Q: My Mercedes has shredded two belts in a row

Mercedes uses a devilishly complicated automatic tensioner whose life span is about the same as the belt. The tensioner depends on the twisting force of a sleeve of bonded rubber to keep the belt tight, and by the time the belt is worn out, the rubber part of the sleeve is worn out too. Simply loosening the tensioner and retightening it is enough to make it fail, and because of the way it is designed, it doesn’t look like anything is wrong. If the mechanic who replaced the belts is not well experienced with Mercedes, he may not know about the tensioner’s odd behavior. It’s just good policy to replace the tensioner when you change the belt. To get that done you can Contact Your Mechanic to have a technician come to your home or office to fix your tensioner and belt.