Review on 🔗 Gates Serpentine Belt K040317SF by William Pacino

Very well made strap, the quality is like any other Gates product. I've driven it about 10,000 miles and it still looks good after previous removal and reinstallation. It's too early to talk about wear and tear and such, but from what I've seen so far, it fits nicely. I'm trying to balance the bad reviews because while I understand that going to a stretch-fit belt is an unkind change, going with that style of belt was Subaru's choice. The strap itself is well made and serves its purpose. I have complaints about using rubber bands which I will address below. First, the old idler design on some older model cars (IMO) had a bad idler design. For those with older tensioners, they have been adjusted to tension at an ANGLE rather than perpendicular to the belt. This puts unnecessary stress on the tensioner and customers end up with damaged tensioners. Rather than redesigning a belt that tensions the belt perpendicularly (90 degrees), Subaru opts for these elastic-fit belts. You now have a few options for installing an air conditioning strap on your vehicle. Option 1: Some new engines have mounting points that can be installed with old tensioners, just do a little research to find the correct tensioner. and belt, and you can resort to the older, but simpler and cheaper (in the long run) way to replace the belt. Option 2: Buy the right installation tool. There are "universal" ones that don't work. Some tools require the A/C belt to be on the outside of the crankshaft pulley. My Impreza 08 has the AC belt on the engine side pulley. Option 3: The strap is easy to put on and take off and is a 1 inch (about 3 or 4 feet) wide nylon strap. Will do). Simply use the belt to pull the belt toward you while turning the crank to "remove" the belt from the AC pulley. Once the belt gets stuck between the AC pulley and the belt, just use a different part of the belt. Pull the strap to move it further away from the air conditioner. Putting on a new belt is more difficult but can be done in the same way. Having someone turn the crank when you put the strap back on can make this task easier. You need to pull hard and get enough preload to allow the belt to hold onto the pulley and not slip. I've done it myself successfully with no damage or problems, it was just a hassle to find a method that works. If you are REPLACING the belt, you can simply cut the old 1,000 miles on a reused belt and put a new belt on my brand from 90,000. There was not even any wear on the old belt.