How can I tell if the breaking of the Serpentine.

ANONYMOUS

MEMBER
2003 HONDA CIVIC
95,000 MILES

How can I tell if the breaking of the Serpentine belt will cause irrepairable damage to my engine? I have heard that in SOME VEHICLES, if and when the S-Belt breaks, it will do GREAT HARM to the Engine. All I can find is that it will cause any Device attached to it to stop working, but nothing about servere engine damage.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,742 POSTS

You're confusing the two belts. The serpentine belt runs the power steering pump and generator, and you'll see they have grooved pulleys but there is nothing to prevent the belt from slipping over them if it is loose. That's unimportant because none of that stuff will be damaged.

It's the timing belt you have to worry about and you're on borrowed time. That belt has cogs on it and on the sprockets because the belt can not be allowed to slip even a little. You're asking an engine-related question but didn't bother to list the engine size. If you go to rockauto. Com and look up your engine size, then select "Engine", then select "Timing belt" or "Timing components", it will say whether you have an "interference" engine. If you do, when the timing belt breaks or jumps a few teeth, the open valves will be hit by the pistons as they coast to a stop. That's where the very high repair expense comes from.

Years ago Honda recommended replacing the timing belt every 75,000 miles, and they commonly broke at 65,000 miles.