I had my 99 XLT with only 30,000 miles inspected at a garage. The mechanic said my belt had some cracks and needed to be replaced soon. So I picked one up at the dealer and put it in. The old one did have some cracks on the ribs of the belt. I was just curious when did you have your belt replaced? Is 5 years normal, even with low mileage?
My 99 XLS has 71,000 miles on it and the belt is starting to show cracks in it. Although I have not replaced it yet, I do plan on doing it, soon. I do not know if mine was ever changed before, as I bought this vehicle used with
50,000 miles on it. It would seem to me that you should get alot more mileage out of it than 30,000 though.
-- Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts:
"What, sir, is the use of militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. . . Whenever Government means to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise a standing army upon its ruins." -- Debate, U.S. House of Representatives, August 17, 1789
I have heard that this is sort of a common scam of certain oil change places, etc., as the belts always have some cracks on them after a certain (and not too long) period of time, so it's easy to sell people on a new belt. Changing after 5 years sounds reasonable to me, though. I seem to recall that, unless you see some very severe cracks on it, there's some standard of a certain number of cracks per inch that you would look for to determine whether replacement is called for. The redoubtable Mr. Warman, or someone else, should be able to tell you if I'm in the ballpark on this...perhaps the service manual as well.
RPM
I lost the original belt at about 60k when the ac compressor froze up and ate the belt. I replaced the next one at about 110k just cause it was showing its age. The next belt is still going strong at 162k.
What I did with that second belt that was still useful was to roll it up, stuff it into a plastic bag and store it in the jack compartment in case of a catastrophic failure.
Charlie
service manual indicate 60K or 5 years
cracks across the ribs are acceptable, cracks parallel to the back>I had my 99 XLT with only 30,000 miles inspected at a garage. The mechanic said
On my '97XLT I replaced the belt at about 97k and 4+ years. It still looked reasonable, but since I had already exceeded the service spec and was headed out for an extended road trip, there was no use tempting fate.
Dave
I agree with the 50K limit and if you don't put that kind of mileage on it then you need to watch how many years. Mine broke on our 2000 EB at the 50K mark and it wasn't alot of fun with two screaming babies in the car and having to take a taxi and tow home. After that I've made sure to change out at the 50K or sooner if it starts to develop cracks due to the exposure to heat and stress. Now if you don't put on alot of mileage you'd have to pay it by ear but I'd say 5 years would be the limit to be safe. They all develop some kind of cracks over time, but depending how observant you are, you might miss that missing segment on the belt that is saying it's about to fail. On my 95 Bronco I was ready to tow a 6000 lb boat cross country and opted to replace the belt since the rig had 50K. I now have 115K on the Bronco and put on the second belt at or around the 110K mark (The time the
2000 EB blew it's belt). You could always buy the belt and stow it onboard and with the right wrench swap it out when the original fails, but who wants to do that on a busy freeway or raining downpour somewhere. G
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