13th Jun 2008, 11:48

We have a 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan with all of the above mentioned problems. We have replaced the belt about 10 times in the last 1 1/2 years. Had the vehicle towed numerous times and had many "near-miss" accidents when the belt falls off! We have replaced the tensioner and been told to replace splash pan underneath. We will try the Gates Kit--hopefully this will work. Thanks for all the information--thought it was just a fluke we had all these problems.

14th Jul 2008, 23:12

I have a 3.3L 1995 Plymouth Grand Voyager with a classic serpentine belt & tensioner pulley problem. I observed the belt was running on the outside edge the pulley, and when viewed from the top of the engine, the pulley assembly was tilted outward, forcing the serpentine belt out of alignment. The belt squealed all the time, and even more so when it was wet.

My fix:

1) The serpentine belts must be loosened to free the tensioner pulley assembly

2) From under the engine, loosen the single nut that holds the tensioner pulley assembly in place. Leaving enough slack to allow a shim to be inserted between the engine bracket and the lower portion of the pulley tensioner spring assembly

3) Make a metal shim about 3/16 inch thick and 2.5 inch long by .5 inch wide. I made my shim from from a metal flat L corner bracket purchase from the hardware section at a Lowes store. I filed the metal bracket down to make it the proper thickness. I installed it. Ran the engine. The tensioner was aligned and the belt was properly aligned on the pulley.

I just put 3000 miles on the vehicle and all was good. I hope this helps... The side walk mechanic.

15th Jul 2008, 09:05

I hope this will be my last car bought from these guys. Chrysler Town&Country LXi 97.I paid the dealer 550$ a year ago to make the belt to stay on. They replaced the belt after 2 wks because of the noise telling me that only the second time the replacement it's free. :) ) ) ) ) Don't ever ever buy a car like this again.

The noise was still on for the last year. I feel like I like it now. I think is great and it should be advertise with this cars.

I'll try GATES Part # 38379K this week as the last chance.

23rd Jul 2008, 22:07

Great... I still hope I just got a great deal on a very clean 1999 3.3L Dodge Grand Caravan, SE... with the fix I am seeing here on your site... the Gates Part #38379. I bought the car yesterday. The prior owner reports few problems, other than the noisy belt which just began its tirade. I just went to your site here to see what I could do to fix the problem the rest of you are reporting, and uh oh. This will be my wife's car to commute to work. Now I am like, Oh crap... here we go with car repairs. I'm going to give this part a chance and post back with what I hope is still some pleasure in my purchase. I really feel sorry for you folks prior to the Gates fix. Good luck and wish my knuckles luck as well.

21st Aug 2008, 09:32

I have a 97 dodge caravan. I have replaced the belt and pulleys so many times I can't count. I cannot believe Chrystler has not made an attempt to fix this problem. I have 4 children, and I'm scared to drive my van anywhere. I have put so much money in to this van replacing these parts, and it is so frustrating to have the belt come off repeatedly. When I called the dealership they act like they have never heard of this problem, BULL CRAP!!! They will wait for someone to get killed before they address it.

Macon, Ga.

3rd Sep 2008, 08:01

I'm on the same Van (wagon) as most of the above, I replaced my old cracked belt, the very next day it rained, the belt came off right away. It was near my home so I manage to gimp to the driveway with plenty of strength and low battery. I was guessing the belt was installed improperly, called the mechanic, he went and put the belt on again, he triple checked it was aligned, ran the van some minutes without problems, then the very next day I drove thru a puddle and the belt came off again, lucky enough a few blocks from home and again gimped back to the driveway.

We figured it was because of wet conditions, we did the water test and it came off immediately, we saw that the tensioner pulley was all flat and it was slipping from there.

After 3 or 4 trips to the autoparts store, who didn't know of this problem, we tried several different pulleys from other manufacturers, it seems all the Chrysler ones were also flat.

We noticed the idler pulley wasn't flat, but had the retaining lips, we bought that one for $10, had to change the bearing core to match the tensioner and reduced the inside casing maybe 1mm.

