The accessory serpentine belt produced by gates triggers misfires faults. The part is available for inspection. The misfires escalated to a point where the MIL lamp flashed and the vehicle derated while operating on a roadway. Had to emergency stop. After key off/on the vehicle acted normally. I was able to be confirm the misfire with datalogging. Gates has not responded to my communication effort. The vehicle had no issue previous to the belt change. It was running the OEM belt and was only replaced due to maintenance interval. After the misfire was confirmed with data monitoring a new OEM belt was installed and the misfire was confirmed to be gone.

- Columbus, IN, USA

The mileage at the time was 26,368. We went on a trip with the car and on the way we noticed it was leaking antifreeze so we took it to the closest dealership on 5/26/7. they replaced the small engine block and told us that it was a defect from the manufacturer. We received the car back on 6/11/7. then on 7/2/7 we went to visit a relative about 60 miles away and the car started making a loud noise when you turned and the car kept trying to stall. Mileage at time 27,785. We had it towed to the dealership and the dealership had to replace the serpentine belt, replaced the water pump pulley and removed broken portion of the tensioner bolt from the engine block and retapped hole. We received the car back on 7/9/7. on 1/5/8 the car started making a loud noise and once again was towed to the dealership, mileage at time 38,897. The same thing happened again. The tensioner bolt broke and then it made the tensioner hit the water pump pulley and grinded both of them to each other. They replaced the belt tensioner/pulley.

- Durham, NC, USA

2006 Honda Civic at the time of incident had 36,929 miles on it. Vehicle lost all power. Dealership found water pump broke, causing the serpentine belt to snap and the tension rod to break. There were no signs of problems before the vehicle broke down. Vehicle started to smoke. Honda dealership had to replace water pump, serpentine belt and tension rod. Dealership felt water pump should not have broken at this mileage. I was advised later by another dealership that Honda had casting problem with engine block. Same thing happened to the boss, engine block cracked and had to be replaced. The Honda was the same year and approximately the same mileage.

- Northfield, OH, USA

While driving engine serpentine belt tensioner bolt broke in engine block. Tensioner failed and belt came off of pulleys, causing loss of power steering and engine shut off. Car was towed to dealership. Dealership replaced tensioner bolts, pulleys, and serpentine belt. Same failure occurred on September 4, 2006 while driving. Car again towed to dealership. Dealership diagnosed same failure with tensioner bolts. Manufacturer has updated bolts to fix failure, but new parts on backorder for unspecified period of time.

- Schaumburg, IL, USA