3 Serpentine Belts shredded in 5 days! (REPOST from another Forum)
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 44
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From: Silver Spring, MD
ML320 (Dead), ML55 (Sold), E500 (Sold), Cayenne S (Sold), E550 (Sold), Cayenne TurboS, GL550, GLS580
3 Serpentine Belts shredded in 5 days! (REPOST from another Forum)
We are getting some trees cut at our house and I needed to move the ML. As I pulled into a spot, I noticed the battery light came on so i popped the hood and saw what was left of the serpentine belt. I yanked it out and could not believe it (NEVER saw anything like this before.) I drag *** out to Dealership and buy a new belt. I get the belt and pop it on, all is well. I decided to drive it to a meeting the next day and amazingly, ML feels like new.....until I get back and start to pull into the spot I left from, the wheel got heavy and the temp shot up FAST. I got into the spot and popped the hood, same thing shredded belt. Again to the Dealership, read some posts on here about similar problems check all pulleys and all seems well nothing seemed to hang when I spun them manually. I get the belt on and leave it for two days.
Yesterday I went to bring the ML back to my house and all seemed well I watched the belt spin for about 5 minutes with no apparent delays or freezing by any of the pulleys. I pull into the front of my house and battery, temp, and no power steering....I could not believe it third belt GONE worst than the past two.
How do I diagnose what is causing this without throwing parts at it. I have about 135k (11/1999 build date) on the clock and I hardly look at this truck these days let alone drive it. From my service records and the previous owners it looks like the only thing replaced in the pulley route was the Balancer. I saw there is a new tensioner part number to replace the old could that be it?
Thanks in advance for the help!
Yesterday I went to bring the ML back to my house and all seemed well I watched the belt spin for about 5 minutes with no apparent delays or freezing by any of the pulleys. I pull into the front of my house and battery, temp, and no power steering....I could not believe it third belt GONE worst than the past two.
How do I diagnose what is causing this without throwing parts at it. I have about 135k (11/1999 build date) on the clock and I hardly look at this truck these days let alone drive it. From my service records and the previous owners it looks like the only thing replaced in the pulley route was the Balancer. I saw there is a new tensioner part number to replace the old could that be it?
Thanks in advance for the help!
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Nov 2001
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From: Philadelphia area
2010 ML550, 2010 E350 4M, 1966 Corvette Convt C2
Its obviously a bad pulley. Which one is the question?? I would check them all but look first at the tensioner and the balancer. In addition also have a look at the a/c compressor, the power steering, water pump, and alternator to be certain that one of them is not seizing up after start up.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 44
Likes: 0
From: Silver Spring, MD
ML320 (Dead), ML55 (Sold), E500 (Sold), Cayenne S (Sold), E550 (Sold), Cayenne TurboS, GL550, GLS580
found the problem idler crack clean in half. since i had no idea what it looked like in the first place i never noticed.
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Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 5
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From: Trenton, NJ
ML320
I had the same problem on my 2000 ML320. Went thru 2 belts before I Found that the problem was the pulley.
While the pulley looks like it was ok, it was cracked and was still in placed as though it was not cracked.
While the pulley looks like it was ok, it was cracked and was still in placed as though it was not cracked.
