wexman

Let me preface this by saying, I'm a mechanical idiot, so this is just a guess. Yet ANOTHER gent over on TDR had his belt fail on his truck, with only a few thousand miles. So, that makes at least 8 of us, who frequent the forum boards (based upon replies to my prior thread, and others) who have had this failure.

So, I went out today and reexamined my replacement belt; about 3000 miles on it now. The pulley at the bottom passenger side of the engine, attached to..what pump is that? If there is going to be a derailment, I think this is the place. There is NO room for error for a mis-installed belt. The first rib (from the front of the engine) rides RIGHT THERE in the first groove. There is maybe a millimeter or so of pulley edge showing. It seems to me that it wouldn't take alot, say a small pebble getting kicked in there, or even going over a large enough bump, because the "SLIGHTEST" misalignment could cause that belt to mis-track on that edge, wear, and eventually fail.
That being said, I think that some of these may have not been aligned right when installed coming down the assembly line, and, after a few thousand miles---failure. There you have it...my theory.

Comments?

Palmtree

Oh brother.., not another thing to worry about! I'm getting scared to even drive my truck. I thought I was buying the most reliable thing on the road. What gives?

Hemi Cat

How many miles were on the original belt? What did the belt look like after the failure? Were there cracks in the grooves? Was it glazed? Do you ever hear a squeel? or a squeeking from the belt? Does the automatic tensioner flex while running? Does your fan clutch release?

wexman

Whoa.........don't panic everyone! I was just throwing a theory out there.

Go here, for some reading:

http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...d.php?t=112695

To answer Hemi's questions, my truck had 5400 miles, belt shredded, dealer didn't know why. Same thing happened to some others (read link) and it was a slow day today, so I just put a theory out there.

Just interested to here my fellow members' comments.

Rod_Montana

I don't think a pebble would do it. My serpentine belt squee-geed a packrat on day two - say about 80 miles. and that is a 12" long rodent (not counting the tail).

Over 10k on it now, with no ill effects.

Hemi Cat

Sounds like you have found a better mouse trap!!!! You'd better patent that one!!!!

Lakemann

For what its worth my 04 did the same thing.Dealer said its common for the Tensioner pulley bearing failing and causing the belt to be mis aligned.

Lakemann

Here is a link to a previous thread.https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...threadid=54058