This week-end the auxiliary part belts on my 550 gave up. First symptom was the loss of power steering, then beginning of overheating and loss of generator. So most probably the belt for the power steering and water pump broke, then almost immediately destroyed the other belt (generator and AC). Needless to say, I immediately stopped the car in the hope of avoiding further damage. Fortunately it was at an event organised by the french FOC, and we had a very efficient support team (provided by a Ferrari dealer) who was able to remove the shredded belts and replace them with new ones on the side of the road. Now the question is, how could this happen? Allegedly the car had the cambelts replaced about one year ago, just before I bought it - so the auxiliary belts should have been replaced at the same time.
I’m interested in hearing what the smart guys say…..my knucklehead guess is the belt was installed in an “overtightened” position.
And perhaps the operative phrase is "should have been replaced at the same time". Should rather than were
I had the same happen on my Lancia Kappa coupé last weekend. Turned out to be caused by a broken ball in the tensioner bearing, which caused the tensioner to stop abruptly and break the belt. It's a good thing the belt breaks, as that prevents further damage to the other components/bearings due to overload.
My car will be "investigated" ten days from now - the records of the dealer that sold me the car say they actually replaced the belts. A possibility is the seizing up of the AC compressor rotor, although it was apparently rotating freely (I did not dare to put the AC back in operation though). I will report back...
Same thing happened to my 550, the alternator's tensioner seized and broke the belt. That tensioner is close to the bottom of the car and more exposed to the elements than the other tensioners! The other belt was unaffected though. Stefano
Investigations have been inconclusive There is the possibility some external element (small gravel or whatever) came in and damaged a belt; this was already mentioned by the Ferrari staff who made the repair, but although possible it is considered rather unlikely.
