Replacing the Serpentine Belt on a 2012 Chrysler 200
The 2012 Chrysler 200 uses a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine, and routing the serpentine belt on this thing is not particularly complicated, but it is easy to mess up if you don't have the diagram in front of you. I've replaced enough of these belts over the years that I don't bother pulling out a diagram anymore, but I still keep one bookmarked because every time someone calls me asking where the belt goes, they're already standing next to a stripped tensioner bolt and a belt draped uselessly across the engine bay. Here is the actual routing. Starting from the crankshaft pulley at the bottom, the belt goes up the right side to the idler pulley, then loops around the alternator, snakes back left to the A/C compressor pulley, crosses over the top to the power steering pump, drops down to the tensioner on the left side, then wraps around the water pump pulley before returning to the crankshaft. The tensioner is the one with the spring arm and the square drive hole for your ratchet. That's the one you always push clockwise to release tension so you can slip the belt off or on. I learned this the hard way on a customer's vehicle back in 2016. I had just dropped the old belt and was threading the new one on, confident in my memory of the routing. Halfway through, I realized I'd swapped the A/C compressor and power steering pump positions in my head. The belt physically would not reach both pulleys in the wrong order. I ended up removing the tensioner assembly entirely to re-route it properly, which added about twenty minutes to a job that should have taken fifteen. Don't make that mistake. Take a picture before you remove the old belt.
The 2.4-liter engine in the 2012 Chrysler 200 is the Tigershark multi-air four, and the accessory drive layout is shared across several Fiat-Chrysler platforms from that era. That means a lot of aftermarket diagrams you'll find online are correct for other vehicles but wrong for yours. Always verify against the actual engine code, which in this case is the Enterra 2.4L. If you're working on the 3.6-liter V6 version, the routing is completely different and I wouldn't even attempt to describe it here without double-checking. One thing most people miss: the belt on this engine has a specific orientation. The ribs face inward toward the pulleys, obviously, but the flat back side of the belt should face outward the entire way around. Some aftermarket belts come slightly twisted in the packaging, and if you don't check each section as you route it, you'll end up with a belt that looks installed correctly but is actually riding at a slight angle on every pulley. That causes premature wear and a whining noise that people then blame on the tensioner or bearings when the real problem is just a twisted belt. Another counter-intuitive detail: the tensioner on this engine does not need to be removed to replace the belt. A lot of guides online tell you to unbolt the tensioner to get better leverage. You don't need to do that. A 3/8-inch drive ratchet or a long breaker bar in the square hole on the tensioner pulley hub is sufficient. Push the tensioner clockwise, hold it there with one hand while you slip the belt over the last pulley, and release slowly. It takes about six seconds if you're competent with your hands and a bit longer if you're doing it solo for the first time.
The belt length for the 2.4L engine is typically around 96 inches, and the OEM part number from Mopar is 68186547AA or the newer superseded version 68471848AA. Aftermarket equivalents from Gates, Continental, and Bando all fit. I prefer Gates for this application because their PowerGrip belts tend to hold their tension rating longer than the cheaper offerings. Continental makes them too and they're fine, but I've seen more premature failures on the Budget line from Gates than on any other brand's economy belt on this particular engine. If you're going to replace the belt, I'd also inspect the tensioner pulley and the idler pulley while you have everything disassembled. The tensioner on these engines has a known failure point where the spring mechanism weakens over time, and the pulley bearing gets noisy. You'll hear it as a growing whine that changes pitch with engine speed. When that happens, the belt tension drops gradually and you get slippage before you get a broken belt. Replacing just the belt and ignoring a tired tensioner is a common mistake that leads to coming back to the same job three months later. I found one edge case that isn't mentioned in any manual. On some of these 2012 models, the power steering hose runs so close to the belt path near the tensioner that if you use a belt that's even slightly thicker than spec, it contacts the hose under heavy load or when the engine shifts on its mounts. The hose gets glazed within a few thousand miles. I solved this by using only OEM-spec Gates belts and checking clearance by hand before fully seating the belt. If you're running an aftermarket belt from a unknown supplier, measure the actual thickness and compare it to the spec, which is approximately 0.48 inches for a six-rib belt on this engine.
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To access the tensioner bolt easily, you may need to remove the right-side wheel well liner. It's held by four or five plastic push clips. Take them out, pull the liner down just enough to give your ratchet room to angle in, and you'll have plenty of clearance. Don't bother removing the entire liner. That's unnecessary labor that just gets you into trouble reattaching the clips later. After the belt is installed, start the engine and let it idle for thirty seconds. Listen for any chirping or slapping sounds. If the belt is routing correctly and the tensioner is properly applied, there should be no noise at all. A slight chirp on cold start that goes away after a minute is normal and usually just means the belt surface is slightly glazed from storage. A persistent squeal means the belt is loose or misrouted, and you should shut the engine off and double-check your work immediately. For a reference image, search the Mopar service manual for the 2012 Chrysler 200 2.4L engine accessory drive diagram. The Haynes manual also covers this model year and includes the belt routing illustration on page 248 of the 2013 edition. Third-party sites like RepairPal and Chilton have the same diagram, but again, verify the engine displacement before trusting any of them. The 3.6-liter routing is different enough that using the wrong one will waste your time and possibly damage the belt during installation.
The typical time for this job, assuming you already have the right tools and a diagram open, is between 20 and 30 minutes. The tensioner bolt can be stubborn if it hasn't been touched before, and applying penetrating oil like PB Blaster or Kroil beforehand saves you from stripping the bolt head. I once spent forty-five minutes fighting a seized tensioner bolt on a high-mileage example, and in the end I used a half-inch drive breaker bar with a six-point socket and a good amount of steady force. The bolt came free without any drama after that. If your current belt is cracked, glazed, or making noise, replace it. Serpentine belts on this engine typically last between 60,000 and 90,000 miles depending on driving conditions and climate. Extreme heat accelerates belt degradation noticeably. If you live in an area where the engine bay temperature regularly exceeds 200 degrees Fahrenheit under normal operation, plan on the shorter end of that range. The belt is a wear item, not a lifetime component, and checking it during every oil change is worth the thirty seconds it takes.
