Does the back of your serpentine belt have a grey stripe?

I just got home from a 3 hour drive. While I was unloading from the back seat on the driver's side I noticed a very faint smell of burnt rubber. I only noticed it a couple of times, but it made me want to investigate. I couldn't find anything conclusive, but while looking at the engine, I noticed that the back of my serpentine belt has a grey stripe on it, about 1/8" wide, right in the middle. It's not like a deep groove, though the texture is just slightly different there. It almost seems like it could be an intentional marking on it. I've got about 58K miles and this is the original belt. Do any of yours have this?

 

Any squeaking while idling? If so, I started by replacing the tensioner bearing followed by the two idlers and new oe belt. Thankfully, I haven’t heard a peep in several years.

 

Picture?

 

None that I can hear over my tinnitus...

 

Might just be the belt. Not sure how many miles, but I’ve seen road splash cause strange belt issues on cars and trucks through the years. Do you see any discoloration on tensioners?

 

Here you go....




There's a stripe on this tensioner pulley. No idea which came first though.


You can see a stripe on this tensioner pulley as well.

 

Problem. Shouldn’t show stripe. Why not try new belt.

 

And tensioner pulley.

 

I don't know about these, but take care if the tensioner has left hand threads when you go to change it (them).

 

Update. I just took it to the dealer to have this looked at. They can't find a cause but they did tell me that they think the belt and all three tensioners should be replaced, which they're happy to do for $1500. Looks like I need to add "work on the truck" to my schedule. Has anyone changed tensioners on this engine? I've got the 2.7l. I can't think it's all that hard.

 

My dealer service advisor came to me a few weeks ago and said that my serpentine belt and possibly the tensioners may need to be replaced at my Mileage of 92,000. So I asked him is the belt bad and are the tensioners bad and all he could say was it was a recommended service. I had recently replaced my belt myself some 3500 miles ago no issues no noises no visible uneven wear. So I asked him is my new belt bad already and he couldn’t answer. He said he would have to go back and check with the maintenance team. In the end, my belt was fine and my tensioners are still fine. Just saying might wanna take to another mechanic to look at before spending $1500.

 

I'm definitely taking it to another mechanic to have it looked at, and even if the other mechanic recommends changing them all out, I'll probably do the work myself if I think I can make the time.

 

Just noticed this on the wifes 2011 Camry with 135k. Hmmm.

 

UPDATE: We have a local shop that used to only work on Hondas. We had a 97 Civic for a long time and they always did great work for a good price. They recently started also working on Toyotas so I took the truck there. They said that they found a bug or some kind of small lump of something on one of the tensioners. They scraped it off and said I'm good to go (for free). No need to replace the belt or pulleys. Glad I got a second opinion.