Accessory drive belts

[SlugSlinger]

For those who haven’t seen this before, one way to tell if a drive belt is bad is to look at the ribs when they are inversely extended over a pulley and check for cracks; like in the image. If you see cracks here, it’s time to change the belt.

My wife drives a ‘17 4Runner we bought new. She loves to drive it and I like the straightforward maintenance.

Anyway, the reason I like Toyota is because they have the best engineers and likely manufacturer the most reliable vehicles on the road.

This belt has 140,000 miles on it and no cracks. I changed it today as a precaution and will keep the factory belt next to the jack in case we need it.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

It looks good to me. Now lets see the tires and air pressure.

 

[SlugSlinger]

275/70/17 6 ply truck tires 32 psi. They are the biggest tires that would fit without rubbing.

These Falkens replaced the factory originals.

They’re great tires but too noisy. They did get us through a blizzard taking a shortcut up to Colorado last year.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Nice! I like Wild Peaks!

 

[Mr.Glock]

I have a 06 Toyota Tundra 4 door 4x4 with less than 100k miles on it. Told my buddy who owns a shop that I wanted to change all the hoses and belts when I prematurely replaced the timing belt/water pump and thermostat at 85k. He said nope, waste of money. And then commenced to tell me to only change the hoses/belts and such with Toyota Brand only. So I as a big proponent of preventative maintenance had him order me all new belts and hoses and they ride along under the back seat when needed or when I change them out. He went on to tell me the Toyota rubber components are made to last like no other. My main belt looks as good as the new one at 90k miles.


And yes on the Falken Wildpeaks! I have ran them on a few Jeeps and will run them on the Jeep I have now, when the Nitto Terra Grapplers wear out.

 

[SlugSlinger]

The trick to belt replacement is to take pictures of the routing before you take the belt off. There is no way you’re going to figure out how to install the belt if you don’t have a guide.

 

[SlugSlinger]

I have a 06 Toyota Tundra 4 door 4x4 with less than 100k miles on it. Told my buddy who owns a shop that I wanted to change all the hoses and belts when I prematurely replaced the timing belt/water pump and thermostat at 85k. He said nope, waste of money. And then commenced to tell me to only change the hoses/belts and such with Toyota Brand only. So I as a big proponent of preventative maintenance had him order me all new belts and hoses and they ride along under the back seat when needed or when I change them out. He went on to tell me the Toyota rubber components are made to last like no other. My main belt looks as good as the new one at 90k miles.


And yes on the Falken Wildpeaks! I have ran them on a few Jeeps and will run them on the Jeep I have now, when the Nitto Terra Grapplers wear out.

Using factory transmission fluid and coolant are a good idea too. I do use Mobil 1 oil though.