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The engine of a car has many mechanical accessories fixed to it. Some of them could be an air conditioner compressor, an alternator, a water pump and a power steering pump. A drive belt is also a part which helps to drive all these accessories. A pulley is attached to drive the belt which is fixed to the engine crankshaft. Most of the cars may have one or sometimes two drive belts.
A drive belt is made up of a material which is durable in nature. Basically it is made up of rubber based material. When the car has covered 40,000 to 70,000 miles then the drive belt replacement may be required. There are some very rare cases where the drive belts lasted for about 100K miles. The reasons behind thedrive belt replacement could be-
- Water
- Excessive heat
- Leaks of oil
- Road dirt
Due to these reasons the drive belt may prematurely deteriorate. For example, the underneath part of engine contains a protective shield. If it is broken due to some reason then the belt needs to be quickly replaced. If there are leakages of oil then also the drive belt replacement must be the done because the drive belt could be damaged by oil.
Eventually if the drive belt is broken then it could cause a very serious problem in the car. The car would stop in the middle of the road when the driven belt is damaged. This will happen because the drive belt of the water pump may not be functioning properly and due to this the engine will overheat and the car may leave the passengers mid way. The car may also lose the steering assistance if the car has the feature of hydraulic power steering in it and that feature may be disabled.
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