rabbitstew Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I was cleaning my zed at the weekend and noticed what i thought was a bit of string under the front of the car tangled around the under shield. I pulled it all out, no end of it. Then opened the bonnet and saw more of this "string" tangled around everything. I soon realised that the string was actually what was left of half the main drive (or serpentine) belt at the front of the car. There was bits of it everywhere. It had basically started to shred the outside of itself. The outer side of it had completely stripped away. I even found a 1foot long chunk of it, about 1ft long & 1cm wide under the bonnet too. You can see some of the belt damage in the pic below. As you can imagine I was a little surprised, especially since I had this belt replaced about 11 months ago by my local Nissan garage - as I noticed the original belt was also showing signs of wear - albeit not as bad as this one is. Googling seems to reveal that this is a common problem on the HR engines - with the belt lasting between 10k and 20k miles. Ive done about 12->15k on this brand new belt. Anyone else experiencing this on their 313 HR? Last time I took it to Nissan for them to replace as the car was under warranty, however after taking £80 off me for fitting the belt they then informed me that even though they would have expected the belt to last 80k miles, not 20k, it wasnt covered under warranty as it was a "consumable" item. So, this time around i`ll just replace it myself. Are there any stronger than OEM belts? Ive heard some people use EPDM belts or Gates... are they better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I'll have a look at Caroline's 313 tonight when she gets in, its only done 12k so hopefully there won't be a problem. I'll report back later. This can happen if one of the pulleys is slightly out of alignment. I had a Mini years ago that snapped its fanbelt 3 or 4 times before it had done 10k and once I persuaded British Leyland to investigate it under the warranty they reported that one of the pulleys needed adjusting which they did for me. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 I'll have a look at Caroline's 313 tonight when she gets in, its only done 12k so hopefully there won't be a problem. I'll report back later. This can happen if one of the pulleys is slightly out of alignment. I had a Mini years ago that snapped its fanbelt 3 or 4 times before it had done 10k and once I persuaded British Leyland to investigate it under the warranty they reported that one of the pulleys needed adjusting which they did for me. Pete Yeah i did read that if the tensioner is knackered then that can cause a wobble or mis-allignment and wear the belt quicker than expected, but i had the Nissan mechanic check it when they replaced the belt last April and he reckoned it was all fine. Had it been knackered that would have been free under warranty apparently. Of course... im assuming the mechanic actually bothered to check and wasnt just telling me it was fine! Be interesting to see how your belt looks. Mine was showing wear at 25k and now again at 40k dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Of course... im assuming the mechanic actually bothered to check and wasnt just telling me it was fine! Thats a very big assumption when it comes to most Nissan dealers unfortunately! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveparkin Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I'll check mine tonight, and report back later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMANALEX Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I sell a lot of these for the HR 350 and now keep them in stock. It appears that the issue has been sorted as I have only sold one 370HR belt. Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 I sell a lot of these for the HR 350 and now keep them in stock. It appears that the issue has been sorted as I have only sold one 370HR belt. Alex Wonder what causes it? From the looks of the damage on my belt id have sworn it must have been catching on something, and yet no noises or tell tail signs until the damage is done, when if you listen on idle you can hear a slight noise as the belt goes around now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Just inspected Caroline's....looks brand new. I'll see if I can get a pic. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveparkin Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Just had a look at mine, and it all appears fine, with the usual polished finish on the top of the belt, except that at the edge of the belt nearest to the front of the car, there is a small band about 1-2mm wide that looks a little more 'feathered' than the rest of the belt. It actually looks very like Pete's in the pics above. Mine has done about 20,500miles and never been changed as far as I know. Will be keeping a close eye on that over the next few thousand. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 Thanks guys! Be interesting to see how long they last. When i fit my new one i`ll look carefully to see if i can see any reason for the unusually rapid wear. Its not as if the car has a hard life, nearly 99% of my mileage is just cruising at 70mph on motorways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 Okay, an update on this. Ive just fitted a gates belt as a replacement, so will see how long that lasts compared to a Nissan one. I couldnt see anything fouling the belt or anywhere near it. The pulleys all felt fine. There was a little play in the top middle one, but when the belt is running I cant see any wobbles in it. Now heres the funny bit. Bare in mind, the previous belt I had nissan fit as I mistakenly thought it would be covered under warranty as the car had only done 20k miles and id only had the car a few weeks. They took 1hr 45minutes to fit the new belt (whilst i sat there waiting) and charged me £80 for the work. Guess how long it took me to fit the belt just now? Yep. 15 minutes!!!!!!!!! That included googling to find the instructions, opening my garage up, getting all my tools out ready, getting old belt off, fitting new one and putting tools away. Just goes to show how much some garages rip people off.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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