Time for a new belt tensioner?

[soupnutz]

Weather has been crappy today, lots of rain and such.

While heading to grocery store after driving through a few puddles and one maybe 6 inches deep or so pulling in to store, my battery light comes on and I lose power steering. I'm in a parking lot so I stop and the battery light flickers a few times.

I'm thinking the belt snapped or something, I shut it off and take a look and everything looks fine so I start it back up. Battery light flickers once or twice and no steering, then a second later everything is fine.

I'm used to hearing some kind of squeel when the belt is slipping but there was none. Would the water keep it from doing that, and could my tensioner be going bad? I imagine it should keep it from slipping even when wet, any opinions.

 

[wmburns]

Yes water can make a belt slip. A worn belt can also make it slip esp in the presence of water. Same thing for the tensioner.

Suggest that the 1st thing is to inspect the belt. Bend the belt backwards and look for cracks on the back side. Replace if the cracks are more than half way through the ribs. Replace if high mileage or an application such as supercharged that is hard on belts.

If the tensioner is moving a lot during normal operations, this can be a sign that the tensioner is weak. It can also mean one or more of the pulleys are have excessive run out. Check the damper. The rubber ring will shink over time causing run out of the outer ring.

 

[Twista]

Same thing happened to my daily 2 weeks ago. hit a big puddle of water.. nothing happened.. came to stop @ red light right after the big puddle. Light turns green.. hit the gas.. heard a skreech.. battery light popped on.

Somehow the water made my belt snap.

 

[bhuff30]

The screching sounds was probably the belt starting to grab the pulleys. As it was grabbing, there is a high load on the belt, as it tries to get all the accessories up to speed again. That's probably why your belt broke.... plus it was most likely old, and brittle,and needed to be replaced anyway.