Just a heads up,I had the tensioner (serpentine belt) fail on my truck this past Sat. and as of this am (Wed) the part is still no where to be found.Service manager says he has been seeing this more and more over the past few months,so get out there and check to see if your belt is frayed at all on the edges,if it is, you have a problem,and with the lack of part availability your rig may sit for a while.Luckily I didnt have to be towed,but if you throw the belt your gonna be stranded,and thats not fun.

 

Please go here:

http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...d.php?t=111642


And here, which describes my own experience:

http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...Belt+Shredding


You will see that several of us HAVE lost our belts. In each case, the dealers are clueless, and said "installed wrong", defective belts, etc, which of course is BS. In 25 years of driving many different vehicles, I've never had a belt throw on a stock engine. I am keeping a close eye on my new one.

Your post confirms what I have suspected. Is there a why to check out the tensioner?

 

My old work ran a bunch of older Fords and they would throw a belt every 20k miles or so.
DM01

 

This reply has nothing to do with this thread. This is not a Ford-trashing thread, it has to do with a possible defective item on our Dodges.

If you have nothing to contribute, don't contribute.

Back to the issue at hand - Lakemann, did your belt shred or throw? In other words, did you just get lucky, and happen to notice your belt was fraying?

 

My belt was frayed to the point that it was about a 1/2 inch thick.I heard the noise while driving,by the time I checked (10 miles) the belt was worn to the 1/2 inch.I limped to the dealer,last Sat. still there waiting for the tensioner.

 

You got lucky then. I just started my truck up, and heard the racket, and it was wrapped around the fan spindle. Dealer just said "defective belt" and put on a new one.

Lakemann, what is the build date of your engine?

 

Mine did the same thing at ~10K miles. The pulley end of the tensioner snapped right off and the belt went slack. I noticed the steering got stiff and looked to see the water temps rising FAST! The dealer put a new one on, but if one breaks while you're out in the boonies you'll be stuck.

John

 

Lakemann, how many miles on your truck?

 

Easy big fella....I believe that he was simply pointing out that this isnt exactly a rare occurance and is not mutually exclusive to the CTD. Lighten up an bit.

 

I have to agree with Dr. Evil on this, I dont think dodgeman01 was flaming Fords either.

Lakemann, thanx for the heads up! I will have a look at mine come daylight.

 

I agree, and I apologize if I came on a bit strong. However, comparing an ancient Ford to our modern CTD is not applicable.

And I maintain, it IS a fairly rare occurance. I have owned and driven many different types of cars and trucks over the past 25 years. So when you see this happening on pretty new vehicles with the same type of engine (please read my links), you will see what I mean.

I got rid of my PSD because it wasn't reliable, and left me stranded a few times. So you can see why I'm a little concerned about this.

 

I am about to drive 4,600 miles out west and back. Is this something I need to get an extra belt before I go? I have 3100 on the truck and I looked at the belt and there are no frays and seems to be laying straight on the pulleys....If I need an extra belt does anyone have an aftermarket part # and company ?

 

Truck has 13,920 mile on her,I honestly dont think a spare belt will help if the tensioner decides to explode.It took the the dealer 3 days to get the pulley,so if there is any question about the integrity of yours make sure the part is there before you have to drive around in a rental (freebie) neon.a YELLOW rental neon.

 

There does not appear to be a problem but how will I know...it looks fine ...How many people have had this problem that we know about?

 

Not me in 30k.