Serpentine Belt goes bad too soon.

I've been having trouble with premature belt failure for a while and can't figure this out. The first belt that came with the car had a section of it chipped off. The belt caused a knocking sound on the pulleys and was removed. I'd checked the idler pulley and they spin smoothly. I'd installed a new belt by the brand of Continental and it failed the same way (in the California climate) as the first one only after a year. There is another brand from the dealer which I should be using. The brand is BMW. I feel that I've installed the belt incorrectly on this BMW 96 318ti. I made a simple drawing of the belt configuration. What are some practical things I should be doing?

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Thanks

Reply to
Sam Nickaby
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Buying a quality belt like a Goodyear Gator Back or Gates

check any car repair manual for routing of the belt over the pulleys.

Sounds like cheap quality issue to me.

Lg

Reply to
Lawrence Glickman

I replaced the original 5 year old 70,000 mile ones on my E39 a couple of years ago - purely as a precaution, as the AC one was showing signs of cracking. The replacements were Bosch so I assume OEM.

I had to have the waterpump replaced at a specialist I trust recently - too cold to work in the street - and they reckoned they needed replacing again. They kept the old ones for me, and the AC one had a deep crack at right angles on both sides, and the main one was showing bad deterioration on the ribbed side - chunks of ribbing missing.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

If your engine has a harmonic balancer and it is going bad, it can start eating one edge of the belt.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail >
Reply to
Mike Romain

Complete nonsense. Continental belts are the best there is. In fact, I'm pretty sure they are OE.

Reply to
Malt_Hound

I would not install a gates belt on this BWM. Gates are a good belt, but not on a euro car. Stick with the continental.

Reply to
jfrancis311

Made by the same company that made the O rings on the shuttle that blew up?

If they're so great, why are they falling apart like cheap Chinese Shite on this guy's vehicle? eh?

That's two *continentals* in a row that self-destructed in no time on this guy's car. PREMATURE belt failure. I've never known a Gates I couldn't run over with a Caterpillar earth mover that wouldn't still work.

It's your money. But remember, the definition of insanity is DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT.

Reply to
Lawrence Glickman

see my other post on this topic.

From this guy's anecdotal experiences, I wouldn't touch one if you gave it to me for free.

Lg

Reply to
Lawrence Glickman

Why? A belt is a belt, built according to specs from the manufacturer. (Think: width, length, grooves, and so on). The most important thing is the quality of the materials in the manufacturing of the belt, plus the overall manufacturing process.

I use Gates belts and hoses on my Porsche, Isuzu, Chevy, and Suzuki (motorcycle) - Gates outlasts the OEM.

Just because some vehicle is not made Stateside, doesnt mean Gates cant build a quality belt/etc for it.

Reply to
mst

Sam, I'd look closely at each pulley surface, including idlers. Sometimes they wear at an angle towards the center, rather than flat across the original surface--supercharged Buicks have been esp. troublesome in my experience. The idlers have also worn with grooves from who-knows-where ? These grooved pulleys then wear grooves into the belts. HTH, s

Reply to
sdlomi2

Your a real genius, huh Larry? Let me guess... your some kind of a marketing guy, aren't you?

So, let's see, one guy reports a relatively rare failure mode of a belt occurring twice on one car and you attribute the failure to the belt being defective. Don't you think there just might be some other factor(s) involved specific to this particular car or driver? Not only that, but the OP failed to state how many miles were involved in these failures.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of similar BMWs running around with the same belts in them and none of them seem to be having this kind of thing happening, especially in such a short time, let alone twice on the same car.

Reply to
Malt_Hound

Oh, come ON! The space shuttle was a shitteaux design. Wouldnt have made any difference who made the o-rings on that doomed piece of shit.

Reply to
<HLS

Are you jealous?

Well that's strike ONE! You've got 2 left.

I would switch brands to see if that made a difference, wouldn't you? After of course, looking at other factors like mis-aligned pulleys and the normal things one looks at.

If there are, he didn't mention them. You can fabricate, invent, fantasize that there are other factors, but that's YOUR fantasy. I'm working off the information given in the report.

He said premature.

How do you know that * continental * belt isn't a Chinese counterfeit. Question me that, Batman.

There are even counterfeit bolts in our military aircraft, one reason the cobra was losing its' rotary wings early in its appearance.

What's the big deal, Your Highness and most Excellent Diagnostician?

With the serpentine belt OFF, it takes a couple of minutes to check for worn bearings and misaligned pulleys. Only an IDIOT would put another belt on without checking for those things first.

Are you calling the OP an idiot?

Lg

Reply to
Lawrence Glickman

Who, maybe not. Now if they'd been made of a material that didn't harden-up in freezing temps...

That is not to say its NOT a doomed piece-of-shit, though!

Dave

Reply to
spamTHISbrp

WAS a shitteaux design? They're still flying the thing ya know.

Dude, there is such a thing as CRAP RUBBER. Have you never come across this *stuff* before? I've got a Fram Oil Filter out in the garage with CRAP RUBBER for a sealing gasket.

If you want a Sample of CRAP RUBBER send me your mailing address and I'll try to get the gasket to you before Christmas.

Lg

Reply to
Lawrence Glickman

No they're not. Please do try to keep up.

Reply to
Dean Dark

Yeah they are. Next launch is scheduled for March 2006 IIRC.

Please do try to keep up.

Reply to
Lawrence Glickman

And for how long has it been grounded? What's your definition of "still flying?"

It's the Russians who have been going back and forth to the space station thingy for the past 2 or 3 years.

Please read a newspaper now and again, there's a good chap. It might help you to keep up. HTH. HAND, and all that.

Reply to
Dean Dark

Thanks all. Based on the advices, I'll change the idler bearings tomorrow. My measurements came out with a full play of 0.04 inch at the top edge of the idler wheel. If I had a German service manual I'd check this number but the best manual I have is Bentley which is almost too basic and nearly useless. Here's more info on the belt issue:

68k miles 5ft-year... = car bought 76k miles 8th year.. = 2" sections of belt chipped 80k miles 9th year ..= all sections of belt splits, some chip, brand Continental 87k miles 10th year = 1" sections of belt chip, brand Continental 87k 10th year .........= will try to replace idler bearing.

If the effects of the environment is cracking the ribbed part of the Continental belt, which becomes visible only after two weeks of installation, should there be a preventative maintenance done yearly?

Thanks

Reply to
Sam Nickaby

Sam,

Unless this car is designed as a Mars Rover or is going to operate in a Venutian Atomosphere of ammonia, there is zero maintenance that should need to be done to a serpentine belt. Ever.

If you find bearings/pulleys that put uneven stress across the belt, laterally, this could lead to early fatigue of the belt. IOW, the pulleys/idlers _really_ need to be plane-parallel to eachother.

Lg

Reply to
Lawrence Glickman

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