I bought this 2008 Ford Escape after my wife wrecked our other one. It has a 2.3L engine. One day out of the blue the battery light comes on, I had a feeling that something was wrong with the belt. So I race to an Auto parts store and they sell me a belt after I explain what happened. I put it on. Start it, idles great.

Next day I go to work no problem. When I go to leave the belt pops off. 37 miles from home. But only 7 miles to my parents. I ran to another parts store on the way to let it cool down. I compared belts, they had the same type. So I make it to my parents and put the belt back on. I get home no problem. I take it off and wash all the oil/grease off that side of the engine. Wire brush all the pulleys. Even cleaned the belt off. Put it on and I drive up about 4 blocks to highway 30. I start running down the highway and I just floor the pedal. Belt comes off. I get home. There is no belt there. I decided to say screw that belt.

I did some more research on here and a bunch of people said replace the tension pulley. So I paid out $41.99 and when I put it on. I seen on the old one a 1/4 gap were it had pulled apart. Explaining how it was falling off all the time. Yes I bought another brand new belt.

((((((Moral of this story if your belt falls off. It isn't a freak accident. It's the tension pulley. Replace it and save yourself a lot of headaches.))))))

Battery light came on, but just put in a new battery a couple months ago, then check engine light came on and temp. gauge was HOT. Replaced tensioner Pulley and belt. Temporarily fixed problem. 3 days later, problem returns. This time we replace entire tensioner pulley ASSEMBLY today. The original assembly we took off was defective. The solid, steel part of the assembly where the pulley sits was 1/4" out of whack from one side to the other. The defect was obvious to see when compared to the new assembly. I could be wrong, but I'm hopeful the problem is solved.

I had taken it back to Ford at least half a dozen times when it was new for a terrible squealing sound the first year I owned it and they could never diagnose it. They even had their engineers out to investigate and couldn't figure it out, but they wouldn't replace my vehicle, because they couldn't diagnose it and called it something different each time I brought it in to avoid the lemon laws.