What's A Serpentine Belt?

A serpentine belt is the belt that drives everything on the front of the engine. It is a long belt with little notches on the underside which goes through a number of pulleys as it performs its functions. The pulleys are the power steering, crankshaft, air conditioner and water pump. The serpentine belt has both a tensioner and idler and just as the name suggests, the former keeps tension on the belt to keep it tight. This belt is supposed to be checked often and it is recommended that it is changed after every three years. This is because should it break and all its teeth wear off, then you can be sure to be running on the battery.

Should the serpentine belt fail at any time, then you can also be sure that your power steering will not work, and neither will the air conditioner and alternator. Perhaps the worst thing is the fact that your water pump will also stop working and all you are going to experience is the engine heating up so fast you won’t even know what’s happening. As you check the serpentine belt for replacement or even repair, it is wise to also ensure that you also check the idler and tensioner pulley. The perfect way to check the pulleys is take out the belt and rotate the pulleys with your fingers.

But just how do you take off the serpentine belt either for repairs or even replacement? On the tensioner you are going to come across a square hole measuring three eighths to half an inch. There are however some few exceptions and this tells you that you should take time and observe the tensioner so as to tell what you have. Proceed to then put the appropriate tool in the slot and then pull it up. Note that you could also be required to put the tool itself on a bolt head, and this will be determined by what you have.

Regardless of how your setup looks like, you will still need to move the tensioner aside so as to allow you to take the belt off one of the pulleys. Pay close attention to the way in which the belt is laced round the pulleys so as to disengage it accordingly. It is usually said that taking off the belt can take a mere five minutes but returning it back may take a whole five hours. This is the main reason why you are advised to study the whole set up and if need be make a drawing.