Toothed belt service warning
03-23-2006, 10:38 AM
#5
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At the very least, check the tension. If it has loosened in the last six months with that mileage on the belt, time to dig a little further. Listen to your car, it is trying to tell you something.
Jim
Jim
03-23-2006, 10:49 AM
#7
Deer Slayer
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Check the tension immediately, if that looks good, make sure your sensor wire hasn't wiggled loose. I got some spurious warnings on my 86 when the wire had basically come off. If tension is bad or the wire is good, time for surgery.
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03-23-2006, 11:02 AM
#8
Drifting
Yeah, I had a few scares with the wire coming disconnected and flashing the warning at me. Sometimes the light would come back and soetimes it wouldn't. You probably just have a loose wire.
03-23-2006, 01:01 PM
#10
Under the Lift
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If the warning cancels and does not come back it means....
- The wire to the tensioner arm isn't disconnected.
- The system is working.
- You had a moment of low tension detected.
I had exactly this happen when I was cruising along in the desert practicing the course for an open road race. I cancelled the warning and pulled over. The warning light did not come back on. I drove back to the hotel slowly - no warning light. I proceded to check the tension there. It was on the low end of the scale but normal. I bumped it up a little and inspected the belt and the main roller carefully. I ran the race involving 100 miles at 145 MPH average speed. Drove home and did not have any issue with the belt...until 2 months later the belt light warning light came on and would NOT cancel. Checked the tension again, and it was on the low end of the scale. The belt was stretching. Fine, but since this was about 20K miles into its lifespan, I did not like seeing this (initial stretching OK, late stretching not so OK), as it lead me to believe this belt was weak. It turned out the tensioner was dry of oil and was probably over stretching the belt when the engine warmed up. New belt, rebuilt tensioner - no problems since.
So, there is no way around this. You need to check the tension. You need to check the belt condition, tracking, rollers. Get a good look at the water pump pulley for position and rotation. Top off the oil in the tensioner.
If the warning light comes back, the belt or something mechanical in the system is suspect. If the warning will not cancel, then you still have the same concerns, but electrical fault is added to the list. The likeliest is the wire that plugs onto a spade on the tensioner arm or the metal (later stranded wire) strap on the arm itself.
- The wire to the tensioner arm isn't disconnected.
- The system is working.
- You had a moment of low tension detected.
I had exactly this happen when I was cruising along in the desert practicing the course for an open road race. I cancelled the warning and pulled over. The warning light did not come back on. I drove back to the hotel slowly - no warning light. I proceded to check the tension there. It was on the low end of the scale but normal. I bumped it up a little and inspected the belt and the main roller carefully. I ran the race involving 100 miles at 145 MPH average speed. Drove home and did not have any issue with the belt...until 2 months later the belt light warning light came on and would NOT cancel. Checked the tension again, and it was on the low end of the scale. The belt was stretching. Fine, but since this was about 20K miles into its lifespan, I did not like seeing this (initial stretching OK, late stretching not so OK), as it lead me to believe this belt was weak. It turned out the tensioner was dry of oil and was probably over stretching the belt when the engine warmed up. New belt, rebuilt tensioner - no problems since.
So, there is no way around this. You need to check the tension. You need to check the belt condition, tracking, rollers. Get a good look at the water pump pulley for position and rotation. Top off the oil in the tensioner.
If the warning light comes back, the belt or something mechanical in the system is suspect. If the warning will not cancel, then you still have the same concerns, but electrical fault is added to the list. The likeliest is the wire that plugs onto a spade on the tensioner arm or the metal (later stranded wire) strap on the arm itself.
Last edited by Bill Ball; 03-23-2006 at 01:32 PM.
