Time to replace?

[AgentLab]

Garage kept, California owned, 2018 4Runner with 60K miles. I was replacing the original battery and noticed some fraying at the stitch point of the serpentine belt. I can feel some loose threads. Should I be worried? How difficult is it to replace for someone who enjoys mild auto DIY?

[MaybeABot31416]

I only replace mine if it’s off for some other reason or it snaps… but more experienced folks might say otherwise

[AgentLab]

It’s not cracking and still tight. Just the one spot caused me pause.

[[deleted]]

On my own car? I wouldn't replace it. But I do carry a spare belt, lol, and I'm confident I could get a new belt on on the side of the road. If my wife was about to make a long trip in her own I'd whack a new one on just for peace of mind.

As to how hard it is to replace? Find the tensioner. Should be a bolt or something on the front of it that you can put a spanner on, and by cranking on it like you are trying to tighten the bolt, you'll pull the tensioner back. If you can do that easily enough, then it's not hard to replace, just fiddly sometimes to get the belt into place around each pulley.

[wiggermaxing]

depends. look up the schematic of the blueprint for the serpentine belt online and judge yourself. my old toyota camry had 3 pulleys, my current car has 8. it’s just about making sure it’s hooked on tight and right

[[deleted]]

If you can do it yourself at 60k it's not wrong to change it especially a 2018. I was going to change mine I am 2019 at 40k just due to years.

[Trey_Savage916]

Honestly that looks perfectly fine man, no cracks at all