1st generation drive belts

I have a 2002 Toyota Tacoma which I bought brand new and have loved it for twenty years. Did all the recommended maintenance and then the warranty expired and then it started making a funny noise (like a slipping belt) which it was. But rather than get it fixed I just drove it til the belt broke then I had it towed to the Toyota dealership to replace the belts and check it out) They replaced 3 of the belts and the invoice shows the parts numbers only. The dealer's repair shop replaced a bunch of hoses too. I got the truck back and drove it around, then it made noises very similar to the other noises it made before the original belts broke, so I took it back to the dealer. Teh orignial (broken belts were replaced in Dec 17th, 2021 to be exact. So they wabted to charge me 200 bucks to replace one belt, they said it was loose. When I told them that they had replaced all the belts last year, they looked up my old bill from December and took the $200 charge off my bill. My question is if one drives around with a loose belt, does it wear out faster? Do the belts stretch out after installation and need to be tightened up after a certain number of miles? As I am a women you would not believe the stories I have heard from auto mechanics and the lies I have been told, so I thought the dealer would do me right, but I am not happy about the way I was treated at the dealership.
I hate working on cars and have generally hired some shade tree mechanic to work on my cats with mixed results, but my 2002 Toyota was my first brand new Toyota and I wanted to take the best care of her. Also it has given me years of good service and all the mechanics I used to know retired or moved.
What do you know about belts?

 

Welcome to TacomaWorld
I replaced all three original belts 18 months ago at 148,000 miles.
I bought Gates belts in a set from Amazon and did the swap myself.
I've worked on all kinds of mechanical stuff for 50+ years and the Taco belts were the most difficult. I had tighten them twice after installing due to noise on start up. Finally got it right which lasted 2,000 mi. when the squeal started again I tightened again.
Of course it's always the belt that requires dropping the skid plate to access the hidden bolt that has to be held while the easy to get nut is turned.
The belts will slip, squeal and overheat when too loose.

 

I know how you feel about your 2002 Toyota and the service it's giving you. That being said, I wouldn't trust a Toyota dealer (or any dealer, for that matter) to wipe a bug off my windshield.

 

Ha ha ha. Well, the car mechanics we really liked retired and some jerks took over the old shop which was very good, but now it is run by people as bad as the dealers and I took the Toyota to the dealer for (super expensive) oil changes cause I am old and I am tired of banging my knuckles and cutting my hands and getting dirty and at 73, it's not so easy to crawl under the truck. So...that is my excuse.

 

Thanks for the information about the belts. I just figured I would have someone else do it because I had the money to pay them and figured they would be half way competent..and they were definitely the half way part! LOL. I looked at videos about changing the belt and am glad I did not try to do it myself. They did tighten up the belts and didn't charge me for the labor when I pointed out that they had done the work not 3 months before. If I were twenty years younger I would try myself...no problem. Car and truck work is always problematic as a woman because a lot of car mechanics will spin a story to you figuring you know no better... I have found good mechanics in the past. I do not even have 148,000 miles on my truck yet. I have done recommended maintenance on it. Some one told me I should sell it and get a new truck but I don't want to do that either. Recreational driving right now with $4.50 a gallon gas is out of the question for me but I still need transportation.. Again thanks for the information on how difficult it is to tension the belts correctly. I just wondered. "Is it just me or are Toyotas drive belts hard to adjust?" Thanks