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Life expectancy of the serpintine belt?

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Old 09-04-2009 | 06:54 PM
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Life expectancy of the serpintine belt?

I'm just hitting 90,000 and wonder what is the typical life of a belt on these? It would seem wise to do it around 100,000 miles. I saw a detailed thread where someone recommended 175,000, that seems a bit high. In the absence of a specific problem, when are you replacing these?
Old 09-04-2009 | 07:30 PM
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if you got that many miles on your belt, thats pretty darn good, and lucky too. i never get that. i change mine every 6 months to a year, depending on how many miles i put on. i haven't got more then 30,000 though
i have tried all different ones. i hate the factory belt, too noisy shutting down, i liek the good year gator back. a buddy bought a green belt from NAPA, it seems ok, but he only had it for a month now, time will tell.
Old 09-04-2009 | 08:04 PM
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I still have the original belt at 113,000 miles, Maybe I should get a new one.
Old 09-04-2009 | 08:28 PM
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102K and counting, original belt.
Old 09-04-2009 | 08:30 PM
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I've still got the original at 175,000 miles. I've looked closely at it a couple of times lately and I don't see any cracking or missing rubber.

Probably should be changed pretty soon. 200,000 has a nice ring to it.

Also it must be getting harder because it doesn't squeak in shutdown like before.

My buddy has had two NAPA belts and they were always sqeaking while running. He tried belt dressing but could not shut them up.
Old 09-04-2009 | 10:01 PM
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95,000 so far and the new one under the back seat.
Old 09-04-2009 | 10:31 PM
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Mine looks like new at 83k. I think dealer or service manual advised changing it at 100k but if mine still looks like it does now at 100k it will go longer.
Old 09-04-2009 | 10:54 PM
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Put a new one on mine at 145k, belt was ok but the pulley on tensioner was wore down to the spokes. Needless to say it got a new tensioner.
Old 09-05-2009 | 03:07 PM
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I recently put a new one on mine. The original belt looked good but because of age I felt that it would be good to replace it.

I also wanted to make sure I had the correct new belt, and use the old one as a spare. Good thing as the parts store gave me the wrong belt!!!

Would have been bad if I had been out on the road somewhere and lost the belt and only had the new belt that would not fit.
Old 09-05-2009 | 04:01 PM
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Changed mine at 175,000. Kept the old belt as a spare.

Usually change them once a year. Second belt was at 280,000 when I changed the tensioner. Only reason I changed the belt is because it got some damage when the idler pulley died. It was changed as a precaution.
Old 09-07-2009 | 06:13 AM
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161,000 on mine so far, you guys got me thinking now. I have no wear or cracks though.
Old 09-07-2009 | 09:59 AM
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have a gatorback with 312k, spare under seat
Old 09-07-2009 | 10:58 AM
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Originally Posted by pullin hard
if you got that many miles on your belt, thats pretty darn good, and lucky too. i never get that. i change mine every 6 months to a year, depending on how many miles i put on. i haven't got more then 30,000 though
i have tried all different ones. i hate the factory belt, too noisy shutting down, i liek the good year gator back. a buddy bought a green belt from NAPA, it seems ok, but he only had it for a month now, time will tell.
6 months to a year?
My original is still in good shape, only 40k miles though.
Old 09-07-2009 | 01:13 PM
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80k on mine, still looks fine. Bro bought a 06 a little while ago, approx 83k miles on it and the belt was toast. So it's pretty tough to say when it will go.....
Old 09-07-2009 | 01:56 PM
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Originally Posted by fullmoonexp
have a gatorback with 312k, spare under seat
Yikes... how many miles on the truck?



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