this is the second time this has happened i will be playing in the water and mud and all of a sudden no power steering and the engine gets hot. i know i've lost the belt again. has anyone had this problem? i had the tensioner and belt warrantied today. but still the fact that it falls off just worries me.

 

Yeah that's suspect...I"ve been through plenty of water and no belts have fallen off. First I've heard of it really.

I'd see how that new tensioner does and if it falls off again - well, I'm not sure what would be causing it to fall off other than the tensioner. Maybe just a bad belt.

Perhaps the idle pulley is bad - pushing it off track somehow right before you rev it and hit the water.

 

if you had the belt replaced somewhere, sounds like the mechanics didn't check over their work.

 

you know, back in late 90's early 00's these 3.8 motors had a big problem with this in the Chrysler town and country's. It would happen from just hitting puddles. Chryslers fix was a splash shield, slightly shorter grooved belt, and I think a replacement motor mount as odd as that sounds. I wonder if the problem is back because there is definetly no splash shield down there

 

Definately wouldnt happen if the tensioner was functioning correctly, and everything was installed properly. Gotta be a red herring...

 

mrsig,
I love seeing those pictures..

Good thing you post them everywhere, LOL

 

It is funny this is coming up. I had a 99 Caravan with the 3.8 and the serpentine belt fell off as I was accelerating through a puddle. I didn't realize this was such a common problem.

 

this could be caused by doing muddy donuts......

 

Water, Ice, Snow can cause a serpentine belt to jump off. Some vehicles are worse than others just by the way the engine is covered, or not.