Engine belts

COREYF97

MEMBER
2000 MERCURY COUGAR
2.5L
V6
FWD
MANUAL
170,000 MILES

I recently ordered a serpentine belt off autopartswarehouse, I received the belt. It is called a drive belt, but it is tiny. I was wondering if a 2000 Mercury Cougar V6 has more than one belt around the pulleys? I know by the size that it won't fit around all the pulleys. So, I was wondering if the drive belt and serpentine belt was the same? If not, what pulleys does the drive belt go around? I looked it up, but some say they have two belts and others say one.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,871 POSTS

I would approach this the same way a professional would, and look under the hood. You can tell by the spacing of the pulleys how many belts there are. If any two are not in line with the others, there has to be a second belt. Also look at the number of grooves on the pulleys. If two or more are different than the rest, there is two or more belts. If there are a total of three pulleys, there can only be one belt.

You can also use the Rock Auto web site for reference. They will have dozens of belt listings for your model and engine size, and many of the descriptions include the size, number of grooves, and the items it goes around. Sometimes if you click on more "Info" you may find a routing diagram. There should be a sticker somewhere on the engine that also shows the belt routing.