New Serpentine belt blew up

[ohshi]

I’ve had this OEM belt for about 5000 miles. No signs of wear on the new belt after installation. After mudding around I failed to properly clean my engine bay.

Could mud, dirt, and water cause multiple wear spots like in the photo attached? Should I be looking for pulley misalignments or bad bearings? Need some advice.




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[Syr4RinNC]

I guess if it was slipping due to mud/ water, one of the pulleys could have worn it down, but I would still check for misaligned/ bad pulley wheel

 

[aemravan]

muddy water/silt will absolutely destroy any rotating bearing assembly you have pretty quick.. do all your idlers/tensioner spin freely?

 

[Drcoffee]

Wonder if you got a branch stuck in the pulleys. Looks like it simply stopped turning and ruptured. Probably damaged your pulleys too

 

[MikeinNH67]

Make sure everything spins freely and smoothly with the belt off. I had an alternator that would lock up if the truck sat too long, bad bearing it seems.

 

[wsgoat]

I had a tiny stone get lodged in one of the grooves on my crankshaft pulley....it split the belt two. Good news is those belts are inexpensive and easy to replace.

 

[Drcoffee]

Keep an eye on your water pump too. It may start leaking if it was torqued too much. You van only see it leak from below.

 

[ohshi]

Thanks everyone for the input. I’ll be double checking all advice from y’all.

I found the lowest idler pulley’s bearing sounding awful and difficult to spin. It also had rubber from the belt stuck to it. I’ve since spent time cleaning all surfaces that touch the belt, replaced the belt temporarily to get the car running as it’s my daily, and a new idler pulley is ordered and on the way.

I haven’t seen new wear yet as I’m visibly checking the belt everyday.


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