Why is my serpentine belt continuously shredding?

[cardoc]

Originally Posted by 1 Lucky Texan

If you had time and a fistfull of smaller sized belts, you could place them on in alternat configurations to delete some of the other itmes in the 'train'. Or, since folks seem to point to the the alt, find a belt for just the crank, idler, alt and tensioner and test.

do not ask me how to route it lol!

You just think this stuff up on your own or is someone helping you?

I'm kidding.

Sucks about the alternator. You could always call and ask them. And yeah, I don't know why they couldn't have used one from the parts bin for a tester.

Maybe they are related to the Stooges.

Have you talked to SOA? In a nice calm manner of course.

[wogmail]

Soa? Is that Subaru corporate? If they haven't fixed it today I think I need to. I have their number, asked for it from the service writer.

[CNY_Dave]

SOA = Subaru Of America.

[melvin frazier]

try checking the attachment bolts and alignment on all driven devices. had a chevy truck that someone left a bolt off the power sterring that caused miss alignment when turn hard, belt shredded. anchoring the pump solved problem.

[wogmail]

Well they called me at 5 PM last night and said that the car was done. I picked it up. They replaced the bracket and moved it to align the idler like was suggested in this thread. They didn't drive it so I don't know if it is really fixed. I am bringing the car to a trusted mechanic today to have them look at it.

Of course, the radiator overflow was disconnected again when I picked up the car. I told the service manager. Also, there appears to be a new noise the car is making, sort of a metallic clicking while the serpentine belt spins. I am going to point it out to my mechanic and see what she says. Hopefully it is just my paranoia and the car is actually fixed.

[OldStyle]

They didn't drive it so I don't know if it is really fixed. I am bringing the car to a trusted mechanic today to have them look at it.

I don't know how long it is taking for the belt to shred or jump groves but I would recommend driving it long enough first before having anyone else make changes to what was done.

While it doesn't sound like that dealer service is very competent; having another shop work on it voids any responsibility the dealership has regarding your last "repair" or lack of. That includes any help the SOA would be willing to provide.

Just my

[wogmail]

Oh, I totally get it. The problem is, I just can't afford to have them work on it any more. Ever since they've realized I'm not giving them any money, the car is just totally unimportant to them. They don't have any parts in stock, they have to order everything. I am pretty sure they are just working on it in "down time" between other vehicles. It takes about three days for them to do anything. Also, they don't have a clue what's wrong, they're just replacing stuff. The closest they've gotten to fixing it was due to the post about manuevering the idler bracket, that I emailed them word for word. They won't pay for a rental, and $200 a week for a rental car really adds up. Total for this adventure is well over $2000. Over $700 for rentals, $1300 to the dealer, $300 to Merchants for the original work, $140 for the alternator that I probably can't return. It is just a cluster.

Bought the car for $5k, so these repair bills really suck.

[Glennda5id]

Did they give you the old bracket back?

[cardoc]

If I were you in your position, get with SOA. E-mail all the documents to the rep that is assigned to you and see if you can get any resolve on the cost.

This whole thing just reeks incompetence.

[wogmail]

SO
Just brought the car to my trusted mechanic. She's awesome. We looked at everything. The belt was very very close to the back of the idler and at a slight tilt, so it was to the edge on the right side, and just a tiny bit of space on the left. There were also two washers between the alternator left mounting bolt where the guard connects (those were put there by the dealer, not there before), set up like some sort of spacer to either force the alternator back, or the power steering pump forward.

She looked at the idler, and said it was not sitting correctly. She pressed the bearing a bit more in one direction, and it moved the placement of the idler forward, so now the belt is riding closer to the middle of the idler. She said that most likely the power steering pump is slightly off of square, and that is the belt moves again we will adjust the location of the power steering pump.

Does anyone know how much movement is actually in the power steering pump? She is going to look it up on Alldata.

We did all this in about 30 minutes in a parking lot. Versus two weeks+ at the dealer.

Took the alternator back to NAPA, turns out they were right about one thing, the alternator is bad. It smells like burning and screeches. They took it back no problem.

I think this may actually be mission accomplished this time.