Serpentine Belt

[cosmicfireball]

Need a new Serpentine belt...Is it others opinions that one should only get a Lexus issued belt or will a high grade American made belt be sufficient for the long run?

[j_lee84sc]

replaced my belt with a napa belt last summer and no problems, might want to check the tension on your tensioner, how many miles is on the car?

[cosmicfireball]

replaced my belt with a napa belt last summer and no problems, might want to check the tension on your tensioner, how many miles is on the car?

101,000 miles and the cracks are not that bad....it's started to squeek a little and just put some belt dressing on it and it's quiet now...but I've been told these small cracks is the 'beginning' of a problem with the belt...

[jzz30]

if it does blow up the belt will render your car immobile. its good to change it at the first signs of wear.

as for brand if you can buy 2 napa belts for 1 toyota belt then go with the napa. but i still would buy it from the dealer...thats just me though

[steviej]

101,000 miles and the cracks are not that bad....it's started to squeek a little and just put some belt dressing on it and it's quiet now...but I've been told these small cracks is the 'beginning' of a problem with the belt...

If you have small cracks, replace the belt(s). Belt dreesings should never be used as they treat the symptom and not the cause.

Belts are rubber, rubber last about 5 years and then deteriorates. These belts are not expensive. I have heard several reputable sourses say the belts should be routinely changed out every 3 years or 45k miles.

I hate to have one go at 3am on a lonely dark highway.

steviej

[over40driver]

If you have accessibility to a Goodyear brand belt I know they are good quality.

[lexus082]

If you have accessibility to a Goodyear brand belt I know they are good quality.

I had a Dayco belt on my car when I bought it and I just replaced it with a new Dayco belt tonight. I never had any problems with it. I also usually stick with oem, but my local dealer is very high and further down the road.

[GrnHrnt]

New Contitech Multirib 6PK1930 on a 2JZ-GE, 5K miles ago. No problems, runs smooth and silent.

[monarch]

Toyota belts are extra high quality and Toyota belt pulleys have a low friction finish that minimizes belt wear. These are some of the reasons your factory original belt has lasted 101,000 miles and counting. Toyota doesn't even require Toyota belts to be inspected until 60,000 miles and then if they look OK to reinspect them every 15,000 miles thereafter. More noise, faster wear, imprecise fit (because of not being metric) and slippage under some driving conditions are possible if you use aftermarket belts..

[Bill's Lexus]

I just placed a post about changing the serpentine belt on my 1998 LS400, and asked several questions that were answered here. Since I probably will only change it once before trading cars, the Toyota belt is the way to go. I found an online dealer that sells them for about $50 delivered compared to after market belts for $30.

This leads me to my main question about the difficulty changing it. Do I need a diagram or instructions (and where can I get them?), or is it rather obvious?

Thanks,

Bill

[lexus082]

http://www.lextreme.com/belt.html

That link will tell you how to change the belt. I did it without disconnecting the upper radiator hose. I just loosened the tension took off the old belt and then installed the new one and released the tension. Not hard at all to do.