Admittedly I suffer from maintenance OCD. I currently have 70,000 miles on my 07 5.4L. Currently the serpentine belt shows no signs of wear. Should I changed out the belt anyways? Opinions appreciated..

 

Hahaha, "maintenance OCD"!! I think I suffer from the same deal! I replaced perfectly good injectors for peace-of-mind and have a spare fuel control module sitting on my bench just-in-case! With that in mind, I say yes to replacing that belt at 70k. At a minimum, have the new belt in the truck as a hot spare...or better yet, install the new belt and keep the old one in the truck as the spare.

...now I need to buy a spare serpentine belt.

 

I have 131,000 on mine and it still looks great. It gets checked at every oil change.

 

Check your owners manual.....

The enviroment in which you drive has a lot to do with the change interval also...

Usually 60k-100k start to look for signs of wear and stretching.

As the belt gets older the rubber becomes less able to grip, the backside will become thin and slick, cracks also start to develope on the rib side.

A good replacement is the goodyear gatorback.

Its your call on if you want to change it or not.

Id at least recomend it by 100k....cheap insurance.....

Edit.....another component to change while changing the belt is the tensioner and tensioner pulley....they get worn out also....

 

My truck has 74k on it, and last weekend when I was towing and had to get after it to pass on a two lane highway I got a single short chirp from the belt when it did the 2-3 shift wound up.

I'm guessing its time for me to replace the belt too...

 

Mine has done that for the last 100,000 miles, it started when when I put the tunes in. The firm shifts do it.

 

Really?

So its not something I should concerned with huh? I figured the belt was getting worn. Granted it does 'shift' when pulling the 4k lbs and going WOT, I try not to do it, but was tired of driving 45mph for 20 miles...

 

It has not caused any problems with mine. It's caused by the quick rev of the engine on the hard shift. It always does it as I pass someone on a two lane road. I figure they think I'm chirpping the tires at 80 mph. LOL

 

Caused by engine load transfer when the transmission is shifting.....

Goodyear gatorback belts eliminate this due to their design....

 

I wouldn't mess with the belt 'til 100K miles. 100K is a good time to replace belts and radiator hoses on most vehicles, as well as a tranny flush and diffy oil change.