Do Belt Dressings Help ?

[billt460]

I came across this and it made me wonder. Belt dressings have been around a long time. Today engines are manufactured with more and more of them. Does anyone here use them on a regular basis? Or are they just, "snake oil"?

For the guys who use them regularly, do you find them to be beneficial in increasing longevity?

 

[rijndael]

I haven't used a belt dressing since V belts were common. Old belts weren't EPDM based like they are today.

I'm not going to spray a perfectly quiet EPDM belt to "prevent drying and early cracking".

 

[shortyb]

I've used them on occasion after I had to clean something like oil off of a belt with a harsh chemical like brake cleaner. Seems to help with the drying effect and keeps them pliable and quiet. I don't use them on a regular basis though, just replace when necessary.

 

[billt460]

Admittingly I haven't used a dressing in years. Like it was mentioned above, the last time I did use it was on a V-Belt. And those are no longer in use. Even my 1991 Ford pickup runs off a single serpentine belt. And that is very easy to replace. (10 minutes tops, with zero disassembly).

But the belt(s) on my Toyota and Jeep, not so much. They are nowhere near as easy.

 

[PontiacHO]

Typically a brief “fix” to quiet a noisy belt that didn’t last long. When the noise returns (and it will) it’s a lot worse.

 

[Kira]

I 'always heard' that belt dressing ate (dissolved) the belt a bit and that if all else was in good condition, it wasn't needed.

One guy told me belt dressings were often used in stationary engineering (HVAC) where a loose belt squeak could be quelled rather than having to adjust pulleys, incur down time and risk overtightening.

 

[repairman54]

Squeaky serp belt, baby or talcum powder will quiet it down. I drove fleet vans for years, they would not replace squeaky belts that drove me crazy. I kept a ketchup squeeze bottle full of talcum powder onboard to quiet them down. Especially after a rain storm. Shoot some on it and voila noise gone.
Belt dressing is for V belts and even back then it didn't last long. Lazy fix for not properly tightening the belt.

 

[racer12306]

I too have always known dressing to be for v belts. This ad is clearly for serp belts.

I have a hard time using a product to prevent a problem I've never experience. My Ram's belt is OEM with 128k miles on it. I've been waiting for it to start showing cracks and it's not. I am going to put a Gates HD belt on it when I change the coolant because it's about time, regardless of how tempting it is to see how long it'll last.

 

[rijndael]

My Ram's belt is OEM with 128k miles on it. I've been waiting for it to start showing cracks and it's not.

For those that don't know, the failure mode of EPDM serpentine belts isn't typically cracking, at least not at first, they're usually worn down. There's a tool to check the grooves:

 

[Astro14]

On a belt with a tensioner, or adjustment - no.

But, on the 1932 Packard, for example, the water pump is in the block and driven by the crank pulley. There is no means by which to adjust the belt. When those two belts get a bit worn, or glazed, a belt dressing can help.

But for a car built in the last 70 years?

No need.

 

[D60]

It's verboten here, but @Boomer taught me to use a few small dollops of silicone grease around the ID of noisy serps. Works surprisingly well.

Don't tell anyone I mentioned this on BITOG -- iT'S a sECrEt!!!!!!

 

[Lubener]

Last time I used belt dressing, it made the belt squeel like a pig. Not again for me.

 

[jjblbi]

I had a Ram 1500 that was used infrequently, serpentine belt with an automatic tensioner. I tried various treatments that didn't work. For whatever reason I gave it a shot of Armor-All and the squeal went away.

 

[samven]

A buddy of mine had a squeaking noise, he tried belt dressing and it seemed to work but the noise came back in a few hours. We went to autozone and picked up a new belt, in the process of removing the belt we found the idler pulley bearing was bad, it was almost seized. I guess all I am saying is before you use a dressing check all your bearings, this one could have poped if that bearing had completely seized.

 

[Dinoburner]

Tried belt dressing on the 95 GMC to help with occasional squeak and had the belt slip off driving in the rain. Made it home, changed said belt after cleaning pulleys and 10 years later no problems.

 

[Shannow]

1997 I was commissioning and MDF plant....a lot of the drives were multiple v belt (I hated them from uni days), and the motors were star delta...started on star, 415 volts in star fashion switching to 415 across each phase at speed....

If the belts weren't perfect, the change would be met with a puff of smoke, too bad and smoke and trip.

Belt dressing bought them a week for someone else to do it.

 

[Arc]

my belt dressing is whatever brand tire foam spray that I use when cleaning up under the hood. A nice clean engine has more Hp, better gas mileage and the belts all last longer. If only cars came with transparent hoods so people could see that nice shiny engine in everything I drive. I sure have a lot of obsession issues, I know.

Seriously though I thought the old school belt dressing just made the v-belts sticky so they didn't slip.