I noticed mine chirping on cool mornings and eventually stopping about half way to work. Checked last week and noticed the frayed belt. Going to drop it off in the morning at the dealer for repair. Thanks to this forum I will mention the tensioner when I drop it off.

Regards

 

And we have another one. How many mile on your truck?

If it IS your tensioner. As I said, most of us, that have posted, the dealers checked out the tensioners and pullies, and found nothing wrong. Just replaced the belt.

I have been reading automotive forums for many years now, and this is the first and only new vehicle I have read about where so many people posted issues with the belts.

 

Any update for us?

 

I have 9700 miles on mine. Picked it up this evening and was told they installed a new belt. I asked about the tensioner and the service rep said they checked it and it looked fine. He felt the belt was either installed wrong or it moved on the pulleys causing it to be off center and chewing up the edge of the belt. He said the belt needed to be centered on all pulleys with the grooves on the belt matching the ridges on the pulleys. Like I didn't know that!

No cost and he asked me to keep an eye on it and bring it back if I have any more problems.

 

That's what my dealer said. Seems off that so many of these are "installed wrong" unless someone isn't paying attention on the assembly line.

 

I notice now when I turn off the engine I don't get the belt chirp or "shut down shake" anymore. Maybe they used a better belt. I wonder if the "shut down shake" was causing the belt to shift on the pulleys.

Time will tell.

Regards

 

Yes, yes, and yes. My original stocker belt chirped horribly on shutdown. Having had a Ford Powerstroke that did the same thing, I knew it was "normal" for a diesel truck, due to the high compression.

That being said, the chirp IS caused by the belt "slipping" and shifting slightly on the pullies at shutdown. And while most belts live through this, if the belt IS substandard in the first place, this added strain could cause premature failure, especially if it was installed slightly misaligned at the factory, which, in my opinion, is what is causing these failures.

My replacement Mopar belt, which is cross-hatched and ribbed, is *usually* silent on shutdown. It does chirp very ocassionally, but not nearly as loud, or as often, as the original shredded stocker did.

 

We can add another to the list! At 25,000 miles my belt has shred about 1/8" on the front side. I picked up a belt today JIC but could not get an appointment until Friday. I asked about a TSB and they said none existed.

Dan

 

My neighbors 05 shredded a belt at 4k.Replaced tensioner and belt and all is well now with 82k on it.

 

There is not an "official" TSB apparently, but a Dodge tech over on Dieselram.com, a while back, mentioned in a belt-shredding thread like this that there was some sort of internal notification that if a tech orders a belt, they will be notified that there is now an override clutch-pulley that will also need to be installed to help prevent slippage that may be contributing to this.

Your belt shouldh have lasted MUCH longer than 25,000 miles.

 

Two items.

My 2004.5 at 35K lost 3 strands of the belt but not sure if it was a factory problem or not. Had some major work done (replaced CP-3) and on a trip to Florida lost fan, hub and other items due to Michigan dealer "Poor Workmanship". Dealer in Brandon Fl repaired truck and I never (after initally looking at truck repairs) looked at it till on the way home to Michigan heard strange noises and checked and saw 2-3 ribs of the belt eaten up. I think dealer's mechanic didn't re-install belt coprrectly. As far as replacing it your self good luck....I thought I was very mechanically inclined, got old belt off (out of warranty) and started to replace. After 2 hours and many cuts on hands & wrists I drove it to a local garage. Remember this belt also drives power steering and vacumn pump for the brakes so if yours belt breaks on the road hold on for quite a ride with limited steering and brakes. Anyways after 2 hours and a $65 bill got truck back and so far no further problems.

Another topic, concerning "Did dealer change your oil?" On the 04.5 and up engines I have followed many threads concerning "Dirty and/or black oil" immediatly after changing it. It seems to be a feature of the extra injector events and if you will change your oil, start your truck and let it run for 5 min then shut it off and check oil you will find it very black looking almost immediatly, just as if it wasn't ever changed. As was said else where, don't let appearances fool you, if in doubt have an oil annalysis to tell for sure.

hope the above helps some.

Don