Serpentine belt cracking

eradicator006 · Jun 21, 2010

I just replaced my serpentine belt because it was severely cracked. There were vertical cracks 1/8" apart all around the ribbed side of the belt. I thought the OE belt was not supposed to crack? It only had 91,000km on it.

ridenby · Jun 21, 2010

Everything wears out.

eradicator006 · Jun 21, 2010

I know they wear out at about this mileage. I was just curious as to why it cracked when they aren't supposed to crack. The guy at napa was kind of surprised when I showed him my old belt.

speedracerbubba · Jun 21, 2010

Given enough time and use I have never seen a serpentine belt not crack.
My wifes saturn had the best belt I have seen when I replaced it at 80,000 miles. She does not drive that thing hard at all and rarely brings it past 3,500-4,000 rpm. The belt was starting to crack and had a few small spots missing in the teeth, but it was not bad at all. The radiator hoses were pretty soft, though.

LibertyTC · Jun 21, 2010

The belt works hard, and the Kj's under the hood temps are not the coolest.
I know when I replace my serpentine, a new tensioner and Idler pulley will be installed too.

tjkj2002 · Jun 21, 2010

eradicator006 said:
I just replaced my serpentine belt because it was severely cracked. There were vertical cracks 1/8" apart all around the ribbed side of the belt. I thought the OE belt was not supposed to crack? It only had 91,000km on it.

That was not a OEM belt,it had been replaced before.The OEM belts on the KJ are EPDM and do not crack.Hope you replaced it with another EPDM belt from Gates or another OEM one,the other belts are not EPDM and will crack and wearout at about 30k-50k.

eradicator006 · Jun 21, 2010

tjkj2002 said:
That was not a OEM belt,it had been replaced before.The OEM belts on the KJ are EPDM and do not crack.Hope you replaced it with another EPDM belt from Gates or another OEM one,the other belts are not EPDM and will crack and wearout at about 30k-50k.

The old belt said MOPAR on it in blue letters. I think the mopar logo was also there. New belt is a gates...at least that is what napa told me. The package said napa on it with no mention of gates.

speedracerbubba · Jun 21, 2010

tjkj2002 said:
That was not a OEM belt,it had been replaced before.The OEM belts on the KJ are EPDM and do not crack.Hope you replaced it with another EPDM belt from Gates or another OEM one,the other belts are not EPDM and will crack and wearout at about 30k-50k.

That is interesting. Gonna research that one to satisfy my curiosity.

tjkj2002 · Jun 21, 2010

eradicator006 said:
The old belt said MOPAR on it in blue letters. I think the mopar logo was also there. New belt is a gates...at least that is what napa told me. The package said napa on it with no mention of gates.

MOPAR has a value line of parts also,there value line belts are vinyl but the one that was supposed to be installed at the factory is a EPDM belt and should have had green lettering for the EPDM belt.

eradicator006 · Jun 21, 2010

You must be registered for see images

ptsb5a · Jun 21, 2010

tjkj2002 said:
That was not a OEM belt,it had been replaced before.The OEM belts on the KJ are EPDM and do not crack.Hope you replaced it with another EPDM belt from Gates or another OEM one,the other belts are not EPDM and will crack and wearout at about 30k-50k.

Not gonna argue dude but I call BS. I've owned my KJ since new and when I replaced the belt last summer, it was cracked and starting to peel bits of off the edges of the belt. Parts of it were about 3/4 the width of a new belt and it was craked through the ribs to the core belting material (nylon/poly??). The backside of the belt (not ribbed) still looked good with no cracks.

tjkj2002 · Jun 21, 2010

ptsb5a said:
Not gonna argue dude but I call BS. I've owned my KJ since new and when I replaced the belt last summer, it was cracked and starting to peel bits of off the edges of the belt. Parts of it were about 3/4 the width of a new belt and it was craked through the ribs to the core belting material (nylon/poly??). The backside of the belt (not ribbed) still looked good with no cracks.

Cannot vouch for export models but....................

here are picks of my original belt that came with my KJ,it's a EPDM belt with 30,000 miles and 8 years old(spare trail belt).

You must be registered for see images attach

My current belt is the exact same part # as the OEM one,again EPDM.

http://www.gatesprograms.com/beltwear/beltwear

jnaut · Jun 21, 2010

Maybe conditions affect it?

I'm not taking any side here because I'm no expert, but my belt is stock, has 86,000 miles on it, and looks brand new (had a date of like 6/13/03 on it). I even had a message about this a while back. I bought a new belt to replace the one I had, and it looked in perfect condition, so I left it on and stuck the new belt in my tool kit.

I'm torn as to whether I should even bother to put the new one on now...

eradicator006 · Jun 21, 2010

Mine has a part # of 53013905AA. Lettering is white, not blue. Maybe EPDM cracks in extreme cold temperatures? I'm guessing it's our harsh Canadian winters that's causing it to crack.

Serpentine belt cracking

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