Serpentine Belt Replacement

Serpentine Belt Service at Bluebonnet Ford

Pity the poor serpentine belt. When it comes to the various belts in your vehicle, the seat belts get the most attention, which is understandable. However, you can belt yourself in, turn the key, and if the serpentine belt is not doing its job, you will not get very far. We’re not talking about the timing belt; although it could be a matter of serpentine belt vs. timing belt malfunction, we commend you know about the timing belt. Not all drivers do, especially those who lease cars or trade them in on the next year's model before they have amassed more than 50,000 miles. But even if you rarely open the hood of your car, it pays to know about your car's drive belts. After all, they enable the next drive you plan on taking even if it's just down to the corner store.

A Quick Tour of Your Car's Drive Belts

Odds are if you keep your car past the day the odometer registers 50,000 miles, the service manager has mentioned the need to keep an eye on your car's various drive belts and the importance of replacing the serpentine belt before it reaches its life's end. And if he hasn't yet, he will. So read on so you will have a better understanding of what he is talking about.

Timing Belt

The timing belt's job is to open and close the engine valves to keep time with the up and down movements of the pistons. This, in turn, contributes to the crankshaft's turning of the camshaft. So should the timing belt suddenly stop coordinating these various belts and pulleys, as it can, should it break, your car is going to not only come to an abrupt stop. Your valves and pistons will suffer collateral damage.

V Belt

If you have a newer model, you probably don't have a V belt since the serpentine belt performs most of its functions. However, in the interest of becoming, if not a bar buff, a knowledgeable driver, you might want to know that the V belt was actually a collection of belts that originated at the crankshaft and drove the alternator, the water pump, the air conditioner's compressor, and the power steering fluid's pump. What was good about this system is that since the belts were relatively short, they posed less risk of slipping, and even if one did, since it only had its own specific job to do, the others were not affected.

Serpentine Belt

If you picture a snake, you have a pretty good image of a serpentine belt. This lengthy continuous belt snakes through the engine and drives all its moving parts. So if it should break, which is very possible after 50,000 miles of providing momentum while standing up to unrelenting heat and friction, it can develop cracks, become stripped, or lose its tension, becoming too loose to keep things moving, the drive cycle will cease functioning. And if it does, and you may find yourself pulling over to the shoulder of a Sequin or McQueeney road and summoning a tow truck to bring you here to Blue Bonnet Ford in New Braunfels

How to Know Your Serpentine Belt is About to Present a Problem

Although, as we mentioned above, if a V belt broke, it did not put a major wrench in the works, while a severed serpentine belt will, the job of replacing the serpentine belt is easy to replace, so you need not wait for it to break. Fortunately, it will give you ample warning.

• It will squeak or chirp, primarily upon starting up.
• The air conditioning or power steering may begin to malfunction, meaning it will be harder to steer, and the Texas air will make for a different type of unsettling drive.
• The water pump will cease to provide enough cooling to the engine, causing it to overheat.