[N54Angel]

I had my serpentine belt just basically shred up, and my car is around 5-6 Min from my Indy. Is it safe to drive it the extra 5-6 min or to get a tow truck. I just feel out of luck because I'm so close and I don't want to damage my car if i can pay a tow truck $50 and not risk anything. But I can also save $50 and drive it if I risk nothing

[siphor1989]

Originally Posted by N54Angel

I had my serpentine belt just basically shred up, and my car is around 5-6 Min from my Indy. Is it safe to drive it the extra 5-6 min or to get a tow truck. I just feel out of luck because I'm so close and I don't want to damage my car if i can pay a tow truck $50 and not risk anything. But I can also save $50 and drive it if I risk nothing

Is saving $50 worth the risk of damaging a $5000 engine to you? I'd get a tow if I was in your shoes.

[N54Angel]

Well most serpentine belts are connected to the water pump but ours is electrical. So I think I'm only connected to the steering pump?

[siphor1989]

Originally Posted by N54Angel

Well most serpentine belts are connected to the water pump but ours is electrical. So I think I'm only connected to the steering pump?

The water pump is the least of your concerns. You risk having the belt get sucked in through the crank seal. There's countless people on here who have had this happen when their belt shredded. The last thing you want to do right now is keep the engine running...

[Vitalität]

Put it to neutral and push it all the way to the indy shop if you are worried to pay $50. I would pay $100 or $200 more for peace of mind.

[atinybug]

If you can pull out the shredded belt and make sure none of it got into the crank seal, I honestly don't see a problem with driving it 5 minutes. You won't have power steering, and I think your battery won't be charging, but it's only 5 minutes and the battery will live.

I had a belt shred on my old E46 and I ended up driving it to the shop about 10 minutes away after just pulling it out of the engine bay. The no power steering got old really fast though.

[Supra2k6]

Mine got sucked in on my 07 so again pay the $50. Its strings from the belt that get wrapped behind the pulley imposible to get without pulling the pan and fan out i would not risk it

[brewnami]

Tow truck. Unless the belt snapped clean off, you will risk sucking the shredded belt into your engine as many folks on here have done. That is a complete nightmare as you can imagine.

[N54Angel]

Well I pulled off the serpentine belt parts off and drove it to my local Indy. Turned out to be a 4 min drive. Saved $60 bucks

[Miller335]

Originally Posted by N54Angel

Well I pulled off the serpentine belt parts off and drove it to my local Indy. Turned out to be a 4 min drive. Saved $60 bucks

If it made it into your front seal you just filled your oil pickup with rubber and started the process of starving your engine of oil.

[Hacksaw]

Originally Posted by N54Angel

Well I pulled off the serpentine belt parts off and drove it to my local Indy. Turned out to be a 4 min drive. Saved $60 bucks

Hopefully that is what you did...

Most however do not... even 4 miles is enough to have trashed the bottom end bearings, both rod and crank.. along with who knows what else for the oil pump.



Good luck OP

[N54Angel]

4 min not miles is what I hope you meant to say. But my local Indy said it looks like everything seems ok and I will just need to replace the serpentine belt

[brewnami]

Originally Posted by N54Angel

4 min not miles is what I hope you meant to say. But my local Indy said it looks like everything seems ok and I will just need to replace the serpentine belt

It doesn't matter if you drove it 4 feet, if shredded belt made it through the seal, you cost yourself much more than a $60 tow. Hopefully you cleared everything!

[N54Angel]

It was not to shredded only a little of it was shredded the rest was intact. To be exact 80% was intact 20% was shredded

[Ozzie335i]

Change the hardware. There is a kit that includes the idler and tension pulleys.

[NA55]

Originally Posted by N54Angel

It was not to shredded only a little of it was shredded the rest was intact. To be exact 80% was intact 20% was shredded

Did the shredded pieces break apart or was the belt just just split into two belt?
Hopefully nothing got wrapped behind the crank pulley.. That's how it eventually gets into the engine..

[N54Angel]

Basically yes it was 2 pieces in the end, it was an easy remove. Found out this happened because of my AC COMPRESSER stopped working. I had just installed this 1 week ago. I messaged the company I purchased it from to get a new one

[Swizzie7]

Glad to hear you got it to the Indy op, by the way, how many miles on the car when this happened?

[Hacksaw]

Originally Posted by N54Angel

4 min not miles is what I hope you meant to say. But my local Indy said it looks like everything seems ok and I will just need to replace the serpentine belt

Sorry, for some reason I read that as 4 miles.

4 mins.. maybe not that bad. But damage could have been done.

I interpret shredded to mean all stringy and not much really left of the belt.

Sounds like that was not the case and you might have gotten really, really lucky.