Cogged V-Belt

This is called the V or vee belt because its cross section is V-shaped. This is narrower than the serpentine belt and is usually not more than half an inch wide. Its tapered sides fit around a pulley or gear with matching grooves or teeth on it. This kind of belt is better to use with high load applications; its grooves give it a firmer grip on the pulleys or gears, preventing slips and prolonging the belt’s life.

There’s also the standard V-belt. It’s just as wide as the cogged v-belt but it has no grooves on its underside. It’s ideal to use only in light load applications which doesn’t require the precise turning of gears.

Drive belts used in automobiles today can be categorized mainly into two: the serpentine and the cogged V-belt.

Serpentine Belt

Also called a poly-V-belt (because its cross-section looks like many Vs put side by side), this type of drive belt is so named because it’s long that it can “snake” around different pulleys. Usually half to one inch wide, it is flat-faced on one side and has lengthwise grooves on the other. The grooves, which can be as many as eight, fit in similar lengthwise grooves on the sides of the pulleys and lessen the belt’s tendency to slip.

coolant reservoir

9. Not enough coolant.

The coolant is the lifeblood of your vehicle’s cooling system. So if you’re low on it, you can expect your engine to overheat anytime soon. You can check on the coolant level through the coolant reservoir tank.

A low coolant condition, however, shouldn’t be taken lightly. The coolant is supposed to stay inside the system for two years at the very least. So if it starts disappearing, you better start checking up your coolant’s route; chances are there’s a leak somewhere.

10. Loose driving belt.

The coolant pump has a pulley that is driven by a drive belt that’s connected to the crankshaft. If the drive belt is loose, it would not effectively transmit the mechanical power from the crankshaft to the coolant pump pulley. It might even slip, which would halt the pump’s operation altogether. Thus, it can cause overheating.

11. Leaky radiator hose.

radiator hose with clamp

Made from rubber and held in place only with clamps, the radiator hose is the most leak-prone of all the cooling system components. It seldom leaks coolant through holes or scratches along its body.

The common problem encountered with the radiator hose is the setting or permanent compression of the hose by the hose clamp. As the coolant heats up, the neck to which the hose is connected expands. And because the hose is made of rubber, it expands along with the neck. But because there’s the clamp tightened around the hose, the hose gets heavily compressed that after the temperature goes down, it is already loose. However, there are some hoses that, instead of becoming loose, get glued to the neck after being heated up.

Drive belts transfer mechanical power between the engine and several other components through different gears and pulleys. These gears and pulleys have different sizes so that the power they would generate will be enough to run the components they are connected to. Here’s a list of the main components driven by the drive belts and gears.

1. Crankshaft – Being the engine part turned by the pistons, this generates the mechanical power. Its gear is usually the biggest and is found at the bottom of the engine’s front side.
2. Alternator – The part that transforms mechanical energy into alternating currents needed by the electrical system, which charges the battery. The alternator pulley is commonly the smallest of the belt-driven gears.
3. Air Conditioning Compressor – It’s what pumps the A/C system’s refrigerant and compresses it into high-pressured vapor.
4. Water Pump – It circulates coolant in the cooling system. It’s usually located beside the crankshaft.
5. Power steering pump – This part circulates the hydraulic fluid so that there’s be enough hydraulic pressure in a power steering system.

Though many components are run in the drive belt system, their functions can actually be categorized into two: to keep the engine from overheating and the battery from getting discharged.

Open your vehicle’s hood. Unless your engine was designed by a neat freak, you should find its front end mostly uncovered, and you should be able to see the different gears of your vehicles components. These gears or sprockets are linked together by what seems like a big black, toothed rubber band. This band is what you call a drive belt.

So what do drive belts do? They link the engine’s gears and the gears of other components to transfer mechanical power from the engine to those other systems. With a belt’s interior lining molded with grooves and teeth, it’s able to fit a similarly toothed sprocket. As that sprocket turns, another sprocket linked with the belt also gets rotated, thereby activating whatever accessory it’s connected to.