Factory MOPAR Belts and Hoses

All About Mopar Belts and Hoses

When Belts & Hoses Should be Replaced

On the one hand, when you see signs they're going bad. They're similar, whichever Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, RAM, FIAT or SRT model you drive.

Consider Dodge Durango. When its belts or hoses start to fail, you'll notice obvious looseness or damage and fluid leaks, you'll hear screeching or chirping noises, you'll start to have battery and lighting trouble, and the engine may overheat and misfire. Run an inspection to figure out which belt or hose may be the problem.

On the other hand, when you hit mileage and year benchmarks. You'll find these in the maintenance schedules in your owner's manual, usually. Take serpentine belts, for example; those get changed every 90,000 miles or so. Most timing belts, however, you replace every 60,000 to 90,000 miles. Timing chains, though, are built to last an engine's lifetime; you usually don't need to change them (although they can break). Most hoses, in contrast, get swapped out every 4 years.

Otherwise, replace belts and hoses before replacement costs really start to add up -- in other words, if you see several symptoms at once, or run up against a bunch of maintenance deadlines. Serpentine belts and brake hoses are among the cheaper fixes, running a couple hundred dollars on average; other belts and hoses only get pricier from there: fuel hoses can go for $500 on average, for example, while radiator hoses can run $540 to $620, timing belts, $1,100 or more, and so on.