DougS550
Well-Known Member
If the belt was in serviceable condition when inspected, didn't stretch out beyond OEM limits, Belt Tensioner . Unless you have a misaligned pulley or a pulley bearing starting to freeze up. Good luckShort story: Both my AC and Serpentine Belt fell off (spun off at high revs presumably) during my past 2 track days. My coolant obviously overheated and I had to limp off the track (which was 3 hours away and I don't trailer). Fortunately, the belts were still in the engine bay and I was able to reinstall the Serpentine and drive home, but where do I go from here besides new belts and coolant flush (I just refilled with water). Are there aftermarket belts that won't do this again? My R has 4500 miles but is mostly a track car.
Longer story: Two weeks ago at Grattan, I turned my AC on in the Pit (did not use on track) and saw the coolant escape under my hood. Last year, my compressor went and I figured something similar happened and just stopped using the AC. I now see the AC belt flung off (did not break) and broke a AC line in half which is where the coolant I saw escaped.
Yesterday, I tracked at Gingerman which is 3 hours away. I completed 6 20 min sessions and on the 7th, 4 laps in, my coolant overheated and car went in limp mode. Dash had "Service charging system" messages as well. Car went into limp mode and drove rough the ~.5 mile I coasted/baby'd if off the track. Coolant was sprayed in the engine bay through the pressure relief on the back of the container, and at the time I figured something hit the electrical system and it was on the fritz. I let the car sit, topped it off with water, took the cap off and tried to "burp" any air in the engine out (from prior boiling) and waited 45 min for it to cool.
Day was over so I tried leaving figuring babying it on the highway 3hrs home would get enough airflow and be ok. I got 1.5 miles before coolant boiled again and car went into limp mode. I pulled into a random house off a 2 lane country road and VERY luckily a young guy was home who's father builds drag engines. At this point, my battery was also dead, all guages went dark as I coasted in his driveway. I didn't see any blockages, the car was not leaking coolant (past the boiled over part) and radiator everything looked fine. The kid's dad looked in and instantly pulled out my two belts and said, "ya, this might be your problem." ;).
It looks like the AC belt flung off at Grattan two weeks ago and took out the ac line, and the serpentine belt flew off during my 7th session yesterday, which caused the water pump to stop so obviously the fluid didn't circulate out of the block and just boiled almost instantly, even babying it on the street, no amount of air to the radiator would help that. That also explains why the battery died in the few mins the car was running without the alternator as all the electricals, steering, brake booster, stereo, very quickly drained the battery.
The good news is the guy's dad was able to remove the coolant reservoir and put the serpentine belt back on, and I drove the 3 hours home without incident with everything working fine. I'm VERY VERY annoyed neither my owner's manual, supplement, nor any google search I could do with my phone resulted in showing the damn routing of our 5.2L engine's belt. My manual shows the 2.7, 3.7, and 5.0 mustangs belt routing, but not the 5.2L flat plane, WTF??? Come on Ford, give us a manual that's specific to the car we bought. He was able to figure it out fortunately from a old pic of a GT350 engine out of the car.
I already have a dealer appt for Tuesday for the AC, so will have them put 2 new belts on (unless there are better aftermarket belts that won't spin off so easy?) and also do a coolant flush. Is there anything else I should have the dealer do? I didn't clear the CEL so they could see any remaining codes. This better all be covered under my warranty, or I'll do the belts and coolant myslef, but it's a 17 and I have the 8 year extended warranty. I did not see any other reports of belts falling off for others, so confused how both fell off on mine. My car has 4500 miles so there is no reason this should have happened except for poor design/material on a track focused R car.
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