# Serpentine belt replacement **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** cutlass, oldsmobile\ **Created:** [January 20, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/serpentine-belt-replacement/60226 "2011-01-20T20:37:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![winstonweber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/76d3ee/32.png) [@winstonweber](https://community.cartalk.com/u/winstonweber)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/serpentine-belt-replacement/60226/1 "2011-01-20T20:37:01Z")
I had my serpentine belt replaced 3 months ago because it was starting to shred. Yesterday it broke again The garage said the second time was caused by a problem with the crankshaft pulley. Shouldn’t they have noticed a problem with the crankshaft pulley the first time it was replaced? ---
**Author:** ![jesmed1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/jesmed1/32/2097_2.png) [@jesmed1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jesmed1)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/serpentine-belt-replacement/60226/2 "2011-01-20T21:24:28Z")
Yes, they should have looked for the cause of shredding the first time, but even mechanics make mistakes and overlook things. Or they may have just assumed that the first belt was coming apart due to age. ---
**Author:** ![mark9207](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@mark9207](https://community.cartalk.com/u/mark9207)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/serpentine-belt-replacement/60226/3 "2011-01-20T23:26:52Z")
The problem with the crank pulley may not have been apparent three months ago and may have worsened substantially since then. You don’t give much information about your Cutlass, but if you have the 3.3L engine, you are not alone with the crank pulley issue. It’s a fairly common failure on that engine, but the new, aftermarket version is much less failure-prone. ---
**Author:** ![oldschool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e19adc/32.png) [@oldschool](https://community.cartalk.com/u/oldschool)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/serpentine-belt-replacement/60226/4 "2011-01-21T00:42:45Z")
This could be a pulley alignment issue, there are tools and techniques to check this out. 3.3L? is this a typo? I really can’t remember when the last cutlass came out. ---
**Author:** ![mark9207](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@mark9207](https://community.cartalk.com/u/mark9207)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/serpentine-belt-replacement/60226/5 "2011-01-21T00:48:52Z")
3.3L was offered in the Cutlass Ciera in the early '90s. The OP does not specify the year or whether it’s a Cutlass Ciera or Cutlass Supreme (same as Pontiac Grand Prix). It looked very similar, physically, to the 3.8L and shared a lot of components. For some reason, I saw a lot of balancer failures on the 3.3L, but very few on the 3.8L, which was used in the larger cars. Could have been a completely different balancer. ---
**Author:** ![MG-McAnick](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mg-mcanick/32/188_2.png) [@MG-McAnick](https://community.cartalk.com/u/MG-McAnick)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/serpentine-belt-replacement/60226/6 "2011-01-21T03:15:43Z")
I’m almost positive that the 3.3 and 3.8 were different pulleys, but I’ve seen the rubber come apart on both of them. Sounds like they are about the throw a rod in both cases.