Lost Serpentine Belt

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by NickNickNick

I have two reports. One from June 21, 2010 where the drive belt was loosened and lubricated.

The second from May 5, 2011 where the drive belt was checked and reported as being in excellent shape.

The issue isn't really the drive belt anyway - it's the fact that I paid good money for a brand new car that I thought would last at least 10 years without any engine trouble.

We bought a 1998 used Cavalier shortly after the Yaris for my wife, and it has 200,000km on it with no issues at all.

Had I know I was going to have to pay $3000 to have the engine and clutch replaced on this vehicle, I would have bought a used car of a whatever brand I could get the best deal on. I bought a new Toyota because I believed in the reliability claims they make all of the time. I find it VERY difficult to believe that when I had all the parts of my car fully checked 7000km ago, they would miss a belt problem, engine problem, and a problem with the clutch (which is almost completely snapped off). Sounds defective to me.

Lubricated the belt. OK. The service you get is only as good as the place you take it, and I would be suspect of any place that said they lubed a belt.

A number of things could cause a belt to fail or come off... A piece of debris from the road kicked up, if the water pump was going and had excess end play. I lost one when our aluminum crank pulley (not stock) split in two. Bad stuff happens to cars.

I would love to see a pic of an almost snapped off clutch. How does that happen, and what is it almost snapped off of? I don't know of any service inspection that checks a clutch, hard to see it without pulling the trans.

Seems like there is more to this.

I have a 2001 Expedition with 199450 miles on it, and a 2007 with 40k, guess which one has spent more time at the dealer. Its the newer one. Sometimes your are lucky with a car, others times, not so much.