Is it time to have your serpentine belt checked?

You hop in the car in your Wonder Lake driveway and start the engine when it happens. You’re ears are accosted by a long, high-pitched squeal that makes your skin crawl.

If your serpentine belt breaks, it won't take

long before you know it. As it runs the
alternator, your car will soon stop running.
is it time to have your serpentine belt checked?

‘What the heck was that?’ you ask yourself as you pull out onto Wonder Lake Road. But the sound has stopped and you soon put it out of your mind. Maybe you shouldn’t forget about it quite so quickly.

Vehicles don’t generally make unusual noises for no reason at all. The engine starts rumbling loudly? You may want to check the exhaust. There’s a grinding noise when you use the brakes? Time to have the brakes checked. There’s a loud hum as you drive down the highway? You might have a bad wheel bearing.

But what about that squealing sound when you started the car. It was worse than two cats fighting, wasn’t it?

Squealing under the hood is usually an indication that your belts are worn or out of adjustment. This is not a potential problem you want to ignore.

A belt that is worn or out of adjustment is a belt that’s on its way to breaking. And you don’t want a broken belt.

Most cars today have one belt at the front of the engine that turns the pullies on the alternator, the power steering pump, the air conditioning compressor, the water pump and, possibly, an air pump. These are all vital parts that won’t operate properly without the belt.

Used to be that engines had more than one belt (some still do). They had one for the alternator, another for the power steering and another for the AC. But those belts were replaced with what is called ‘the serpentine belt.’

It’s called ‘the serpentine belt’ because it serpentines around the different pullies and operates them all at once. It’s convenient that way. But it also means that, if your serpentine belt breaks, the pullies on all those components stop turning.

The air conditioning will stop working. You won’t have power steering. The alternator will cease charging the battery and operating the electrical components needed while driving.

When the alternator stops generating electricity, the car may continue to run for a while. This is because it’s operating off the stored-up electricity in the battery. But once the battery runs dry, everything will shutdown and you’ll be coasting to as stop on the road.

The lesson here is that you don’t want to lose your serpentine belt. And that’s generally easy to avoid. You simply have to have it checked. If it’s out of adjustment, it can be adjusted. If it’s worn, it can be replaced.

The important thing is that you’re taking care of it at your convenience, and without the cost of a tow if you breakdown away from your Wonder Lake home.

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