Fan Belt On Ls400

[hammerputt]

My LS400 (yr 2000) broke down with the fan belt shredded resulting in a loss of power and all electrics not functioning; could somebody advise if this is likely to have caused the engine to overheat? There were no signs of this when the RAC engineer arrived.

[steve2006]

Hello and welcome to the LOC.

The fan belt or serpentine belt only drives the alternator, AC compressor and power steering pump with an auto tensioner and idler also in the loop.

The water pump is driven off the cambelt so this would not be affected and the engine cooling is controlled by electric fans behind the radiator so no overheating would have occured.

Unless the belt failed due to age you will need to see if anything in the belt's routing has caused it to shred like a worn or out of alignment pulley but any decent garage will be able to check this and advise accordingly.

[Malc]

What is the actual time / mileage life of the serpentine belt ?

Thanks

Malc

[hammerputt]

Steve - thank you for your comprehensive answe to my query

Malcom - the mileage is 168,000 and 13 years old

[steve2006]

No problem always glad to help.

I think Malc is asking what the service life of the belt is, from my 1994 owners manual I have inspect at 60,000 or 72 months then every 7500 miles/12 months.

There is no specific replacement interval stated.

[Malc]

I guess to be on the safe side then we should be replacing the serpentine belt with the cambelt change.

Malc

[Maduggo]

What is the actual time / mileage life of the serpentine belt ?

Thanks

Malc

Hiya and welcome

I have a Ls430 so not exactly the same car, i recently changed my serpentine belt myself at 65k, only because it was making a little whining noise on startup, checking the old belt after it did not show signs of damage, just looked worn. How long it had been on the car i cannot say, maybe from new.

As for the predicted service life, i cannot say, but for the price of a new belt, less than £20 for mine, i don't consider it a worry if i changed it every 20k miles.

I would only worry if i checked it it after 20k miles and it looked worn, i bet that would be a sign of bad things, but Lexus don't break do they ?

[Kid_Kneestone]

Can I just add a note to this topic.

I replaced the V-Belt with the recommended item from Euro Car Parts which was a Continental belt. this worked for a couple of days then squealed like a pig. So did a replacement one... I eventually ordered a Gates belt which apparently is the de facto standard for such things. This was actually 2mm shorter than the Continental version and (fingers crossed) is working perfectly.

[Malc]

I would go with Toyota / Lexus belts for the future.

Why ? well, on here the other day in the " early Press Release " contribution item here I noted that the OEM cambelt was developed as the belt, to avoid having to have a noisier camchain for the Ls400 as newly developed.

The cambelt is of aramid fibre ......... kevlar stuff ........ and original Ls400 had no cambelt change periodicity / mileage stipulation.

Guess it just might last a very very very long time ........ as would probably the serpentine belt too............. probably seriously over engineered for the job they have to do.

Malc

[Malc]

Original Lexus Press Pack ............. piece that is

Malc