Drive belts are an often-overlooked component during routine maintenance service intervals

Drive belts last so long on late-model imports that it's very easy to forget about inspecting them during a scheduled maintenance interval. In the early days of import cars, drive belts didn't last as long because many were made from a leather belt joined together by a mechanical coupler or from cut leather links that looped together to make the belt adjustable. Of course, given the low engine speeds and accessory loads of many early imports, leather belts served the purpose very well. Today, however, belt materials and construction are critical to the durability and function of the modern drive belt.

V-BELTS
The rubber V-belt, which has undergone many internal design changes over the years, served well into the 1990s as a method of transmitting engine torque to accessories like the alternator, power steering pump, air conditioner compressor, water pump and exhaust air injection pump.

High-load accessories, such as the alternator, often required two V-belts to transmit engine torque from the crankshaft to the accessory. As accessory loads increased and engine compartment space decreased, stacking enough V-belts to handle accessory loads became an engineering nightmare, especially in transverse engine compartments that allow little room for multiple V-beltdrives. Worse, still, the thick cross-section V-belts would cr...