Yes, another wetbelt question, but...

[Newport67]

Hello all,
Oddly I didn't find much on the Puretech engine here. Probably didn't search properly.
I own a 2018 5008 with the 130hp 1.2 and as someone who purchased her only a year ago, am fully aware of the history of issues with this engine. As such, I change the oil every 10k km and check the belt. This time when checking the width of the t-belt using that special tool, I noticed that the edge of the belt was fraying a bit. The hairs of the fibres seem to be loosening up. At first I thought that the belt might be rubbing on something or that the rollers had bad bearings causing uneven wear, but doesn't look like it. I turned the belt over and there are only two spots like this, each spot being max 5 cm. The rest of the belt is ok.
A little service history - the timing belt kit was changed at the dealer one year ago by the previous owners and about 38k km put on the car after that. So all should be well.

I've never had a wetbelt car before and have not seen this issue anywhere on the internet. Has anyone had this before? Do these belts behave this way and it's ok, or is is a sign that I need to replace the belt. Yes, it would be nice if a bunch of people said this was normal, but I realise that I'll probably be doing a t-belt on the driveway in December.
I've attached a photo where the fibres have frayed a bit. Hopefully I'm unecessarily panicking.

Thanks in advance,
Thomas

[mickthemaverick]

I have no experience of this engine at all but looking at that photo I'd change the belt!!

[Kees]

Yes, I agree, change the belt, but also replace the oil filter and clean the other filters inside the motor!!!

[Arkis]

Time to change it. The belts iteself looks good, this is more likely mechanical failure (diluted oil started to eat away the belt or it was damaged on some pulley that broke). All those fibers will go directly into the sump and you never know is the strainer on the pickup will catch them or it will go into the pump.

[Newport67]

Thanks guys,

So am getting ready for the job. Lot's of options, re. parts. I was only considering a PSA/Mopar kit but even here there are less and more heavily optioned kits. I'll start with taking the car apart, then will know what I need.

My parts guy recommends the SKF kit for this engine. Anyone tried this brand for the Puretech? I'm happy with them for my Fiat/Alfa's, but find most people seem to go for OE PSA as this is a scary engine with scary problems

[mickthemaverick]

Due to the issues with the engine there have been warranty claims for damage caused by premature breakages. I have no doubt that had any of those cars had non PSA parts the chances are the warranty claim would have been refused. On that basis alone I'd stick with the originals if I were you.

[Arkis]

I used SKF kit in our engine, because it has better belt - made from two compounds (you can see the difference between multicompound and regular belt by checking the inner side. Multicompound has white inner layer - teeth, regular belt is all black). These multicompound belts SHOULD have better resistance to getting diluted by gas and oil.

There is no warranty on our car so I went for that. If the car had warranty I would use OEM parts.

[Newport67]

Hi all,
Just to update, am in the middle of replacing the t-belt with OE replacement kit. It was definately a good idea to do this as while giving the old one a good twist once I removed it, you could see the sections that were fraying seemed softer than the rest of the belt.

This job got delayed as I wanted to change the oil pump chain. BTW, not doable without removing the pump as the chain doesn't have room to pass by the oil pump gear and engine wall. However, thanks to this failed endeavor, I had dropped the oil pan and noticed that the black paint on the inner side of the pan was starting to bubble in several places. As I was cleaning the pan with a rag, flakes of paint were coming off. This would have ubdoubtedly blocked up the pick up screen sooner or later. So a bit of a save there. Other than that all clean inside.

[Arkis]

Sure thing. Clean that oil pan with great attention. You don't want paint flakes in the oil pick up tube.

What is the mileage that the chain needed changing too? I did mine on 90k kms (56k miles) and chain was like new. The belt had visible cracks when stressed, but on car it looked good.