Shielding water from undercarriage?

We have had a series of huge winter storms here in AZ over the past few days, and now whenever I drive through any water or slightly high snow, my belt starts squealing like a pig and my brakes get very spongy. I have the OEM splash shield underneath, but part of it is ripped but still in place. Is there anything I can put on there to keep water from getting in these places? I get pretty uncomfortable not having any brakes...

Sounds like you need a new Serpentine Fan Belt. The Goodyear Gatorback is the best you can get. Cheaper fan belts are cheap for a good reason.

You can try tightening your old Serpentine Belt a little bit, that may help.

Gently press on the brake pedal as you drive out of the water. You want to ride the brakes lightly for 20-30 seconds so they generate some heat and dry off more quickly.

yeah, there's nothing much that you can do to keep the water off your brakes that won't cause you more problems down the road. The brakes are designed to slow you by converting the forward momentum into heat, and anything that would reduce water onto them would also reduce the airflow that's needed to cool them.

I usuallw start riding the brake just before the water and continue untill I feel a decent pedal again on the other side.

^X2 there's not much you can do for the brakes but for the engine you can possibly look into a front engine skid. Not alot of us use them but there's some companies out there that make them, you can look at rusty's website at the front skid to get an idea of what it looks like and how much it covers.

Tim_MN said:

Sounds like you need a new Serpentine Fan Belt. The Goodyear Gatorback is the best you can get. Cheaper fan belts are cheap for a good reason.

You can try tightening your old Serpentine Belt a little bit, that may help.

Gently press on the brake pedal as you drive out of the water. You want to ride the brakes lightly for 20-30 seconds so they generate some heat and dry off more quickly.

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It's a brand new Gatorback, I just replaced the Alternator the other night. I thought the belt was tight enough, but maybe not?

With a good belt like the goodyear gator back, and at correct tension you shouldn't have any squeal when going through water. Remember these jeeps (at least the 4.0's) seem to require a higher than normal belt tension compared to other cars/trucks. Even when you think the belt is tensioned tight enough many times when the a/c compressor kicks on you will hear belt squeal or if you rev it fast. which means it needs a tighter tension.

as for the water on the brakes not much you can do about that, except as suggested above, ride the brakes right before you hit it and after for a little bit. I would not try to install those brake dust cover type sheilds you see on some BMW's and such, they reduce air flow to the brakes, look terrible and can cause more problems than they cure IMO.

Take note that some brake pads seem much more prone to terrible wet rotor braking than others. i had a set of pads on one of my cars one time, that was SCARY with basically no braking when the brakes got wet, yet otherwise performed great.

THough i typically suggest and use myself, plain brake rotors, the slotted or drilled rotors will help get that rotor to shed water/mud faster, especially so for the slotted.

If i was you, i'd throw on a good year gator back and tension it good and tight, and change your brake pads for something else (i run the PFC's (performance friction compound) from autozone and they work very good (wet braking and otherwise), and are a brand that autozone carries, not 'their' brand.

New belt tension, 180~200 ft lbs; used belt tension (any belt after minutes of operation), 140~160 ft lbs.

IMHO you will want the high side of the specs if you have air conditioning or a higher output alternator.

A belt tension gauge is the only way to get it done right, Gates Kricket II is the correct tool, not the Kricket I.

Im in Az also and had the same concern about rain(although I have no belt squealing problem). I picked up a cheap($15) OEM engine skid and just got around to installing it. Of course the rains seem to have stopped but I'm hoping it will help in the future.