shredded my belt, problems?
 

The other day i was driving and while waiting for a turn i herd something moving around in the bay, i drove a half mile further and the belt was starting to shred and the spinning of the belt was producing noise. i stopped immediately and when i looked under the hood, a good 1/3 of the belt, width wise, was shreded off and just smacking stuff. the belt was still on, and still tight but just half its normal width.

I put on a new one with relative ease, but i think i hear a new noise, it doesnt sound bad, it just sounds not as smooth. idle is normal, all accessory systems wrk perfectly. its like a rougher cycling. is there anything i need to look out for? any damage i may have missed? is there any reason my mileage should be effected?

before u guys flame for bad belt upkeep, when i bought my truck the dealer was supposed to replace the squeaky belt, instead of just tighten it, they WILL get an earfull from me tommorow.

you cant just tighten the belt, it is on an automatic tensioner. the dealership could have just put something on the belt to stop it from squeaking

remove the belt and spin all the pulleys by hand and listen for squeaking or grinding noises from the bearings in the pulleys. also check the pulleys for in and out, and side to side play

i did check the pulleys when i took the older belt off, they all seemed normal. i guess i can just do it again to make sure. other than checking the pullies is there anything else u guys suggest i check?

what is your ac compresser pulley like...because i know if that seizes it will rip the belt to shreds....another possiblity is you kicked up a rock and it hit the belt

well the ac compressor seemed fine, i have never tried to spin it when there wasnt a problem, but it blows and sounds fine when its on. i went ahead and changed the tentioner cause i think that was the problem. i inspected it when it was idling and it seemed there was some play in the pulley, a little wobble. i put it on just now and it seemed the strange little noise stopped. im gonna try it for a few days and see if anything else happens.

no chance of messing up anything inside the motor right? since its just accessory belts?

no you should be fine just check all the plug wires to make sure the belt didnt get any of them

ok i have another question in relation to this and i didnt want to start another thread so here it goes.

I wanna know the symptoms of a seized ac pulley.

i was driving up a hill today w the ac on and i noticed when the compressor pulley clicked, i kinda heard a belt squeel. is that either because its still a new belt? or is this an early warning sign of the ac compressor going out?

i used to think it was my old tensioner pulley that made the belt shred, due to the fact that i noticed it was a little wobbly under idle. but the sound of the belt when the compressor clicked made me worry. any thoughts?

I wouldn't think the A/C kicking on would cause the belt to squeal but it is a load being put on the belt instantly. We have semi's at work that when the engine fan kicks in (air clutch) the belts will chirp. Although those fans have enough air draw that they make mini tornado's and are deafening to stand next too when running. Its the same principle though. If your compressor was seized it would shred the belt immediately as one pulley not turning while the belt is running is going to cause problems. I've never really had to work on my 4.0 as she is low mileage and trouble free but I wonder if there are any other idler pullies on the motor. I just helped put a 5.4L in my buddies F150 and it had 1 tensioner and 2 other idler pullies on it. Maybe if the 4.0 has a similar setup one of the bearings is going out on a tensioner. Just a thought.