So, you're driving down the road in your car that's only a few years old, enjoying the Rubber Drive Belts. Your trip is going fine, but suddenly you hear a loud noise, and a few minutes later you realize that your air conditioner is no longer working.
Awhile later you arrive home and open the hood. You see a rubber belt cut in half mounted on the top of your engine block.
That rubber belt is a serpentine belt, and having one break in your engine block is one of the most annoying things that can happen in a vehicle.
Serpentine belts are used in various systems under the car's hood. The alternator, water pump, air conditioning compressor, and power steering pump, as well as other systems, all use this kind of belt. When the belt snaps, those systems become useless because kinetic energy needed to operate them cannot be transferred from one location to another.
Usually, replacing a serpentine belt can be a hassle. Despite them being so small, they wreak havoc when broken because the systems they affect, like the alternator and power steering, are needed to drive the vehicle to the garage. This drives the price of repair up because a tow is required.
Those who attempt to save the cost of a tow and a mechanic may attempt to buy a new Automotive V Belts and try replacing the old one on their own in their driveway, but there is a problem with this: Serpentine belts have to go over so many different wheels and pulleys that properly setting one up without having a reference is impossible to do.