Belt life expectancy

[Reginald]

My '04 Tacoma has an old-fashioned belt setup: one for the water pump and alternator, another for the A/C compressor, and a third for the power-steering pump. The truck is five years old and is coming up on 57,000 miles. The belts are the original Mitsuboshi belts from the factory. They look good--a little shiny along the outer edges, but not glazed. No cracks, no rough spots, no noise even on wet mornings. I've never had to adjust the tension.

From what I hear, Mitsuboshis are very good belts. A tech at the dealer told me that he often sees original-equipment belts with 100,000 miles on them.

Still, the truck is five years old. Should I go ahead and replace the belts, or can I safely expect another year (10,000 miles, more or less) out of them?

Are any of the aftermarket belts as good as the Mitsuboshis? Or should I just bite the bullet and buy new belts from the dealer?

I'm off to bed--I have a pointless meeting first thing in the morning, during which I must nod and smile as people utter inanities--so I might not check back until tomorrow. Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[CentralNY1]

At five years I would replace all of them for peace of mind. Throw the old ones in the trunk as an insurance policy just in case. I prefer Gates or OEM when it comes to belts.

 

[BearZDefect]

In the situation you describe, I would use those OEM quality belts for 7 years unless they start acting up before that, and the water pump + alternator belt would be the one I inspect most carefully.

 

[Chris142]

I see 80,000 to 100K out of OE belts. About 30,000 from the aftermarket ones.

 

[StevieC]

My Serpentine belt only seem to last 50K KM (30K Miles) before it has a cricket noise coming from it in the cool damp mornings.

I change them at this point, but they aren't cracked or dry ed out looking, just annoying.

I would examine the belt for cracks and if it's still good then keep it going.

 

[oilyriser]

I replaced my alt/ps belt when I was able to stick my finger through a slit that had formed in a v-groove. This was after 125000 miles.

 

[Gary Allan]

I get some variable between 60k-80k out of the OEM belts. Any replacements ...regardless of who makes them ..NEVER go nearly as far.

 

[oilyriser]

the pulleys wear with the belts, so new belts don't quite fit the old pulleys

 

[LOLVO]

You can replace it if you want.
I have a 02 tacoma 3.4L V6 with current mileage of around 125,000. I have not replaced any belts including the timing belt. I'm going to replace all of them including water pump and pulleys at around 150,000. I know the car is equipped with non-interference engine so I'm just kind of pushing it but whatever. The recommended interval for timing belt is 90,000.

 

[rpn453]

I'd change the alternator/WP belt and store the old one in the truck as a backup.

I just changed my mother's Sunfire's belt at 11 years old and 130k miles. I could see some light cracks on the non-ribbed side, so I figured it was due.

 

[benjamming]

I just did the timing belt/water pump job on my Dad's '04 Tacoma. Everything was still original at 157,000 miles. I replaced the accessory belts (alternator, p/s, A/C) just because he had bought them & wanted me to. I kept the OEM belts as spares. The OEM belts were still in fine shape. I wouldn't replace the belts until they start looking really bad or actually fail. They are really easy to replace. It's probably only a 15-min job, but 30 minutes if you work like I do (poke around other stuff). Time does have to be taken into account, but I see that you are in SC so no real worry there.

 

[wander2039]

I'm changing the belt in both of our cars when I change the plugs. So 90-100k. Although I've seen over 200k on belts from the same model. I'm not chancing it with the family.

 

[AdRock]

One thing I've done to get belts to last a while (the old v groove belts) is pull them off, hit the shinny smooth sides with a very light sandpaper to knock the shine off. Then spray them down with some silicone spray and let them site for 10 or 15 minutes. Then wipe them down real well with a dry cloth and let them sit another 10 or 15 minutes. Then put them back on the vehicle.

The silicone spray will soak in a little and keep them from drying out and cracking that same as it does if you use it on the weatherstripping on the vehicle.

I eventually tried it a few times with the serpentine belt on my car by roughing up the smooth side lightly then coating the entire thing with silicone sray like above. It's worked well. I still have the same sepentine belt with about 89k on the car and it's still plenty flexible, no cracks, the grooves are good, and it shows no signs of starting to dry out. With some serpentine belts costing upwards of $50 I figured it's be worht the money to try. So far I'm impressed with the results.

 

[Reginald]

Thanks, everyone. It sounds like I don't need to worry about those belts this month.

And that meeting I mentioned in the original post--it was cancelled. I won't have to listen to blithering cretins until sometime next week.

 

[mechtech2]

57K? Maybe next year, or the year after. Make sure the tension is correct in the meantime.

 

[ArrestMeRedZ]

I changed the wife's RAV4 belts out at 103K miles and 12+ years. Not that they needed it, but I was in there anyway to change out the timing belt (which did need it). If they look ok, I'd wait another 5 years.
This is coming from an old geezer that used to think belts and hoses needed to be changed every other year or so.

 

[Dave Hess]

100K miles and then I would replace the belts..