Fan Belts, take care

[prs]

I read the recent account of Peter C's engine failure due to a shredding fan belt and thought the following to be somewhat important. I was recently changing the exhaust manifold on my 1.6 k to replace it with a Powerspeed system, anyway it became apparent that it would be easier if I took of the alternator to achieve more room etc.

When I took the fan belt of I noticed there were masses of tiny particles of grit and broken fragments of glass imbedded in the grooves between the ribbing. Some of these had penetrated right down to the webbing, this is after 4000 miles. It would appear that the configuration and layout of the K series in a seven is perhaps slightly prone to picking up road debris, naturally I changed it straight away, if left then it may cause premature failure. I do live in a rural area which I suppose you could say has dirtier roads than a built up environment. Thought you might like to know about this, by the way I don't work for the Rover group! Phil

[Graham Perry]

PRS, That is interesting. I suspect that this is something that most of us had never considered.