I bought my car in 2000 and it's a 97 GXE. Hopefully they aren't the original belts that came with the car.

 

I see belts like that all the time on customers cars... Most of them say 'Nah, leave it alone, it'll be okay'!

 

I'll bet they are! Most people wouldn't change the belts in the first 3 years of use. So here you are 5 years later.

 

Yeah, but one guy last week came back the next day because his belt broke... He tried to blame us for not telling him, but it was typed out on his invoice, so he had no claim...

 

I'm about ready to go thru my lady's 97 Accord and my sisters 93 GXE to make sure they are up to par. I'm glad my belts didn't break. I've been all over the eastern half of this country (total of 51000 miles since May 2000) and not to say I've raced with these belts too.

 

hey, Deez, when I bought my car used, they were supposed to do a big inspection...my belts looked worse than that. I'm glad you changed them though; don't want to lose control of steering if the p/s belt snaps while turning or something.

 

what your old brake pads should not look like.

 

Used car dealerships will do as little as they can to stick you with the problems of wear and tear items of an auotmobile. If I owned a lot, I would make sure all of the car are in tip to shape, no matter what yoear the car is.

My sis just bought a 93 Maxima GXE and the car had some issues which I pointed out to the sales person and I told him I wanted them cleared up before she picked up the car. We go back the next weekend to get the car and I think they did one thing out of the 5 things I pointed out to them.

[They thought they got away with murder]

They said they sent the car out for inspection and it passed.

Things that were wrong with the car:

Leaking Exhaust
Dirty Throttlebody
Dirty Interior
Out of line front end
Bad front struts

My sister has a friend that owns a shop and does auto inspections and he failed the car for the front struts and the exhaust. This mean the dealership would have to fix what they should have in the first place. My sister tells me that the people at the dealership were ****ed off and tried to question whether my sister was friends with the guy and whether the guys was certified to inspect cars. We'll my sisters friend threatened to report the dealership to the Registry and they came to their senses and kicked out $700 to replace a the exhaust and the front struts. Now her car is like new.

 

DanNY: You didn't see my pads before I changed them a month ago.

Freakin bad!

 

woa, I have a 97 with 40k miles and still on original belts. I went in for the 30k tuneup and there was no signs of wear.

 

You better have another look. I went to a shop a few months ago and they told me my belts were fine too. This tells me they didn't know how to look at the belts. Check the ribbed part of the belts (as shown above).

 

You should be fine. Belts should be ablt to go 60k without problems. Just keep an eye on them and change them when they start to look worn.

 

You definitely need to keep an eye on those belts. My mom's serpantine belt broke on her Chrysler minivan and EVERYTHING died. Power steering stopped, alternator quit, coolant system shut down, A/C compressor didn't work. We had to have it towed away on a flatbed because the thing kept overheating. So keep an eye on them, I just had mine replaced on my 97 Maxima at 60k.

 

i changed mine at 80k and it still had the stock ones.

 

'98 SE Auto., 75.5K, still running on original belts but starting to hear them squeak/squeal, guess it's time for them to go

 

i'm at 115k with original belts... gotta change them soon.

 

Another reason I'm glad my "low-tech 3rd gen" doesn't have a serpentine belt.

 

You guys have more room under the hood than we do. I think I'm going to enjoy working on my sisters 93 GXE more than I will with mine.