timing belt vs serpentine belt.

[jonsaudi]

Just curious to know the difference between TB and Serpentine belt? How can I tell which is which when I look under the hood?

[04QuattroTurbo]

Timing belt drives your cam gears and crankshaft. On some cars and most older cars they used a chain, a timing chain. It moves everything together so that it maintains the "harmony" of the engine; timing. If it breaks then it throws off the timing, and on an interference engine design like ours and most cars, it throws of the rhythm or timing of the valves, for example you get a valve that is opened when it suppose to be closed, gets hit by a piston; breaking everything inside. The serpentine belt is the belt that drives the different components: alternator, AC compressor, supercharger, etc.

[AudiA4_20T]

Just curious to know the difference between TB and Serpentine belt? How can I tell which is which when I look under the hood?

when you look under your hood, you see the serpentine belt, it uses the crank to drive the accessory parts of the engine (power steering, ac, alternator, etc)

the timing belt you can see when you pop the timing cover off the front of the engine. It keeps the block and head in sync