what would cause the belt on the car to get hot and smoke

By Ralph Kalal

Serpentine belt problems usually consequence from one of iii causes: a lacking belt tensioner; misalignment of a caster; or, defective bearings in the tensioner, idler, or i of accessories driven by the belt (including the h2o pump).

 Fortunately, the belt tin assistance y'all diagnose the trouble, both before you remove it and later:

• Squealing audio: Belt slipping
• Chirping sound: Misalignment of an accessory drive caster
• Frayed belt edge: Misalignment of an accessory bulldoze pulley
• Polished belt edges: Belt slipping
• Glazed belt grooves: Belt slipping
• Fluid contamination: Oil, power steering, or coolant leak
• Excessive neat: Other than severe sometime age, lacking tensioner
• Whirring sound: defective begetting in tensioner pulley or idler pulley
• Rhythmic noises occurring at engine speed: Delaminating chugalug backing, chunking of belt ridges, or strange object embedded in belt groove
• Grinding sound: damaged bearings in driven accessory
• Belt coming off: Pulley misalignment, belt misalignment on caster, defective tensioner, or bearing vesture in tensioner, idler or driven accessories

Belt dissonance can be hard to isolate, as the sound may seem to be coming from an accessory bulldoze, such as the alternator or air conditioning compressor. A racket that occurs just when the vehicle accelerates is likely to be a slipping chugalug, as is a noise that occurs only when the car is started cold. Chirping is caused when a caster is misaligned, so that the chugalug ridges initially contact the sides of the sides of the grooves and then slide downward along the groove'due south sides as they seat in the pulley.

Do non apply "belt dressing" to a serpentine belt in an attempt to quiet a belt or cure slipping. Belt dressing is a gooey, tar-like substance designed to cure V belt slipping by making the belt mucilaginous. At best, information technology is a temporary palliative, even on a 5 chugalug. Just, when applied to a serpentine belt, the dressing will be spread into the pulley grooves. One time there, it volition attract and concord dirt and grit. The dirt will start the belt slipping again and all of the dirt and chugalug dressing will accept to be cleaned out of the pulley grooves before a new belt is installed.

Belt noises tin can be diagnosed with a spray bottle of h2o. With the engine running and the audio audible, lightly mist the grooved side of the belt with water. If the noise disappears or lessens, but then before long returns, the problem is probably a misaligned caster. If the noise immediately increases after the belt is misted, the belt is slipping.

Another diagnostic trick is reversing the belt: take information technology off and put it back on and so that it travels in what would have been its backward direction every bit originally installed. If the noise goes away or gets much softer, the problem is a misaligned pulley. This diagnostic works because flipping the belt changes the direction of the misalignment from the belt's perspective. If reversing the belt does not temporarily eliminate the noise, the problem is something other than misaligned pulleys.

Next, examine the belt itself. Glazing at the edges of a serpentine belt, or on its ridges or in the grooves, results from the belt slipping. It indicates that friction betwixt the belt and the accompaniment drive pulley(southward) created by slipping has overheated the chugalug.

Fraying at the border of a belt indicates pulley misalignment. The edge frays because it is scraping on the summit edge of an accessory drive pulley side every bit the belt feeds into it.

Fluid contamination attacks the safety surface of the belt. All of the automotive fluids that tin leak onto a belt—oil, power steering fluid, coolant—are petroleum based and will attack rubber. Once on the chugalug, any of these fluids will exist distributed over the caster groove surfaces, making them slippery and alluring dirt.

Serpentine belts stretch with historic period and employ, but the tensioner is spring-loaded to continue the belt tight on the pulleys. If a belt starts slipping, the tensioner should ever be checked to run into if it is functioning properly.

With the chugalug off, visually inspect the tensioner for whatsoever cracks or signs of metallic-to-metal contact between the tensioner arm and the leap example. Then spin the tensioner pulley manually. At that place should be no bounden or resistance and the pulley should spin smoothly. Information technology should make only a quiet smooth audio, without clicking, grinding, or irregular noises. Push the pulley side-to-side and in and out on its shaft. There should be no wobble and no lateral play. Idler pulleys are checked the same manner.

Next, test the tensioner spring and arm operation. Using the breaker bar or serpentine belt tool, move the tensioner arm against the spring as far as it will move, to its stop. The tensioner arm should move smoothly throughout its range of travel, with firm bound pressure and without binding.

