped @ .035. These plugs and gap are what Paxton recommends; I didn't believe him on the 10,000 mile plug change until I saw how they looked after 10k, they were worn down pretty bad. Change the belt, like the previous guy said, it's cheap insurance.

PULMEOVR · Jan 30, 2011

Thanks. I'll be heading down to the Ford dealer this week for a new belt.

My list of maintenance for the Mustang is really growing. Old cars ...

sneaky98gt · Jan 30, 2011

I have heard people say that Ford/Motorcraft belts are fine, but I personally am now a fan of Gatorback belts. I had an annoying belt squeak that new belts from Advance, AutoZone, Napa, etc, did nothing to fix. I ordered a Gatorback from Summit Racing and haven't heard a peep since. It was also the cheapest belt I could find.

My $.02...

PULMEOVR · Jan 31, 2011

What is the benefit to Gatorback belts? Better build quality? Longer life? All of the above?

90SILVERNOTCH · Feb 5, 2011

I'm in school to be an automotive technician, we just got done talking about belts, and they gave everyone in class a gates tool to use on the belts. Its the same one in the link above. You lay it in the grooves of the belt and run your finger across the belt and the tool, if you can feel the little plastic tool sitting above the grooves the belt is good, if you cant feel the tool you should replace the belt. Your typical neoprene belt last around 60K miles. Gates has a new belt that will never crack made out of EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) They last 100K miles. If I were you I would get one of the new gates EPDM belts and use it, it will last a long long time. They are typically about 50 bucks for the belt but they are definitely worth it. Gates also has new radiator hoses with Kevlar in them that will never burst. Just a FYI. You should replace your belt tensioner also, most people don't replace them as ofter as they should and they don't cost much 30-50 bucks.

90SILVERNOTCH · Feb 5, 2011

sneaky98gt said:
I have heard people say that Ford/Motorcraft belts are fine, but I personally am now a fan of Gatorback belts. I had an annoying belt squeak that new belts from Advance, AutoZone, Napa, etc, did nothing to fix. I ordered a Gatorback from Summit Racing and haven't heard a peep since. It was also the cheapest belt I could find.

My $.02...

90% of the time belt squeal is not the belt, its the tensioner, most people think that if the spring in the tensioner is still keeping tension on the belt then its good. Most of the time when a tensioner goes bad its not the spring its the bearings in the pulley on the tensioner and that or a lack of tension is what causes the belt to squeal. A little trick to seeing if its actually the belt making the noise is you can get a little bit of comet (the cleaner) and put just a little on the inside of the belt and start the car, the comet will remove any glazing on the belt and if it is the belt making the noise it will stop.

Steve491 · Feb 6, 2011

Don't over analyze something so simple. Replace the belt with a quality one. Make sure the pulleys are clean and not full of crud, especially the crank pulley. Clean them with a plastic bristle brush or maybe a brass bristle, nothing more. Keep it simple. My 2 cents.

PULMEOVR · Jun 27, 2011

Just an update for anyone who searches for this thread.

I replaced the belt a month ago with a Dayco belt, cost was $35. I wanted a Gatorback but I couldn't find a retailer in the area that I live. The belt change was EASY and anyone could do this with about 15 minutes of their time (or less). Just make sure you have a diagram of the routing of the belt before you take off the old one.

procharged04GT · Jul 17, 2011

if your running a blower replace that tensioner...along with the belt....

Maxpowers · Jul 17, 2011

Please look at the date of the thread before posting in it.

Serpentine Belt: When to Replace?

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