I need to swap out my 3 drive belts, due to wear. I have 80,500 miles on the stock belts, is that about the life of them?

Also, I couldn't help but notice that all 3 drive belts spin around a pulley in which the fan is attached to behind the radiator. I know how to loosen the belts and get them off, but how do you actually extract them from the engine? Do you have to pull the fan off, or can you slip all 3 of them over it?

Does anyone know of a write-up for this procedure?

Thanks in advance.

 

they are called "serpentine belts", i was looking to doing this myself, because my belts are starting to dry rot and its been almost 100k miles i believe. i looked online and saw the belts were like 20-30 bucks? ..which is cheap..but also looking to do this here myself.

 

actually i believe a serpentine belt is a SINGLE belt that drives ALL of the accessories, instead of having 3 belts lol.

Get a Chiltons manual or similar from your local auto parts store, it'll be of great assistance!

 

Wow, yours lasted 80k?

One of the belts on mine lasted for about 40-45k before actually snapping (if I remember correctly, as this was several years ago). I recently had the other two replaced (didn't do myself though). Maybe I received defective belts or something, hmm idk.

 

yea my bad, what am i thinking

 

Just loosen them starting with the one closest to the fan and take them off and work your way in. You shouldn't need to take the fan off unless you just want to. You may have to slip them over some of the blades and then rotate the fan by hand to orient them in a way the allows you to get them off. Then just reverse the procedure to put the new ones on. Very easy to do. good luck

 

Takes about 40 or so minutes. Make sure to recheck the tension after about 5 minutes of running the engine, then check again awhile later. Just remember cheap belts are cheap and don't last as long.

 

i've been wanting to do this too, I have an FSM but it doesn't help a lot. It vaguely describes the procedure..

The good news is we don't have to bother with the fan, but we may have to remove the skid plate.

I've got more than 110k on my original drivebelts.
and the stealership has been bugging me to replace it.

 

The STEALERSHIP here in town, wants $100.00 Canadian to replace them!

 

how much is it to do yourself? parts?

 

Some said $40, Just the 3 belts thats all you need.

 

Just going from memory, the hardest one to get loose is the AC belt. Mainly because the AC compressor has a locking bolt and an adjustment bolt and both need to be loosened and its down low, kind of hard to get to. That IIRC is the outside one. For the middle one, the power steering pump pivots to loosen that belt and since that is up top its pretty easy. The inside belt (unless you have a supercharger with a dynamic tensioner) is loosened by pivoting the alternator on its bracket. Take note of the tension on each one so you can hopefully get them back to about the same tension. Remember too that a new belt will stretch out some while breaking in and may need readjusting later if you don't get it tight enough. Don't want them too tight, its hard on bearings and stuff. Don't want them too loose or the belt will slip and squeal and wear out faster.

 

This is definitely true, I had a fairly new gates belt shred on me. i have used the Goodyear gatorback belts from autozone and they are really nice and really quiet. If you have a belt that is notorious for squeaking these are your answer.

 

A general rule of thumb on tension is:

1/4"-1/2" deflection on pulleys that are less than 6" apart from their centers
1/2" deflection on pulleys that are 6" apart from their centers.

 

Pretty sure only way to do AC belt is to pull skid plate and go underneath. You usually need to loosen the bolt the accessory pivots on, a locknut on the adjuster, and the adjuster itself. If I remember right, all 3 are like that. I got 120K on all 3 original belts until I swapped all 3 when I did TB and WP at 120K. One was just starting to squeak even though it was real tight.

 

I think I paid approx. $50.00 for all three belts. I tried to change them, but couldn't figure them out....even with the damn Haynes Manual. Mechanic friend of mine offered to check it out sometime, that was a year ago....lol. I'm thinking about trying it again....this time with the info from this thread! Thanks guys for the info!

 

X2 on removing the skid plate and doing it from underneath (at least loosening the tension).