24th Dec 2008, 09:20

2000 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport AWD 3.8L

Just had the tensioner and belt replaced, came off during wet conditions as usual. I did find a tensioner that was redesigned by Dayco, it's model 251. Dodge now uses this design in their newer year 3.3L and 3.8L engines. They designed the tensioner with a slight offset to keep the belt from jumping off.

I purchased the tensioner from Autozone for

$42 and the Goodyear Gator belt for $34. Had both installed at Pep Boys for $107. Make sure you request the Dayco tensioner since there are still Korean tensioners being sold built to the old OE specs and they will fail eventually.

I have driven through the deepest puddles I could find and can't get the belt to jump off. Now if I could just get the transmission to stop leaking, the power window motors replaced, the AC unit repaired and the roof to stop leaking it would be a nice van... LOL

The only reason I still have it is because of the all wheel drive, that works great... knock on wood.

25th Dec 2008, 11:37

Belt slipping off? One shredded, two popped off.

Will be putting the old belt on, then getting one of the kits. From what I have seen, Gates and Advanced Auto both offer kits for the 3.8l (which is what I have). I also found that NAPA offers a kit, but it is twice as much as the gates kit.

We'll be in touch after the repair!!

7th Jan 2009, 14:28

Thanks to all for your comments. We have 99 Town & Country van, replaced the belt about 4 times, along with water pump, crankshaft damper, 130k. Thanks for the info about the gates kit. Hope to try it soon.

9th Jan 2009, 22:45

I was driving my family on Christmas Eve (2008) in our 2000 Dodge Caravan Sport version with the 3.3 liter engine when we went through a deep puddle and the battery indicator light came on with the bell alarm, and then the alternator light came on. Then I noticed the car was harder to steer and the brakes required much more effort.

With luck I made it back home after about a mile, but the van was getting pretty hot. I realized it had to be the serpentine belt, and sure enough it fell off.

That night I did some research on here and found out about the Gates conversion kit. I had the car towed the day after Christmas to a NAPA repair shop nearby and had to explain to them about the kit. They told me they had replaced a lot of the belts on the Caravans that had fallen off, but never realized this kit was available. I had them install the Gates conversion kit for the 3.3L engine. I could not believe how quiet my engine sounded after they installed it, and I could swear the power steering worked better after they changed the belt and pulleys. I have gone through puddles and snow without any problems so far and feel I can trust this van again. It has only 84,000 miles on it but this would be the third belt and tensioner. I will update again in a few months.

19th Feb 2009, 11:42

After reading about this online for the last year or so, I'm convinced that this happens because the person who replaces the belt does not align it correctly. The first time I needed a new belt, it was replaced by the guy who was replacing my transmission. So I didn't care so much about paying the hundred bucks or so for the new belt. Also, I got lucky, as I was able to drive the van through all weather for the next three years without incident. However, once I replaced the timing belt, and replaced the serpentine while doing the job, I began to have the problem of the belt slipping off. While it's apparent to me that it's "user error" in the lack of gaining a perfect alignment at installation, I also agree that Chrysler should be replacing these "bald" pulleys with pulleys that have a "lip" to better hold the belt in place whether it's perfectly aligned or not.

I just did the gates conversion after having been afraid to drive in the rain for the last month. A couple of tips for anyone who's gonna do this themselves.

First, there are two ways to do this. You can either replace the ENTIRE tensioner/pulley mechanism, which requires getting up under the car to get at the nut that holds the tensioner in place, OR you can simply remove the pulley from the tensioner and replace it with the slotted pulley that's attached to the new tensioner. I went with the 2nd option. So I still have the original tensioner on the van, and I have a brand new one as a backup if or when the original ever fails.

A third way, that I thought of as I was finishing up the job, might be to skip the conversion kit altogether! Simply go to a u-pull-it junkyard, and replace your 'bald' tensioner pulley with the standard idler pulley. If you notice, when you take your two pulleys off to do the conversion, the idler pulley actually has a little lip along the edge, to keep the belt in place. Aside from that, it's the exact same pulley as the pulley on the tensioner, which does NOT have this lip. Why didn't they use the same "lipped" pulley for both idler and tensioner?!!

Now, I went to get an idler pulley from autozone a while back. It does NOT have this lip. So it's not as simple as going to the parts store to get it. You'll probably have to go to a junkyard and pull one of the idler pulleys with a lip off another car. Your cost should be no more than 5 bucks, versus 150 for the gates kit. If I wasn't half-way done by the time I noticed this, I probably would have gone this route myself. For that matter, I still have the receipt for the gates kit. So I still may...

2nd Mar 2009, 22:48

I just converted to the Gates dual sided micro-v belt this week, as my belt broke just the other day. Luckily I was parked at home and it broke upon starting my van in the morning.

Some words of advice. Shop around for the best price on replacement parts. As well, I found that an extra bushing was needed for the grooved idler pulley, that did not come with the pulley itself. However, it was part of a new smooth tension-er pulley. So I had to parts swap a bit. hope it all works out!