What is a Serpentine Belt?

Series Summary

The Serpentine belt is a long drive belt, relative to the formerly used v-belts, that powers the certain accessories of a car or truck. These accessories include the water pump, air conditioner, power steering, and smog pump of a vehicle. The Serpentine belt incorporates the v-belt design into a longer belt with multiple v's across the width of the belt, thus increasing the surface area of the belt and reducing its width in order to save space.

Occasionally the Serpentine belt wears out, falls or is pushed off of its pulleys, becomes damaged, or breaks. Some warning signs of one of these events occurring is a drop in performance of your air conditioner (a/c), battery will not stay charged, or the power steering goes out. You can check for these problems and replace the Serpentine yourself with online video instruction from our expert mechanic.

In this free online video series learn from expert professional mechanic Nathan McCullough who graduated from Nashville Auto-Diesel College with a Grade Point Average of 3.5 and received their craftsmanship award and honor seal. Learn important automotive Serpentine belt topics including: what is a Serpentine belt, locating the Serpentine belt, replacing the Serpentine belt, when to check the Serpentine belt, types of wear to look for, Jacking Screw Tensioner, Serpentine belt removal, checking the pulleys, diagnosing related problems, maintenance, and pulley configuration.

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Nate McCullough on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this clip we are going to talk about what a serpentine belt is. A serpentine belt is the drive belt on the vehicle that operates all the accessories that aren’t driven by the internal workings of the engine. When I say accessories what I mean is going to be your alternator, your power steering pump, your air conditioning if the vehicle is so equipped. Any kind of smog pump or related emission control devices and most of the time but not all the time, the vehicle’s water pump. For years and years and years, manufacturers used what is called a V-belt. Relatively simple in automotive terms; the V is going to stand for how the belt is shaped. It is just one shaped V, about like so, not really that big, going to about that wide and it’s going to be a V and it would ride in a corresponding groove on the vehicle’s pulley. "