- Steering your vehicle becomes a wrestling match. If steering has become a little more challenging than it used to be, it might be a sign that your fan belt is on its way out. As the fan belt continues to lose its grip and slip, it makes power steering increasingly difficult, as your car misses the help of the water pump, which also has responsibility for driving the power steering belt.
- The cabin inside your car develops disco fever. As the belt continues to lose its grip, it will struggle to turn the alternator, especially during a cold start. So you may notice that the lights inside the car, and the headlights, go dim when you start your car or whenever there’s an extra load on your battery.
- Your car hits the “snooze” button when you try to start it. As your serpentine belt wears down, it has trouble turning the alternator belt consistently, which can lead to no-start problems. Sometimes it gets so bad that it kills your battery, or causes the car to intermittently fail to start, even when the battery is charged up.
- Your vehicle spikes a fever. As your fan belt or serpentine belt breaks down and frays, it won’t be able to turn the water pump consistently, which slowly defeats the engine’s cooling systems and causes the temperature to rise more than it should. At first, it’ll only be a few degrees and you might just notice off hand that your temp gauge is up a few degrees more than normal. After a while, if the belt lets the water pump slide enough times, the engine will overheat.
- Your serpentine belt is impersonating a snake in the grass. If you find your fan belt is no longer attached to your engine, or is lying on the ground somewhere, that is definitely a sign that it’s time to replace your fan belt!
This article comes from axleaddict edit released