I read somewhere online that the serpentine belt will fail without notice. My belt has no visible cracks and has good tension. I wonder, should it be replaced at regular intervals?

 

Down here we replace the Serp belts every 100K kms, or 5 years, whichever is first.

The pulleys, mainly due to wear in the bearings are replaced at the same time.

Some consider this an overkill, but I do not.

The belts I use are Gates, and the pulleys are whatever I need of the "generic: brand that I find in stock at work, usually "Nuline" brand. Aftermarket in the USA has a better coverage than the mobs down here.

 

The recommendation published in Jaguar Maintenance Schedules is:

1. check drive belt ever 10k miles/12 months - replace if necessary
2. replace drive belt every 100k miles/5 years

These intervals are on a mileage or time elapsed basis - whichever comes first.

If my belt shows cracks or it squeals, then it gets replaced.

Graham

 

Do you guys recommend I stick to OEM belts or are they all the same quality?

Amazon has ACDelco 7K922 Professional V-Ribbed Serpentine Belt for about $35

 

Although I generally favour using OE Jaguar parts, I do use aftermarket pads and belts because of the outrageous cost of these from Jaguar. Never had any issues with aftermarket equivalents.

Graham

 

As Graham said +heaps.

Do your homework, it is easy with the WWW, and I use aftermarket "known brands" 99% of the time.

 

ACDelco is not a belt manufacturer.

Gates, Dayco, Goodyear are.

As long as the pulleys/idlers are stable, the belts seem very reliable.

 

+1

YES - pulley/idler is a known failure and will soon wreck an otherwise good belt.

Graham