"1997 Mazda Protege DX"
"1.5 Engine"

Well I am at the end of my rope....Have gone through 3 surpentine belts in a month. Only happens at night with the headlights and heater going. 3 seperate qualified mechanics cant figure it out. I found one of the belts after it broke and it seemed sticky (not from oil) but from overheating. The edges of the belt were frazzled to. The pulley's all seem lined up and no noticable squeal from the belts either. Alternator & water pump seems to spin freely and again with no noise. Alternator checked and charging normally.
Did find out today the water pump pully seemed just a little (very little) loose & wobbly ( but no coolent leakage, noise, and the water pump is pumping keeping the temp normal). Could that little looseness cause a belt to fail ? The last one only lasted 1 day and snapped.
Through a google search found a lot of Mazda owners being plagued with constant belt breakage...But no solutions.

Thanks So Much, Charles

 

looseness could cause failure of the belt. if the shaft has any play, what is happening is that you are tightening it up at the shortest distance possible and then it is stretching the belt more and more until it just snaps it.

 

Your belt problem is not associated with that other belt problem us Protege owners have experienced. Ours would squeak like crazy until the belt would break. Your water pump pulley either needs the small bolts tightened or, if the pulley is damaged,the whole pumpneeds to be replaced. I've had that happen on a Nissan Altima. The pump worked fine but the pulley would wobble. I can't guarantee that's all it is with your car but that's what it sounds like.

 

if the shaft has play in the water pump or if the shaft is bent, the water pump needs to be replaced. that goes back to what i had said earlier. if the shaft is bent, the shaft will keep getting more and more bent the longer that it stays on, which goes back to what you had said about the last one only lasting a day. after breaking this many belts, i would go ahead and swap out the pulley as well. the pulley will get covered in rubber and shards of metal that are deposited by the old belts. that will keep breaking belts after the other problem is fixed.

 

All pullies that are asociated with the drive belts should spin tightly but freely and solid without any sort of 'wobbly' play. So the culprit lies in your water pump, get it replaced.

 

Any further help on this topic would be appreciated. I just replaced my waterpump yesterday because after 3rd belt breaking off and a new alternator, i noticed a slight amount of play in the pump pully. My coworker doubted it but had no other advice. The sqealling continued on the drive home.
I found that the alternator was getting extremely hot. I think now that the belt is burning off. The alternator is brand new and doing the exact same thing as the old one. Frustated. I am going to repalce the alternator again.

 

I have the same problem on a 1999 with a 1.6L with A/C. I did the new alternator thing and the water pump was changed just before we bought it. everything is correct with the pulleys as far as i can see...... it's driving me nuts too.

 

do you have an antrifreeze leak from the water pump? my focus the water pump went and soaked the belt and it just riped the belt up from friction.

 

RE: Constant Breaking of Alternator/ Water Pump Belt

Re: Alternator belt breakages:
1. Accessories sharing the same drive may turn freely when turned by hand, but in use they are subject to very high side loading, so Dr. Jekyll can turn into a Mr. Hyde when belt driven. Using a piece of hose as a stethoscope can often identify a binding bearing.
2. In supplying load of 50A at 14V, the alternator is putting out 700 Watts; its efficiency is about 65%, so the shaft input is 1077 Watts, i.e. over 1.4 horsepower via a pulley with a diameter of about 2 1/2 inches:- so that lil' belt is really "hauling ***" !
and of that 1077 Watts, 35% (377 Watts) is heating up the alternator.
3. The alternator's output can be obtained 2 ways; high rotational speed with low exciter (field) current, or 2. low rotational speed with high excitation.

If 2. applies, and the rotational speed deficit is due to belt slip,
(a) the rotor, which carries the field current, is hotter, (b) the stator, which provides the A.C. to the rectifiers, operates at a lower frequency, so its iron losses are higher,the pole tips are possibly even saturating, add more losses,add more heat.
(c) The alternator cooling fan moves less air, add more heat, and (d) the heat generated by belt slip is conducted from the pulley into the shaft (rotor) of the alternator, and hey, pop go the diodes, regulator, or both.
When belt busting is going on, remember too, a burned belt leaves traces of "goop"
in the pulley ridges, and if not removed, these can set you up for a repeat performance because they can "derail" the new belt, or cause sporadic slip and ****** or both, which will whiplash the new belt to an early grave. And don't skimp on the belt quality either; remember it's pretty narrow, has a small contact area, and has to be able to transmit AT LEAST 1.5 H.P. day after day in all weather conditions.
There are more "false dead alternators" turned in than you can shake a stick at.
The real culprit was the BATTERY ! So if you experience charging problems, the very first rule is isolate the battery, charge it to 12.8 V off load, leave it for 24 hours, recheck the no load voltage is not less than 12.6 V; hook it up and without starting the car, turn on lights and demister for 15 minutes: you should see above 12 V.
If the battery voltages are low by more than 0.6 V, better check the battery before attacking the alternator system.
Now switch off the loads and start the engine. Check the voltage on the battery terminals after the car has been running at fast idle for 5 minutes. You should see over 13.8 V, if not, you can start suspecting the charging system.
BUT a "good" battery can still whiplash a belt if the internal straps are intermittent under vibration and shock, because you're now switching 1.5 H.P. loads on and off through the belt drive !
A good way to check the field is to use a magnetic compass. Mount it near the alternator body but away from heavy gauge cables. Note the heading with the engine off and then running. A big deflection means you have at least got a functioning regulator drive and the slip rings and brushes are OK, so its probably dead diodes.
(Don't be tempted to hand hold the compass ! You could end up as part of the drive train !)