brendo389

So I started my car up after work today and the alternator went flat; upon further investigation, the serpentine belt had come completely off and was sitting under the car. I was able to put it back on and drive the car home afterward, only to find that the belt was coming off again, and was about 3/4ths of the way off after the 20 minute drive home. The belt tensioner is brand new, not even a month old, and the serpentine belt is 2 days old, and not frayed or breaking at all. Anyone have any suggestions? Could I have torqued the tensioner too far when I put the serpentine belt on? It's my DD, so any help is greatly appreciated!

ULTIMATEORANGESS

iTrader: (4)

since you said your tensioner is new id say its install related. recheck everything.

garygnu

maybe a pulley is out of alignment .how much do you have to move the tensioner in to install the belt ?did you get the right size belt ?

brendo389

I'll take the lid back off tomorrow and check it out in more detail, could very well be.

I only had to move it the normal amount to get the belt on, 1/2 turn or so of the 15mm wrench. What's a way to determine if it's out of alignment?

JDEP162

Try putting it on, rev the engine several times with our hand using the throttle body, watch the belt, see if it starts walking. Cud just be tension needs to be tighter.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Sometimes this will happen if you have the belt routed incorrectly. You might want to double check that against the sticker on the driver's side shock tower.

CO99Z28Vert

iTrader: (30)

Also make sure your Harmonic Balancer did not take a complete **** on you, they are known to separate enough to throw the belt. Start the car up with or without the belt and quickly see if the balancer is moving around.
Good luck!

brendo389

It's routed correctly, I've done it probably 20 times now so it's just memorized. Turns out it wasn't fully on the crank pulley this time (I put it back on with a monkey wrench, in a parking lot, lol), but I'm still skeptical why it came off to begin with, in the parking lot itself. Ordered the Katech Billet Belt Tensioner just in case it was the tensioner screwing up, and I don't want the problem to come back ever.