So far so good, but having to do all this work for a design flaw is very annoying and dangerous if you are in the middle of the freeway and lose a belt, Chrysler should issue a recall and send kits for free to the customers that bought these vans..

23rd Oct 2008, 13:43

I have also been plagued with the belt problem on my 1998 Caravan with the 3.0L. I just found the Gates "refit" kit (Part #38342K) at a local O'Reilly's Auto after searching the Internet for answers. I've had this van since it was new, and have replaced the belt more times than I can possibly remember.

This kit from Gates replaces the idler pulley & tensioner pulley with grooved ones, not the smooth factory style. And it comes with a belts that has grooves on both sides. I just got it today for $146.99. I can't wait install it tonight after work. After all the belts I've replaced, this will be a small price to pay if it solves my problem once and for all.

I completely agree that Chrysler should own up to this problem, and do something about it!!!

26th Oct 2008, 23:31

I feel kind of silly writing this, as I have a 2000 Caravan Sport with the 3.3 liter flex fuel engine, and with just a few miles shy of 197,000 miles.

I'm the original owner. I do most repair things myself if it's something I'm comfortable with.

The belt has been replaced about 3 times over the years.

At 70,000 miles when a transmission speed sensor went out. The dealer said the idler pulley bearing was noisy and they replaced it along with a new belt.

At 124,000 miles the water pump started dripping, so I replaced it myself along with a new belt. That's when I found out how hard it was to compress the tensioner and put the belt on by yourself. I made a tool for it and carry it with me in the car, along with my normal tools and a spare belt.

At about 150,000 miles a slight leak in the power steering pump became a gusher. I took it to the dealer as it looked like too many things had to come off for me to attempt it. The mechanic said he had to pull the wheel and right axle half-shaft to install the new pump.

The reason I visited this site is that I started hearing a little bearing rattle from one of the idler pulleys, and was searching the Internet for a source for a new pulley. I found it hard to believe that so many were having problems with the serpentine belts coming off, especially in a wet situation.

I wash my engine regularly and hose it off. I then run it so it will dry more quickly. I've never had a problem with the belt attempting to slip off a pulley. I'm a pretty fair engineer and looked closely at the system. I'm now doing this from memory, but I only recall the 2 idler pulleys and a larger one under the AC pulley clutch assembly that were smooth without flanges. All the other pulleys were grooved with side flanges, including the alternator.

It is very difficult to try and bend the belt sideways, even just holding the belt in your hands. The runs of the belt from a grooved flanged pulley to a smooth pulley are short enough that there shouldn't be any tendency to want to drift sideways.

There are only two things that would cause the belt to want to drift. One would be that all the pulleys aren't in the same exact plane, putting side pressure on the belt. The other would be one of the accessories was loose and the belt tension caused the shaft and pulley to tilt a bit and the belt to want to walk sideways. If the belt was caused to have to bend a bit sideways in its run, it would cause early failure of the belt along with a tendency to come off. Of course, if the tensioner was broken or weak the belt would also have tendency to ride off the pulleys.

I always use a spray belt dressing at my oil changes, mostly to extend belt life.

The only real problem with the car is the transmission speed sensors (both input and output) tend to have a short lifespan. I have a code reader and changed them twice myself.

The transmission is original and works perfectly except for when a speed sensor goes bad and it goes into "limp mode". Transmission fluid and filter are changed every 30,000 miles. Engine oil (Syntec 10/40 + Prolong additive) every 6000 to 7000 miles keeps the engine going strong with less than a cup of oil used in that time period.

All in all, I've been happy with the car. Sorry about all your problems. My best advice would be to get a rigid, narrow straight edge and check the pulley alignment from pulley to pulley. I think that's where the problem lies, and it certainly may be from poor assembly from Dodge. It could also be from aftermarket accessories like alternators, water pumps, etc. that don't have the same dimensions as original parts.

By the way, I'm a 67 year old optometrist.

John in Lake Havasu AZ.