Serpentine fan and assy belt

From : oldtimer

Q: recently i bought a 96 dakota v6 and immediately began checking what items and area needed attention i notice that the serpentine belt had grooves that ran at 90degrees across the longitudinal grooves of the belt. they made the belt appear to be an aging cracking belt. i remove the belt for closer inspection and found that generally the belt did not appear to be old. someone then told me that what appeared to be cracks across the grooves in the belt was actually a feature designed into the belt to afford more flexibility. another person told me that this was total nonsense. what about it folks. are serpentine belts actually manufactured with slits that look a lot like cracks. the brand of the belt i was looking at was a dayco. oldtimer .

Replies:

From : mike simmons

old timer the small cracks that run perpendicular to the grooves in the belt are normal and nothing to be concerned about. there are not however designed into the belt for flexibility just a normal sign of aging. what you should be concerned with however are cracks that run parallel with the grooves or chunks that are missing from the belt. hope this helps! chryco service manager member sae recently i bought a 96 dakota v6 and immediately began checking what items and area needed attention i notice that the serpentine belt had grooves that ran at 90degrees across the longitudinal grooves of the belt. they made the belt appear to be an aging cracking belt. i remove the belt for closer inspection and found that generally the belt did not appear to be old. someone then told me that what appeared to be cracks across the grooves in the belt was actually a feature designed into the belt to afford more flexibility. another person told me that this was total nonsense. what about it folks. are serpentine belts actually manufactured with slits that look a lot like cracks. the brand of the belt i was looking at was a dayco. oldtimer .

From : cbhvac sales

recently i bought a 96 dakota v6 and immediately began checking what items and area needed attention i notice that the serpentine belt had grooves that ran at 90degrees across the longitudinal grooves of the belt. they made the belt appear to be an aging cracking belt. i remove the belt for closer inspection and found that generally the belt did not appear to be old. someone then told me that what appeared to be cracks across the grooves in the belt was actually a feature designed into the belt to afford more flexibility. another person told me that this was total nonsense. what about it folks. are serpentine belts actually manufactured with slits that look a lot like cracks. the brand of the belt i was looking at was a dayco. oldtimer cracks are cracks and a sign of aging. now if you have a dayco that has the x pattern in the groves then that is designed to make it run cooler however the only ones i tried are junk. goodyear makes a gatorback version of this and i have had zero luck with them as well. i just use a good old gates belt and dont worry about it. .