How to Replace a Serpentine Belt
The serpentine belt is one of the most important parts of your car engine as it drives you generator, water pump and air conditioning as well. In simple words, we can say that a belt failure can put you in massive trouble and you will need to tow your car in order to take the car to a workshop.
You can replace a serpentine belt using ordinary hand tools but it is recommended that you use a serpentine belt tool to loosen the tensioner. Use placement tool to position the belt and it won’t take you more than 15 minutes.
Instructions
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1
In order to replace a serpentine belt, you need to keep several things in mind and precautionary measurements should not be ignored at any cost. Before doing anything else, open the hood of your car and figure out where the serpentine belt of your car is. You can do that by routing belt diagram in the engine compartment that is present in the manual or under the hood at times.
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2
Once you have done that, locate the serpentine tensioner and move it in order to lose the belt. After loosening it, carefully remove the serpentine belt and put the brand new serpentine belt right next to you so that you can install it.
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3
Pick up the new serpentine belt and make sure that the belt is not hampered in any way and it is similar to the previous belt. Check whether the belt is routed in the similar manner as before and don’t forget to check the belt tension.
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4
In the middle of a section of the belt, push down after you have checked the belt tension. Monitor the movement of the belt. The movement must not be more than half an inch. In case it is moving more than that, do not install this belt and get a new one.
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5
After you have successfully installed the serpentine belt, start the engine of your vehicle. Now let it run for few minutes as it will allow you to check whether the installation of the belt was perfect or not.
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6
Make sure that the belt is working fine then you can turn off the engine. Turn the engine off and once more, check the tension of the serpentine belt. You can adjust tension if required. But keep this in mind that you might need belt tensioner replacement in order to adjust the tension.
