Why is my belt shredded?

When you are 5 miles up a 4x4 road it’s not a good sound to hear a “ting, ting, ting” made it back home with belt like pictures. Glad I heard it and was able to cut off the loose ends -
we were up at snow level with my family looking for Christmas tree - they would have killed me if we had gotten stranded.

Replaced belt less than 1,000 miles ago because old belt lost a rib.

Idler pulley seizing? Tensioner pulley seizing?

 

Yup, check for play and roughness in the bearings of the idlers, the tensioner pulley, and everything else (fan hub, A/C clutch, alternator, water pump...), make sure the pivot on the tensioner isn't worn, and make sure the rubber between the inner and outer parts of damper pulley on the crank is in good condition. Something is pushing the belt to jump ribs, one angled pulley (most likely because of bearing play) is all it takes.

That's the very reason I throw my old belts behind the seat when I replace one, which got me out of a bind once when I blew a belt on my Tacoma on a bush road. When your old ones are shredded you don't have that option.

 

Thanks- that’s what I figured. Took my dads 1st gen to Costco and picked up a tree - will look at my truck tomorrow.

 

Well, couldn't wait for tomorrow. Took belt off and found play in water pump bearing (up down left and right). There is some slight lateral play in the power steering pump but I think that is normal. Going to replace water pump, idler pulley, tensioner, another heavy duty belt, upper and lower radiator hoses (bottom hose wasn't looking great) - all lifetime warranty. $220 shipped from Rock Auto. I guess that's my truck payment for this month.

 

Be sure to check your harmonic balancer, if its out of whack just a bit that will cause you to throw belts.

 

Idler pulley, these came notoriously bad, mine included..

 

verify the tensioner alignment. Its common for the pivot to wear out and cause the belt to walk off the p/s pump pulley like yours did. you can check by looking from the drivers side and comparing it to the p/s pulley and the crank pulley

 

Well, turns out the suspect part is the fan belt pulley bracket, not the water pump which is next door (easy to see once the radiator and fan are removed and its light outside). This will bring my truck payment up to $330. Darn. Just need to figure out the easy way to move the oil cooler lines away from the only obstructed bolt.

Parts I'm replacing:
1. Belt
2. Tensioner
3. Idler Pulley
4. Water Pump
5. Fan Belt Pulley Bracket
6. Rad. Hoses

 

Remove the brackets prior to, hoses become more flexible.. I did this for my starter replacement and it made it easy to manipulate them.

 

If I remember correctly from when I changed my own bracket last year, there's a tab or two on the lines that's bolted to the timing cover. Unbolt those, and the lines flex over enough to use a 1/4" drive extension in between the two lines, and a 1/4" drive 12mm socket on the bolt.

 

Had a similar issue with my 2007 ( 130k miles) when I changed out the serpentine belt, shredded two belts. Turns out the tensioner got tweaked during the install, causing an alignment issue.. I replaced the tensioner, Problem solved. The tensioner has a limited lifespan and needs to be replaced probably every other belt change, if not every belt change.

 

All back together. Didn’t have to hurry cause I have my dads truck. Upon reassembly, new tensioner provides more tension... also the bearing was in fact going bad on the fan pulley bracket. Water pump was pretty easy since I had ordered it and everything else out of way. Ac Delco HD green belt I paid $20 for turned out to be made by gates... I think Napa sells it for $90!

 

Soooo. A little issue. Truck now takes twice as long to heat up. I didn’t replace thermostat cause it was working fine. The foam fell off bottom of radiator, and I left it off. Old fluid looked good had a little bit gunk in it. Radiator cap not missing any pieces.

What is the likelihood something is lodged in and holding thermostat open? What is the likelihood there is air in the system? I put almost as much fluid in as I took out (maybe 1 cup less). 3 gallons new coolant. Truck is pretty clean 140k. Is the system just cooling better with new pump and belt tensioner?

 

That is odd. Some recent threads of issues with Temps running hotter after a Thermostat change, not sure I have heard this issue.
I would think Air in the system would have opposite effect.

 

4 miles city, 12 hwy commute miles...
Hooked up obd2 reader this morning and noticed it took about 8 miles to reach 180 and it seemed like the Tstat probably opened fully at that point as it overshot slightly and then never did again. The trans temp however - never exceeded 160 degrees - 155 the second 8 miles after warm up (16 total).

The Trans temp gauge used to move parallel with the Engine temp gauge, rather than lag behind.

I’m wondering about air now too.

 

The thermostat isn't all that hard to pull, nor is a new one all that expensive. You may find that when you pull it, there's some gunk or corrosion on it that's slowing it's movement.

 

It would have to be a piece of something holding it open, as I had it all apart to change the water pump and it was looking good. There was no problem with the cooling system prior.