The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

54shogun · Newbie Joined: 25 Jan 2018 Posts: 3 Location: Glos

Hello,

I have owned an Automatic, 54 plate, 3.2 DI-D Shogun LWB Warrior for a couple of years and know little about cars. Hopefully I've put this in the right place...

In March 2017 my two alternator belts snapped on the way to the airport (fortunately we just made it!). The belts were replaced on our return and life went on as normal. I had it serviced at a local garage in September but at least one of the belts (they thought the aircon) continued to screech from start until being driven a few miles (from memory this started a month or two sooner).

Then, a couple of weeks ago (10th Jan 2018) they snapped again. This time the break seemed very clean in comparison with no sign of wear. I do very little mileage (less than 2,000/year).

My garage are a bit stumped. They could see no problem with the pulleys and said their supplier will pay for replacement belts and labour if it happens again.

I've only driven the car a few times since then and last night - particularly when pulling away on a steepish hill, shortly after start-up - I heard a few all-to-familiar screeches from the belts when accelerating.

I'm reluctant to just leave it until they go again and I'm convinced it's going to happen sooner rather than later. If nothing has changed since last time then that seems inevitable. Is there anything that might be aggravating the issue that I can suggest to my garage to take a look at?

Thanks for reading.

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peteinchad · Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 17:40 Post subject:

Maybe the belts were overtightened when fitted.

Or they were cheap belts - I have got Gates belts on mine. They have been on for two years and not needed adjusting yet

54shogun · Newbie Joined: 25 Jan 2018 Posts: 3 Location: Glos

Cheers Pete.

Pretty sure these were Gates belts (invoice says v-belt 6266MC).

Over-tightening seems possible since they've said "it's about as tight as you'd want it to be" but they did feel it was within range. Perhaps I'll ask them to slacken it off and see what happens...

peteinchad · Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 19:27 Post subject:

I use a Gates belt tension gauge - the twin belts don't need to be very tight.

hutchy · Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 19:48 Post subject:

i use the old tried and tested method when tightening up a belt find the longest run of the belt and see if it twist through 90 degs if it does it,s tight enough.if it does not it,s to tight Wink

trekker · Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 10:04 Post subject:

Two quick checks you can do yourself. Shake the alternator to see if it is slack on it's mountings and thus creating pulley misalignment.

Look at the fit of the belts in their pulley V groove. The belt should be around flush with the top of the V groove, but defo not touching the root of the groove, as slippage will occur regardless of tension.

The screech comes from slippage of the belt under load of the alternator charging the battery following some battery drainage when starting the engine. This slippage causes glazing of the belts and ongoing increased slippage.

skool · Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 4:59 Post subject:

54shogun · Newbie Joined: 25 Jan 2018 Posts: 3 Location: Glos

Thanks for the tips. Alternator appears secure and I could just about get 90 degrees out of the nearest belt. Wasn't quite sure about the positioning in the groove but it seems about flush with the top of the pulleys.

I suppose at the very least the belts would have had to be re-tightened when replaced simply to get them on and off so it's not in exactly the same state as last time (when perhaps they were overtightened). If that makes sense...

Will keep an ear out for more screeching and report back.

Thanks again.