Forks Skid

Why do fan belts break?

The fan belt on my car which I share with my sister recently broke, and now I'm having to fork out £40 towards the cost of it getting fixed. I'm at uni at the moment, so she's been driving the car solely for 3-4 months. What I want to know is if it's her fault? I'm guessing that it's not from my little knowledge of cars, but she's also managed to break the lock on the main door and I know that she's skidded in the car before from when she wasn't driving properly, so I'm just curious to know if she's also to blame for fan belt breaking...
I left the car in my hometown, as I wouldn't need it for uni, so I will only get to use it now when I'm down in my holidays in Christmas and Summer.

Your sister could have flipped the car end over end and not damaged the belt. There is very little a driver can do to ruin a belt just by driving the car.

A belt wears out, if there are near 40,000 kilometers on the car then the belt was near the end of its useful life. If it is wearing out prematurely, make sure that all the pulleys are lined up properly and that none of them have any sharp edges that could cut a belt. Spilling oil on a belt can also ruin it.

Another possibility, though rare, is that the shop cut the belt when checking the car. It's an old dirty mechanic's trick to make work, done by the very few who make us all look bad.

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