Mister Bally

First car problem on our 3500 mile trip. Happened at about the 2500 mile mark. Serpintine/ribbed belt disintegrated and let loose on pretty fast acceleration entering from a rest area. This was certainly not at all as fast as earlier in the trip. Belt let loose in Vinita, Oklahoma. No power steering, no A/C and no alternator. Called the Napa Store in Miami, Oklahoma and amazingly, they said they have one in stock but they close in a half hour. I asked them to please wait for us as I guessed it would take 45 minutes to limp there. They said they would wait. We arrived and they were there. We had to buy a few tools (Ratchet, sockets and a wrench).

Yes, they had the correct belt so we installed it while parked on the side of the store.

I used my PC with the Bentley manual and discoverd the error in pulley placement in the manual. I recalled this from a year ago but remembered I took a picture back then so we dug out my external drive and had the photo which really helped. If no belt would have been available it may have meant an expensive tow back to Tulsa and we'd have to wait until Tuesday!

The belt that failed was the new one I installed from Blau a year ago. This belt had 21000 miles on it. The old, original belt had over 110k miles and was over six years old.

There was no stuck pulley or idler as we checked them before installing the belt and we've put over 400 miles on the belt we installed earlier today. The ruined belt, where it is not shreaded has cracks everywhere perhaps indicating brittle rubber.

We all know these 4.2L engines run super hot. The trip has been brutal with temps over 100 degrees for over a week now. That has not helped the belt. I'm really starting to worry about the toothed (timing) belt now. I will inspect in a couple of days as the oil change is due. I'm urging all of us who purchased the Blau part kit to inspect their serpintine belt for premature cracks. Replace if necessary and maybe even carry a spare. Even if you can't replace it yourself, You can limp to a garage. Having the part stored with your spare tire will ease your worries if you have a problem like I had.

By the way, this was actually a great thing to experience for my son's sake of problem handling and solving as he goes through the game of life.

Photos here: https://www.audiworld.com/forums/alb...albumid=164342

williebone

Sorry to hear you had trouble with the belt, but I guess with all things considered, it was more of an inconvience than a Major Catastrophic Event. Glad to see that it all worked out and was light on the wallet.

I know who supplied the Belt, but is it the Manufacturer of the Belt? A close up of the Supplier and Part# would've been helpful to the Board as we would want to stay away from whom ever makes the Belt. Back to the Trip and enjoyment. Take care and laters,

FlyTyinFool

Thank you for sharing. I'm checking mine today. As williebone stated, it could have been a lot worse. Sounds like good people at the Napa store there for hanging out until you got there. And, great mechanical and life experience for "The Ballykid."

Good times...

MP4.2+6.0

Questions first on your serp. belt. Are you sure there isn't a mechanical problem? Do you have the old belt (sounds like it)? Besides the cracks, is it burnt anywhere? Like one of the accessory driven pumps locking up for a while for example? A/C compressor might be most likely suspect there. Belt aside, do all the pulleys line up correctly--nothing off angle or otherwise tweaked a bit? Regardless of make, most belts I have lost, especially serp belts, have had an underlying contributing cause. Thus, not necessarily an obvious bad pulley, but rather something out of alignment that then screws up the belt over some miles.

On your timing belt (plus the old serp belt), do you remember if they were branded product? When I have bought these kinds of parts for my C5 4.2 or other Audi V6's w/ belt drives, usually the parts are from name brands like Gates or Continental. If your timing belt was, hopefully some comfort there.

Mister Bally

Just arrived home safe & sound. I will try to find the sleeve the replacement Blau belt came in. I may have kept it and the original belt but maybe not. No real name on the belt but I'll take closeup pictures soon.

Put over 1000 miles on the new NAPA belt and it still looks perfect.

As I mentioned, all pulleys and idlers spun fine. No noises. No sign of burning on the belt carcass but it is chewed up pretty bad from the launch. Nothing has been touced relative to aligning every pulley and they visually seem aligned with each other.

Not yesterday after the fix, but today in the final stretch home, the engine was revved for awhile close to redline with no loud thud like we heard when it happened yesterday. Again, the bad belt has hundreds of cracks in the groove area. My original belt removed at 110 or 120k did not look anywhere near this bad.

3710 mile road trip. It was great.

mishar

Nice trip. I plan one shorter than that (2000+) in August. I think I will have my toolbox and few spare parts with me. Belt for sure. Not from Blauparts.

williebone

+1 on the Toolbox and Keeping an Eye on the Belt. MB welcome back home to the MidWest (Chicagoland) and glad to see you and son had the Great Adventure and a safe one. Laters,

Mister Bally

photos of the ruined bellt are here: https://www.audiworld.com/forums/alb...albumid=164348

Still not sure if the belt failed or it got thrown for some reason. Again, new belt driven almost a thousand miles so far and it looks good. We babied it the first day but got agressive revving the engine close to the redline on day two.

To those that installed the Blau kit of parts recently on their 4.2L engine; please take a look at the grooves and let me know if you see any cracks.

I'm not accusing Blau of anything ( I know they are reading this thread) and I am so thankful this happend close to a small town that actually had the part and with the purchase of a few tools, my son and I were able to limp the car there and repair it ourselves. Thank goodness while very hot, the weather was nice to work outside.

In the odd event there is a bad batch of belts, best we know in advance rather than under emergency conditions. I will be inspecting my timing belt soon when I perform an oil change in a few days.

Mister Bally

We had so much stuff in the car I did not take any real mechanics tools. Actually had electronics tool kit to do some slot machine repairs tghough!

Photo added from yesterday as we were getting closer to home. 1st photo in the updated album: https://www.audiworld.com/forums/alb...albumid=164293

MP4.2+6.0

You know that of course. Of the half dozen serp belts I have changed out, the only one I recall with cracks like this was my 96 C4. Original factory belt, but many miles and years before I changed it. And at the time I remember it seemed odd. Only 172HP on a 4 speed auto/quattro, so it was much slower to accelerate than a 4.2 too.