Fried belt tensioner pulley

[user 423]

Well it's fixed now but I was wondering how many out there have had the serpentine belt tensioner fail?

The bearing siezed up and melted the plastic pulley and threw the belt. I was on a winding mountain road and lost the power steering. Lucky as hell to make it to a pullout.

 

[bullfrog]

It is pretty common but they usually give you a warning by making a squeaking noise or the belt has a jerking movement while running or wear marks you can see on the smooth side while the engine is off.

 

[sneaks]

I've had two go - one on a Dodge Ram, one of a Ford Tempo. The Dodge it was squealing for a while, I replaced it before it actually died. That one was easy (gotta love a rig you can climb up into and sit on the fender to work ), the Ford was a nightmare, and that one had unexpected catastrophic failure - no warning, just blew up. To do that one, the "official" method is to pull the motor because you can't get to it between the inner fender (metal) structure and the engine. I cut a hole in the fender and went in through the wheel well. They do seem to have a life expectancy of about 100-125k miles. Now, I replace them on my rigs when I do anything on the front of the motor when the miles get up there (alt, water pump, serp belt, etc.).

 

[highdesertranger]

this is why I don't like serpentine belts. tensioners and idlers just waiting to fail. on top of that if any one component fails you are dead in the water. I carry a spare belt and spare bearings for the idlers and tensioner on my Ford. on my Chevy I don't have the blasted thing. highdesertranger

 

[sneaks]

There's definitely something to be said for KISS

 

[wayne49]

Recently, on my 1989 Ford 460, the PS and AC belt tore itself up, as I was leaving Tonopah, NV.
Lots of noise. No fluids on the ground is a good sign. Power steering was gone. Open the hood and see no belt where a belt should be, and lots of strands of belt where they shouldn't be.
AC was already kaput, low on R12 probably the culprit there, as the pulley spins freely. So no loss there.
As I was underneath untangling and removing the remnants of the belt, I discovered a large plastic doughnut laying on the air dam, that was the idler pulley sans the locked up bearing.
Went ahead, carefully continued driving home down US-95 w/o PS at 50-55 mph. I don't usually go over 55 mph anyway. 50 was when the gusty crosswinds were worse.
All fixed up, and replaced the radiator hoses as well.
Back on the road.