Should a fan belt be tight?
In many applications, the serpentine belt needs only to be reasonably tight. The belt should have about a half an inch of play when at the appropriate tightness. If there is less than a half an inch, the belt will need to be loosened, if there is more, it will need to be tightened.
What can happen if the belt tension in a belt drive system is adjusted to be too tight?
If a belt is too tight in a system, it can add stress to your bearings. The added stress to bearings can result into over amperage of your motor and potential motor failure. When a belt is too loose: The excess heat can cause premature damage to your belts.
How can I relieve the tension on my fan belt?
Relieve the tension on the belt. If your vehicle came equipped with an auto tensioner pulley, it can usually be loosened by inserting the end of a ½ inch drive ratchet into the hole at the center of the pulley. In some vehicles, it may be a bolt head you will need to locate the proper size wrench to turn.
Can a viscous coupled fan turn on a drive belt?
If your car has an electric or viscous-coupled fan (See How an engine cooling system works ), you may have to turn the engine to wind on the belt, because the fan pulley will not turn the crankshaft pulley and the belt does not wind on. Turn the crankshaft pulley to wind the belt on if the fan is viscous coupled.
When do you know it’s time to replace your fan belt?
If you find your fan belt is no longer attached to your engine, or is lying on the ground somewhere, that is definitely a sign that it’s time to replace your fan belt! When experienced individually, these signs do not always indicate that your fan belt or serpentine belt needs to be replaced.
What happens when your fan belt breaks down?
As your fan belt or serpentine belt breaks down and frays, it won’t be able to turn the water pump consistently, which slowly defeats the engine’s cooling systems and causes the temperature to rise more than it should. At first, it’ll only be a few degrees and you might just notice off hand that your temp gauge is up a few degrees more than normal.