Hyundai Serpentine Drive Belt Replacement Guide
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Learn how to change the serpentine belt on a Hyundai vehicle. This guide applies to most Hyundai vehicles with a four-cylinder engine found on Accent, Santa Fe, Sonata, Veloster, and Elantra. Photos and video clips are from a 2016 Hyundai Elantra.
At a Glance
- Fits most four cylinder Hyundais (Accent, Elantra, Sonata, Santa Fe, Veloster); shown on a 2016 Elantra.
- Signs of a worn belt: squealing, cracks, glazing or fraying.
- Sketch or photograph the belt routing before removal.
- Release the tensioner, slip the old belt off, route the new one and check it sits in every groove.
- Engine off and keys out while working near the belt.
This full video clip shows how to replace the Hyundai Sonata’s serpentine belt and tensioner pulley. The instructions and video clips on replacing the serpentine belt on the Hyundai Elantra can be found below.
What you will need
- Hyundai Serpentine Belt
- Metric Socket Set
- 12 mm socket
- 14 mm socket
- Ratchet Wrench
Procedure
- Disconnect the negative battery terminal.
- Loosen the alternator bolts. A 12 mm and 14 mm bolt needs to be loosened. You don’t need to remove these bolts completely.
- Once the bolts are loosened, the alternator can be pushed downwards, loosening the serpentine belt.
- Remove the serpentine/drive belt from the pulleys.
- Install the serpentine belt in reverse order. Ensure that the belt is routed properly and that the belt is sitting correctly in all the pulleys.
The serpentine belt is also called the drive, poly v-ribbed, or accessory belt.
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In this Hyundai Elantra, the serpentine belt drives the alternator, A/C compressor, and water pump. You must loosen the alternator bolts to remove and replace the serpentine belt.
Check whether yours is a stretch fit belt
This is the detail that catches people out on Hyundai and Kia engines, and getting it wrong destroys the belt before you have finished the job. Some of these engines do not use a spring loaded tensioner at all. Instead they use an elastic stretch fit belt, sometimes called a stretchy belt, which is manufactured slightly undersized and provides its own tension by being stretched over the pulleys.
A stretch fit belt is single use and cannot be refitted once removed. More importantly, it is not meant to be levered on with a screwdriver. Doing that damages the cords inside the belt, and the belt then fails without warning some weeks later having looked perfectly healthy. The correct method uses an inexpensive installation tool that clamps to the pulley and walks the belt on as the engine is turned over by hand.
How do you tell which you have? Look for an automatic tensioner pulley on a spring loaded arm. If there is one, you have a conventional belt and the procedure above applies. If there is no tensioner and no adjuster, you almost certainly have a stretch fit belt, and the replacement must be bought as a stretch fit part rather than a generic belt of the same length.
Some of these engines also drive the air conditioning compressor on a second, separate belt, which has to come off before the main one. Check before you start so you buy both at once.
Replace the tensioner and check the pulleys
On engines that do have a conventional tensioner, replace it with the belt. The tensioner is a spring and a bearing and both wear out on the same timescale, so fitting a new belt against a tired tensioner gives you a belt that squeals, flutters and wears unevenly. Spin each idler pulley by hand while the belt is off and listen for roughness or feel for play.
Look at the old belt as it comes off, because it records what has been happening. Cracks across the ribs are ordinary age. A glazed, shiny surface means it has been slipping. Material missing from one rib or a frayed edge means a pulley is out of alignment, and fitting a new belt without finding that misalignment simply destroys the new one. A straight edge laid across the pulley faces will show it up.
Do not postpone it
As the article notes, this one belt drives the alternator, the air conditioning compressor, the power steering pump on cars that have hydraulic steering, and on many of these engines the water pump as well. When it snaps you lose all of them at once: the engine begins overheating immediately with no coolant circulating, the battery is left running the entire car, and the steering goes heavy without warning.
A belt that squeals on a cold start, chirps when you turn the wheel or switch on the air conditioning, or shows visible cracking is giving you notice. The belt is among the cheapest parts on the car and the consequences of ignoring it are not. If a charging or temperature warning appeared while the belt was slipping, read the codes afterwards rather than assuming they cleared, since a full system scanner will show what was logged and clear it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know my Hyundai serpentine belt needs replacing?
Cracks across the ribs, fraying edges, glazing or a squeal at start up are common signs. Replace it before it breaks.
What happens if the serpentine belt breaks?
The alternator stops charging and, on most engines, the water pump and power steering stop too, which can lead to overheating. Pull over safely.
Should I replace the tensioner with the belt?
If the tensioner arm bounces, the pulley is noisy or the belt has worn unevenly, yes. A weak tensioner shortens the life of a new belt.
More guides: browse all of our Hyundai repair and troubleshooting guides.
