Shredded Serpentine

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John Barnes

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Location
Rural Mountains, CO
I have a 2005 4x4 XLT ST with 9K miles, and while driving quite slowly up a winding gravel mountain road, the serpentine belt started to shred itself from the front to rear... it removed most of about a 0.25" width of itself which then started banging around under the hood. I stopped, opened the hood, found the belt pieces around the fan, and cleaned them out and trimmed the loose pieces off the remaining good part of the belt and drove a mile back home. Called the dealer and they said to call the roadside assistance number and have it towed in... at Ford's expense, which I did. The service manager said there may be a pulley issue...



My question: Has anyone seen this before, and if so, any idea of the cause?



Thanks,

John
 
A pulley that is out of alignment is the usual cause, but I haven't heard of anyone having any problems with the belt.



I just changed mine recently just because it was 5 years old and had 65K miles on it, but it did not look bad at all.
 
I just had my 100K service and asked about changing the serpentine belt. The dealer took a look at it and did not recommend replacement. I was surprised. He said that they are very durable these days.
 
One reason to change the belt after many miles is on it is because of Belt Looping that is common on the trac. When your going down the freeway and floor the pedal to pass someone the tranny goes into passing gear and increases the engine RPM's. If the belt is old it loses some of its flexability as as well as some friction against the pulleys as the belt is harder than compared to a new belt.



What happens under the engine RPM increase is the power steering pully slips and you lose the power steering. Normally you don't even realize as you are going straight. However, do a lane change at this time and you freak out as it feels like you can not steer the Trac.
 
One reason to change the belt after many miles is on it is because of Belt Looping that is common on the trac. When your going down the freeway and floor the pedal to pass someone the tranny goes into passing gear and increases the engine RPM's. If the belt is old it loses some of its flexability as as well as some friction against the pulleys as the belt is harder than compared to a new belt.



What happens under the engine RPM increase is the power steering pully slips and you lose the power steering. Normally you don't even realize as you are going straight. However, do a lane change at this time and you freak out as it feels like you can not steer the Trac.
 
UPDATE:



The dealer just called... they checked the pulleys and alignment of the pulleys and say all was OK... attributed the problem to a defective belt... I guess time will tell.



Thanks to all for the input!

John
 
It is possible that a small stone was kicked up from the gravel road and became lodged between the belt/pulley and ripped it that way....
 
I vote stone as well.



I used to work for DAYCO during college and know that these belts are STRONG! They are full of kevlar fiber and we used to use them as rigging for picking up really heavy pieces of machinery.



Glad you are going now and it was nothing major.
 

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