Serpentine Belt Replacement - How to Replace a Serpentine Belt

The process of serpentine belt replacement is easy to carry out, provided that the necessary precautions and steps are undertaken carefully. In order to understand how to replace a serpentine belt, it is necessary to know a little bit about the belt.

Serpentine Belt
It is a belt used in automotive engines for driving peripheral devices like the power steering pump, alternator, A/C compressor, water pump, air pump, etc. A belt tensioner, idler pulley or both of these are required to guide the movement of the belt. Mr. Jim Vance invented the serpentine belt. The Ford Motor company used the belt for the first time for the 'Mustang' in the year 1979. The serpentine belt can bear tension and thus, possesses high mechanical efficiency as compared to the 'V'-belt.

Replacing Serpentine Belt
The serpentine belt should be replaced every 4 years or after the vehicle covers 30,000 to 60,000 miles. The belt should be inspected in order to carry out any replacement activity. The belt should be replaced if it shows cracks, cuts, deterioration of the edges or is noisy. If one can find the exact problem other than wear and tear, it does help for the replacement or to help the new belt last longer. Let us understand how to replace a serpentine belt.

How Much Should it Cost to Replace a Serpentine Belt
The cost of the serpentine should be around $30-$50. The labor charge for the replacement of this belt is $50. Thus, it would be feasible to learn how to replace a serpentine belt tensioner and the 'S'-belt to save money.

Removal
Before one starts removing the belt, the service manual for that particular automobile should be referred. The belt tensioners are tightly sprung and thus, one should avoid any kind of 'slips', which may cause serious injury. A specially designed service tool should be used to relieve the tension. The position at which the tool is mounted should be checked properly. The tensioner should ideally be resting on the internal 'stop'. The tool might 'jam' if it doesn't come in contact with the tensioner stop before any other component. This could also result into the tool slipping off and can subsequently even cause injury. The belt can be safely removed after releasing the tension. The process of belt removal should start from the largest pulley, since it can be accessed easily. One might need to remove the splash shields before pulling the belt off the assembly.

Once the serpentine belt is removed, the following components should be inspected.

• The coolant pump should be checked for leakage. If there is a leakage problem, it results into noise or bad hearing.
• The fan clutch should be inspected for fluid leakage and for any kind of damage.
• The tensioner should also be inspected. There might be a problem of wearing down of the tensioner mechanism or pulley bearing noise.
• It should be checked whether any of the hood components make contact with the tensioner, belt or any of the pulleys.

Reinstalling a Serpentine Belt
During the reinstallation, the process reverse of that of the removal should be carried out. All the necessary precautions mentioned for the removal process should be followed. The belt needs to be routed in the reverse order of that of removal. Care should be taken to see whether the ribs of the belt are set accurately in the pulley grooves. The tensioner position scale should also be checked. If the arrow in the scale is on the 'tight' side i.e. on the other half of the tensioner, i.e. between the two lines, the re-installation is perfect.

The serpentine belt, which is also known as the 'S'- belt, is a better alternative to the 'V'-belt. The above mentioned process of replacing serpentine belt helps the user in safe removal and reinstallation.