99 belt problem

[v8blakdak]

99 caravan 3.0L 85k miles

the belt has one less rib bc it gets torn up. after it gets torn up, it works fine. are the pullies misaligned? we had the tensioner pulley replaced and still same problem. thanks

[GTP Dad]

A misalignment would be my guess. Something is tearing the belt up. The first thing to check is that the auto parts place is giving you the correct belt, the next thing would be to check all the pulleys to insure that they are smooth and don't have any burrs or rough spots. Finally, check the alignment if it is off even slightly or the belt doesn't track correctly it can cause this problem.

[v8blakdak]

thanks, the belt is correct. how do we check the alignment of the pulleys? it has to be that since the mis alignment eats one rib from the belt off. i just dont know if the other pulleys are bad, or if what the pulleys on (crank, ac, ps etc) are messed up.

[1thunder]

there is some issues with the power steering pumps on these vehicles especially if someone had the front of the engine apart for things like oil leaks or water pump or replaced the power steering pump it could be out a little bit and causes these problems there is a certain procedure to remount the pump and must be followed or this belt problem happens

[evictor]

You might want to try the Belt Tensioner again. I had one replaced at 90,000 miles and at 110,000 I had a chewed belt. I replaced the belt and the new blet kept jumping over one rib on the power steering pump. I went to auto zone and bought a new steering pump. The employee of Autozone told me to get the belt tensioner at the same time and try that first. (he said I could return whichever item was not needed).

I replaced the Tensioner and it has worked fine for 3,000 miles.

I would suggest trying the tensioner first. It is much easier to replace. (30 min job at max)

[Mbriggs]

I 've gotten bad tensioners from autozone in the past. They were slightly out of alignment and chewed up the belts. Could have been a bad batch, or poor quality control by the manufaturer.

[scott_smith]

I bought a used 2000 Caravan in March, this year. After about 1000Km (600 miles) the outer channel of the serp belt shredded off. Dealer replaced for free, said problem was debris, happenned again after another 1000 Km, Dealer replaced for free & adjusted power steering pully. Just happenned again after about 3000 additional Km, mechanic told me on arrival (only after getting mad and speaking to service mgr) that the OEM belt was Japanese Make and the closest available North American belt is slightly wider causing this problem if the power steering pulley isn't realigned when the original belt is replaced. -might have been a line but sounded legit enough.