Motodisiac
Moto Terrorist
I'm pretty religious about preventive maintenance. If I suspect something may fail, I try to replace it before it happens. This time I failed miserably, and I would like to share the experience.
Last Sunday I was supposed to help a friend with moving - one of the benefits of being the one with the van. Driving on the freeway shortly after I left, I felt slight thump, like I ran something over. Next thump was about the same, and the van slightly moved. I assumed it was the mud falling off the wheel wells - it gets there when I go to motocross tracks. This wasn't the case, as steering felt stiff. Red battery light confirmed my fear - the serpentine belt was off. I has similar issue with my Eurovan last year, so I knew right away.
After pulling off the freeway and pulling the hood open I noticed that the upper left pulley was completely missing - not possible to continue. Later I found blue pieces of the bearing in the engine bay - it overheated, seized and disintegrated.
I ended up replacing the remaining non grooved pulley and tensioner as a precaution - I do not want this to happen somewhere in the desert. The tensioner still felt OK but the smooth pulley was spinning freely with unpleasant dry noise.
The moral of the story - if you are still running original pulleys, loosen the belt (by using 17mm socket and inserting a pin in the tensioner) and spin your pulleys by hand. You will know right away if they are worn out - they should have no play and should not spin forever. Replace suspected ones and save yourself a lot of headache down the road. I guess this should be added to "must do list" along with transmission fluid replacement.
Last Sunday I was supposed to help a friend with moving - one of the benefits of being the one with the van. Driving on the freeway shortly after I left, I felt slight thump, like I ran something over. Next thump was about the same, and the van slightly moved. I assumed it was the mud falling off the wheel wells - it gets there when I go to motocross tracks. This wasn't the case, as steering felt stiff. Red battery light confirmed my fear - the serpentine belt was off. I has similar issue with my Eurovan last year, so I knew right away.
After pulling off the freeway and pulling the hood open I noticed that the upper left pulley was completely missing - not possible to continue. Later I found blue pieces of the bearing in the engine bay - it overheated, seized and disintegrated.
I ended up replacing the remaining non grooved pulley and tensioner as a precaution - I do not want this to happen somewhere in the desert. The tensioner still felt OK but the smooth pulley was spinning freely with unpleasant dry noise.
The moral of the story - if you are still running original pulleys, loosen the belt (by using 17mm socket and inserting a pin in the tensioner) and spin your pulleys by hand. You will know right away if they are worn out - they should have no play and should not spin forever. Replace suspected ones and save yourself a lot of headache down the road. I guess this should be added to "must do list" along with transmission fluid replacement.