Serpentine Belts and Hoses

The vehicle I just retired this spring was a 98 Explorer with almost 230,000 miles on it. It had:

-A Goodyear Gatorback belt installed at approx. 30,000 miles.
-Original hoses.
-K&N Air Filter installed at 50,000 miles, cleaned at 150,000 miles.
-Wiper blades were installed in the summer of 2000. (SilBlades)

The hoses were not dry-rotted, cracked, or soft in any way. I'm not sure what they were made out of, but my hat's-off to Ford's materials engineers for the choice of material!!


Honestly, had the belt let loose, I was prepared to change it on the side of the road. On most modern vehicles, the worst thing that will happen is the loss of AC and power steering. Most, if not all, vehicles have some level of fail-safe cooling system that will allow you to limp it some distance even if the belt fails.

Timing belts, on the other hand, need to be changed when the service schedule calls for it.

Sport45 wrote:

Does anyone's owners manual call for hose and/or belt changes at a specific mileage?

On my '05 Ram, the maintenance routine in the manual only calls for inspection of belt and hoses at I forget what time/mileage interval. So they would seem to be a replace as needed item. The belt's appearance can give clues that it's time to replace it, the coolant hoses can look fine on the outside and be ready to fail.

The ideal time to replace belts and hoses is an hour before they break. But since nobody knows when they are going to break all you have to go on is the recommended maintenance schedule. For my '00 F-250 out to 150,000 miles it only calls for inspecting the cooling system hoses. The lower radiator hose used to be $110 by itself (haven't checked in a long time though) so I wasn't inclined to change it if I didn't think it was bad.

We've come a long way since the 60's when you'd really be pressing your luck to keep belts and hoses more than a few years.

Does anyone's owners manual call for hose and/or belt changes at a specific mileage?

Hope you guys take care of your heath too, as major repairs are around $1700 for an Emergency room visit and about $4700 a day in Hospital plus those mechanics don't have many new parts they most time try a rebuild or you end up in the junk yard.

jbres wrote:
Personally if I could eliminate one more chance for a breakdown while on the road by changing the belts, well worth it in my opinion.

X2

Expensive engine under the hood of that clatter truck, and, as I have discovered, the other mundane stuff the belt drives like the power steering pump ain't cheap either. I'd say replace the belt, the tensioner, and if the water pump is original, replace that too. Cheap insurance against future misery.

mdamerell wrote:
Since the serpentine belt drives most the important stuff (water pump, alternator, power steering) when it lets go you're stuck. Personally, I'd rather just change it than wait for it to just let go and strand me.

I completely agree. An 11 year old vehicle with 120,000 miles is past due. Why wait until it goes when you are loaded down, driving in bad weather in the middle of the night? I had a 6 year old serpentine belt let go, and it looked great up until the time it let go. Time takes its toll.

mdamerell wrote:
Since the serpentine belt drives most the important stuff (water pump, alternator, power steering) when it lets go you're stuck. Personally, I'd rather just change it than wait for it to just let go and strand me.

+1

I try to do as much PM on mine as I can....with the 8.1 being out of production, no matter you need it's pretty much guaranteed not to be in stock anywhere....

I just had a mechanic to replace the belt. He said the hoses were good. I want to thank everyone for there replies.