I had about 124,000 on my truck when my fan clutch went bad. That must be about how long they last, I guess.

Jimmy

 

For what it might be worth to you, I use a Carquest belt on my truck. It is a great belt, made by Gates for Carquest and is about 4 or 5 bucks cheaper than the Drive-Rite belts they sell at Advance. I put a Carquest belt on my gf's Honda too. Carquest was the only place in town that had her belt in stock and it was still 5 bucks cheaper than everybody else. I have never had a single bit of trouble with either one.

If there is no Carquest near you, I believe Gates also makes the Napa brand belts. Gates are about the best quality belt you can buy for a reasonable price. At Autozone, their Duralast belts are made by Dayco, which is a good quality belt too, but it might cost more than a Carquest belt.

Jimmy

 

When I purchased my new belt a couple of weeks ago at NAPA, they had two offerings - an inexpensive belt that was around $18.00, and a higher grade belt that was around $40.00. I looked at both of them and the profiles were quite different. The profile of the inexpensive belt looked like 6 small "V"'s. The profile of the higher quality belt looked more like 3 small "B"'s. I figured that the "B" profile belt would work much better as they would "mash into" the grooves and conform to the grooves in the pulleys much better.
When I looked at my old belt, the "V"'s looked OK, but I could see shiney spots in between the "V"'s, showing where the ridges of the pulleys had bottomed out on the belt.

 

Thanks Silver, but as it turns out the belt was NOT the problem. Although the squeak went away when I put my old belt on, it came back. I thought it might be the AC compressor, so I got a shorter belt to bypass the pulley. Now I am convinced the squeak is gone, but the drive home from work will test it. So I guess I'm going to have to replace my compressor. At least I don't need it now in central PA.