Changed auxiliary belt and car seems faster. How can this be?

[Edster]

I have a 350z HR and it has been a bit sluggish recently. The aux belt was squealing a bit. I decided to do it myself and found that the old one had lost one of its groves on the end and had stretched quite a bit. I've replaced it with a blueprint one.

 

Anyway, I took the car out after and not only has the squealing has gone, but the car seemed to have smother acceleration and felt noticeably faster. I was just wondering if anyone knew why this would be?

 

I did disconnect the battery as I thought I may need to remove the radiator fans to get the torque wrench in the auto-tensioner (I didn't need to remove the fans in the end). - I know disconnecting the battery resets the ECU, but I have disconnected it before and not experienced any noticeable differences in performance.

 

Buzzing! my car seems to be getting better each time something is done to it! :-)

[350zedd]

If its a Blueprint, then Its probably one of those turbo repopulator belts manufactured from pre-famulated amulite.

Expect up to 80 bhp extra no question!

[coldel]

...confirmation bias?

[ZMANALEX]

Why did you not go for a Gates belt as they are the Tuners belts of choice.

[Edster]

Yeah, you might be right Coldel. It could have felt better cause the noise had gone. i will see how it feels tomorrow.

[Edster]

Why did you not go for a Gates belt as they are the Tuners belts of choice.

 

Yeah, I read about them after I'd bought it - They're not that expensive either. Will probably get one next time.

[jowen7448]

When I was on the Celica forum I came across a guy who was convinced that changing the belt made his car quicker and started suggesting it to others as an essential mod. I personally don't know if there is anything behind this having not had this experience myself, but my HR drive belt is up for change this weekend so if I notice a marked difference I will rally behind you.

 

My suspicion is however that not hearing a squeal any more provides a bit of a placebo. ( I will happily admit I am wrong if there is any science showing otherwise)

[davey_83]

ecu reset

[rabbitstew]

Hmmm.. when i changed my HR aux belt (twice, as it seemed to fall apart every 20k), i noticed no difference in performance. Although i didnt disconnect the battery, so maybe any changes are more related to that rather than the belt change.