Thread: Early indicators for serpentine belt replacement

I removed and kept the original perfect-looking belt at 100K then refitted it after another 80K because the Gates after-market belt had developed lots of cracks, although no bits missing.

My belt was very cracked when I changed it. The annoying chirp chirp on engine shut down that I thought was the harmonic balancer on it's way out, stopped. Win Win

Its getting very difficult to buy the exact size belt, as usual Mario has the right one on the shelf, and at better than half the cost of an available alternative here on the Coast,,
all of which are 3-5mm longer,, one guy had a 5mm longer 8PK and said just split a single V off,,

Is this a common practice, or only in emergencies type thing?

Splitting one track off leaves the edge not properly formed but might not impact on its longevity. I carried a shorter belt to bypass the ACE pulley which was a timmed 8PK as I couldn't find a 7PK the desired length but didn't get to use it other than to test that it worked OK.

I remember you saying that Graeme ,, goes to show that if you prepare properly,, you never need the spares..
I sure a stripped belt would work as a spare quite well,,

When you get a lot of cracks on the ribs your meant to replace it.
But that said their is no structual integrity in the rubber ribs.
Keep an eye on the non ribbed side for cracks if you see some their immediately replace.
Splitting a rib off while no reconmended generaly wont hurt it ether had a grader at work has been missing a rib for 2000hours so far on a 6000hour old belt

Best to replace suspect belts, cheap insurance to stop other damage occurring. I had a belt strip on one of the ribs and that rib found it's way between the PAS pump body and the pulley flange. It wound itself in there and it forced the flange outwards so the pulley would not align anymore .