Most tensioner pulleys can be replaced independently of the tensioner itself. Unfortunately, some vehicle manufacturers do not sell the pulley separately from the entire tensioner assembly. If that'southward the instance with your vehicle, check to see if an aftermarket manufacturer offers the pulley separately.

Annotation: While replacing a tensioner or idler caster commonly requires nothing more than than removing the single commodities holding it in place, these bolts are often reverse threaded. Be sure to check the factory shop manual for thread direction and torque specifications.A tensioner caster or idler pulley usually costs about $twenty to $50. The tensioner assembly(the arm and leap case) volition normally cost between $50 and $200. The assembly, however, commonly includes the pulley. In nigh instances, replacement of a tensioner is a simple task, once you've gained access to information technology, requiring removal of ii or three bolts mounting it to the engine. When installing the new tensioner, tighten the bolts to the torque specification given in the factory store transmission.

An accompaniment drive pulley can be misaligned in either of two ways: "parallel misalignment" (sometimes called "showtime misalignment"), or "angular misalignment." Parallel misalignment—the pulley is besides far or not far enough onto its shaft, and so that it is not in line with the other pulleys—is usually the effect of replacing one of the engine accessories driven by the chugalug. Angular misalignment—the pulley is at an angle to the other pulleys—results from worn bearings in an accessory. Belt tension on the pulley pulls the shaft off centre, which puts that pulley out of alignment with the other pulleys.

Caster alignment tin be checked with a straightedge. Place the straightedge beyond 2 pulley faces. The straightedge should lie apartment across them. If it doesn't, one of the pulleys is misaligned. To effigy out which one, bank check each against other pulleys until you isolate the one that is out of line. The fancy style to check pulley alignment is with a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, only it's pricey: the Gates DriveAlign Laser Alignment tool is available online for about $120.

Serpentine drive pulleys on alternators and air conditioning compressors are often pressed onto their shafts by the component manufacturer. And then, when the accessory is replaced, the pulley is replaced with it. Even pulleys that must be transferred from an old component to a new one, as is oftentimes the case with power steering pumps, are often press-fitted. If the pulley is non installed in line with the other pulleys, the pulley must be moved to line information technology up.

Moving pressed-on pulleys in or out on the shaft requires special tools: a puller and an installer, or a tool that combines both functions. These can cost well over $100, but many automobile parts stores will loan or rent them. Pullers/installers are designed to fit the specific pulleys used on detail engines. There is no universal tool that works on all cars, though most will piece of work on well-nigh domestic models. Some machine parts stores will pull and install a caster and can realign i if you know the extent of the aligning required.

    Angular misalignment usually results from worn bearings in an engine accompaniment. To check bearings in 1 of the chugalug-driven accessories, turn the accessory by hand and listen for noises and feel whether the shaft turns smoothly. As well pull the shaft to the side and try to push it in and out to see if it wobbles or has any end play. All of these are indications of worn bearings.

With a water pump, also bank check to encounter if at that place is any fluid leaking from information technology. Water pumps are generally equipped with a "weep hole," which is designed to let coolant escape if it gets past the water pump'south internal seal. Coolant leaking from the weep hole means information technology is time for a new water pump, but it likewise may signal that the water pump bearings are worn. If the water pump is leaking, check the serpentine belt for signs of fluid contagion.

If a belt trouble nevertheless isn't solved after doing all of the above, your car may take a specific problem unique to that brand and model.   Sure vehicles have known serpentine belt problems, such as 1996–2000 Chrysler-built minivans with the three.0-, 3.3-, and 3.8-liter engines. These are notorious for throwing the chugalug when driving in heavy snow or through a large rain pool. This results from a pattern flaw: an engine mount bracket to which one of the idlers is attached causes a slight misalignment of the caster. There are two cures: supervene upon the subclass with an updated part, or retrofit an aftermarket kit from Gates that uses a dual-sided serpentine chugalug with a new tensioner and idler designed for that belt. The Gates kit is generally available online for less than the $200 list price.

This isn't meant to unmarried out Chrysler, just merely to illustrate a resource. Typing "serpentine chugalug problem" and the brand of your car into a Google window can atomic number 82 you to a lot of information. Some of that information may be unreliable, so use common sense in deciding what to believe. Just if your vehicle is one of those with a chronic serpentine problem, like those Chrysler vans, you'll be able to learn what the problem is and how to fix it.

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Source: https://www.cartechbooks.com/blogs/techtips/serpbelt