Belt tensioner disintegerated while on highway

[mikepier]

Was driving to work this morning, and I heard a loud bang from the engine compartment. Then I heard what sounded like parts falling onto the highway.
I looked in my rearview mirror, and I saw debris flying behind me. Luckily it did not hit anyone.

So I went to get off the highway, and I notice I have no power steering, and my alt light was lit. So I figured my belt broke, but I just replaced the belt a few months ago, so how could this happen?

When I opened my hood, my belt was still there lying in the engine compartment, but my belt tensioner was gone, only the bolt holding it in place was still there. Luckily there was an Auto Zone a mile down the road. I got there just in time as the car began to overheat (no waterpump or fan).

New tensioner and belt installed. They also lent me some tools to use in the parking lot.

Anyone have this happen to them before?

 

[Maniak]

Was driving to work this morning, and I heard a loud bang from the engine compartment. Then I heard what sounded like parts falling onto the highway.
I looked in my rearview mirror, and I saw debris flying behind me. Luckily it did not hit anyone.

So I went to get off the highway, and I notice I have no power steering, and my alt light was lit. So I figured my belt broke, but I just replaced the belt a few months ago, so how could this happen?

When I opened my hood, my belt was still there lying in the engine compartment, but my belt tensioner was gone, only the bolt holding it in place was still there. Luckily there was an Auto Zone a mile down the road. I got there just in time as the car began to overheat (no waterpump or fan).

New tensioner and belt installed. They also lent me some tools to use in the parking lot.

Anyone have this happen to them before?

This happened to us a couple hundred thousand miles ago (we were somewhere in the 100k's back then) on a road trip. Luckily we were almost to our destination so I could have someone bring me a pensioner as the old one blew apart.

10 minutes later we were back on the road. Its a quick/easy fix.

~Mark

 

[DoraThe_Explorer]

You got lucky with having an Auto Zone a hop skip and jump away. That would have stunk to be stranded at a rest stop waiting for someone to show up with one.

When I was driving my current Explorer home after buying it I heard a slight knock in the motor right before I got to my driveway. As I pulled in my driveway I noticed a solid line of oil trailing behind me. I crawled under the truck after I let it cool down a minute and noticed the tensioner was wedged between the oil filter and block. It put a nice size hole in the filter, and was spewing oil everywhere. Not sure how or why it got there, but that stupid $40 tensioner almost cost me a motor.

 

[mikepier]

You got lucky with having an Auto Zone a hop skip and jump away. That would have stunk to be stranded at a rest stop waiting for someone to show up with one.

When I was driving my current Explorer home after buying it I heard a slight knock in the motor right before I got to my driveway. As I pulled in my driveway I noticed a solid line of oil trailing behind me. I crawled under the truck after I let it cool down a minute and noticed the tensioner was wedged between the oil filter and block. It put a nice size hole in the filter, and was spewing oil everywhere. Not sure how or why it got there, but that stupid $40 tensioner almost cost me a motor.

Thanks for that heads up. Now I am going to look underneath the truck and see if it got stuck somewhere just in case.

 

[crunchie_frog]

This is an interesting failure, did the pieces have any evidence of what exactly caused the failure? I was wondering if there is something that can be looked for that would show that a failure is near?

 

[mikepier]

This is an interesting failure, did the pieces have any evidence of what exactly caused the failure? I was wondering if there is something that can be looked for that would show that a failure is near?

There were no warning signs. I'm not sure if you can tell by looking at it that failure is near. It is a spring inside. I guess after 14 years, mine gave out.

 

[koda2000]

This happened to us a couple hundred thousand miles ago (we were somewhere in the 100k's back then) on a road trip. Luckily we were almost to our destination so I could have someone bring me a pensioner as the old one blew apart.

10 minutes later we were back on the road. Its a quick/easy fix.

~Mark

was the old person helpful?

 

[Maniak]

was the old person helpful?

Yup, the old guy brought me a new tensioner Of course, he wasn't that old back then.. This was back in the 90's

~Mark

 

[justusinfla]

I caught mine before it exploded. I noticed it wobbling while running. When I shut it off, I found cracks in my fan blades. (see sticky if you haven't ready)

 

[DoraThe_Explorer]

Thanks for that heads up. Now I am going to look underneath the truck and see if it got stuck somewhere just in case.

Better safe then sorry I'd say.

 

[mikepier]

It's a poor design when you think about it. 1 belt controls everything.

My other car, a Honda Odyssey, has 1 belt for the power steering, and 1 belt for the alternator and A/C, and water pump is driven by the timing belt.
If 1 or both belts went, at least I would still be able to drive and not overheat.

 

[2TimingTom]

I'm not a huge fan of the non-serpentine belt motors either. Adjusting the tension on those belts, while not hard, can be a PITA.

I had a belt tensioner go while on a road course. Nothing like paying $100 and only getting to drive a single 20 minute session and having the tensioner fail on the out lap of the second session.

 

[AP9]

Gear-driven FEAD would be ideal: direct drive, no tensioners to worry about. But I guess it's just not weight-effective or cost-effective except on some big engines.

How long would a tensioner be reasonably expected to last? Now I'm a bit paranoid that the same will happen to me one day.

 

[Maniak]

We lost our first tensioner before 180k miles. We rebuild the motor at 355k miles and that second tensioner was still good. We only have 33k miles on this latest tensioner so I expect it to last a long time.

~Mark