If you have a car, do you check the fan belt regularly?

Whilst they’re still colloquially known as fan belts they no longer drive the fan. All ICE engines will however have this belt, also known as serpentine/auxiliary belt because without it your air con wouldn’t work, your power steering wouldn’t work, your alternator wouldn’t charge and on some engines your water pump wouldn’t work!

Important to get it changed if it starts squealing or chirruping because on cars with a rubber timing belt there’s a risk the fan belt snapping can also take out the timing belt and be catastrophic to your engine.

Routine replacement is often around 50-70k miles.

There has been a real dumbing down in recent years . 20/30 years ago people were much more car savvy and would know how to check basic items themselves / change a wheel etc.These days people are more clueless.

That's not entirely drivers' fault. When I got my first cars, they all came with a spare wheelchair. Now I get a bottle of gloop instead - obviously this doesn't stop me checking tyre pressure and thread depth, but it does mean i couldn't do much other than call the AA when I got a large hole in my tyre.

I did question a colleague yesterday who said he'd been helping another colleague check the oil in her car, and I even question if he meant just a normal dipstick check, because who needs help with that? (It's possible she is entirely capable of it - he's good looking and single.)

When I had battery problems, I can change that alone. I can't do the magic that was required which the AA did by plugging in a device and doing stuff to the electronic management system. And lots of car problems need that sort of thing these days.

Not belt driven fans perhaps, but the aux or serpentine belt is still colloquially known as a fan belt and I think we know what someone is talking about when they refer to it as such.

@HundredAcreOwl Are you posting from the 1980s? Cars have not had fan belts for more than 35 years! 😆

There has been a real dumbing down in recent years . 20/30 years ago people were much more car savvy and would know how to check basic items themselves / change a wheel etc.These days people are more clueless.

Drivers really do need to take some responsibility. Knowing how to check your tyres to see if they are within the legal limit for example. It is you as a driver who will get fined and points on your licence for having bald tyres. The argument that you had it serviced 9 months ago and they were ok then wouldn’t hold any water.

Good grief, I don’t even know how to open the bonnet. It’s a hybrid, would they have a fan belt?

Mine do, it’s a very quick check and an easy potential upsell. You need to find better mechanics.

Just for clarification, my car has a chain rather than a drive belt but neither are the same thing as a fan belt. I never check my fan belt, that's checked at servicing and I've never had an issue with it.

While I've heard of a fan belt, I wouldn't know where in the car it was, what it looked like, what the purpose is, what are the symptoms of it breaking down, or how to even begin to fix it.
That's what I pay a garage to do. Plus I'm a member of the AA for these sorts of events.
My car gets an in-depth service every year, at the same time as its MOT.

Haven't seen a car since around 80/90s with a fan belt, almost all have an electric fan instead.

If the timing belt/chain has broken then 99% of the time you are looking at a destroyed engine (and possible write-off).

If the alternator belt has gone then you should have seen a warning light come on at some point saying the battery was not charging.

If you think mechanics are doing that, you're due a wake-up call

I had a timing chain blow a few years ago. The car had just had its annual service, and at 60k, should have replaced the chain. Garage had to cover the cost of a new engine. It made a fantastic noise I can tell you.

No idea where my fan belt is or what it does.
I put petrol in occasionally, although my DH does this mainly, plus checking tyres and other bits like that. It has a yearly MOT and service and I’ve got breakdown cover.

As long as I know how to operate things and who to contact when they go wrong, I don’t need to know how they work and have no interest in this. This applies to any machinery or electrical equipment.

On the contrary, “inspect condition of aux belt” is a pretty common component of a service.

Low mileage is detrimental to the condition of the auxiliary belt - you're much more likely to have a perished belt before it wears. An annual service won't cover this.

I never check anything on my car. It’s a leap of faith every time I drive it.

🤣😂🤣

I have a handle

Are you sure you aren’t confusing timing belt/chain and fan belt here?

Who has a belt driven starter?

Welcome to the internet. (Or should I say the World Wide Web?)

No idea if the previous reply is useful, BTW.

BUT, my "Toyota Corolla mild hybrid does not have a traditional fan belt; the hybrid system uses electric motors and a battery, which eliminates the need for a belt-driven alternator and starter, replacing their functions and reducing components that require maintenance. The hybrid system takes over the roles of powering the vehicle's accessories that a fan belt would typically drive in a conventional car."

I do not work for Toyota. I pay a garage.

Car - never. Boat yes everyday. This car doesn’t have one. Timing belt gets changed at 120k miles. So far it’s not achieved 70k miles in six years.

Timing chain and durable don't belong in the same sentence!