Belts of today can last that long as well if you buy the quality belts and
not the discount brand.  Some of todays belts however are operating in 600
degree environments now when in the past the only way those temps were
reached was when the engine was on fire.  Keep oil/fuel/hydraulic fluids/etc
off of the belts and they last a long time as well.  The first belt on my
daughters jeep lasted 120k miles before I pulled it.  I only pulled it
because it had 120k miles on it.

From the belt mfr, most of todays belt failures are related to chemical
causes from the fluids getting on them.  Fix those leaks.  Next main failure
points are frozen AC compressors or alternators with failing bearings.  Next
was improper installation (wrong belt/covers not put on right/wrong
tension/bad tensioner/etc).
jimt

On 8/14/05 4:12 PM, "James Benthall" <Taobythesea@AOL.COM> wrote:

> Robert,
> A mechanic told me the other day that when he was looking at a problem on
> an old car (don't remember which kind, but it was an American model) with
> 160,000 + miles on it he noticed that the belts were the originals from the
> factory!
> He said they just don't make them like they used to.
> james
>
>