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  #1  
Old 02-20-2003, 05:04 PM
alacrity024
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More Belt Woes (NOW WITH BONUS!!)..

Okay, as many know, I have the worst behaved belts of anyone on this board, and i might be a step closer to figuring out why.

I recently replaced my PS and AC belts. The old AC belt was SUPER cracked and carbonized, and the old PS belt looked pretty much okay. So after torquing them both down, I had no problems, except it looked like the AC belt was smoking a little on startup, and it would definately smell kinda funky in the cabin for a couple seconds on cold starts.

This afternoon, I started my car and heard a little squealing. No problem, I thought, it's probably the PS belt needing to be tightened a little after it's stretched (which is the case because on cold starts it'll squeal a little bit if i twist the wheel too soon). A little more squealing and then it stopped. Okay, good. I'll just back out of my spot. HUGE CLOUD of blue smoke comes from the front end of the car. DAMNIT. Shut it off, pop the hood, pull the belt shroud off.. the AC belt is just hanging. Broken. I wait for it to cool off and pull it out. It's all cracked and carbonized just like the last one. I touch the AC pully.. fine. Touch the idler pully.. fine. Touch the AC side of the crank pully.. OW. The PS side of the crank pully was nice and cool though.

Obviously I've located the source of the problem. Now I guess I could just say "oh, that pully needs to be replaced." but could it be the BEARING that's supporting the pully which needs replacing?

One cool thing, without the AC compressor tying up power, the car revs quicker and gets MUCH better gas mileage. I've been getting like 220 miles before the empty mark and in the summer I usually can hit 300. I think that the crank pully problem has been affecting fuel economy.

So is it just the pulley (have i been typing 'pully' the whole time?) that needs to be replaced, or could it be something a little more "internal?"

Thanks in advance for any replies.. and I think I'm just gonna leave the AC belt off for the rest of the winter..

-adam

Last edited by alacrity024; 02-22-2003 at 08:08 AM.
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  #2  
Old 02-20-2003, 05:42 PM
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In the meantime try running your car on "ECON" instead of "AUTO". It's definately something with the AC compresser. I don't think it should engage in ECON mode. It could also be possible that you have water in your AC system making it impossible for the compresser to turn (when everything is cold).
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Old 02-21-2003, 04:10 AM
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Eyes glazed over

Adam

Check that you have not built up a burnt rubber "glaze" on the AC pulley that would be promoting slippage.

If a worn or loose bearing was at fault, you would feel this as movement or rocking in the pulley when the belt is off.

It's also possible you have an aircon compressor fault. Maybe it is too difficult to turn because of a seized bearing? Find an aircon guy to look at it, see if the torque needed to turn the pulley is normal.

Joe
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Old 02-21-2003, 05:05 AM
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I too am having belt woes.
My diagnosis is "Dunlops Disease" ...or my belly dun lops over my belt.
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  #5  
Old 02-21-2003, 05:14 AM
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There is no way that one side of your crank pulley can be bad while the other side is good.....I'd say you've got a AC compressor locking up, and it was holing the belt still while it slipped on the crank pulley, hence the hot crank pulley.

I'd leave the belt off till summer time, and be looking for a new AC compressor.
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Old 02-21-2003, 06:57 AM
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Reckon so Huck.

Doesn't the compressor have a magnetic clutch attached? If that was seized and the pulley couldn't turn it might be the problem.

Joe
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Old 02-21-2003, 10:19 AM
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Quote:
Originally posted by svxistentialist
Reckon so Huck.

Doesn't the compressor have a magnetic clutch attached? If that was seized and the pulley couldn't turn it might be the problem.

Joe
Hey Joe,
Yeah, it has a magnetic clutch on the AC compressor, but if the clutch seizes, it will just force the compressor to run, which isn't to bad.....unless the compressor is locked up
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Old 02-21-2003, 10:47 AM
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Good point Huck

Quote:
Originally posted by huck369


Hey Joe,
Yeah, it has a magnetic clutch on the AC compressor, but if the clutch seizes, it will just force the compressor to run, which isn't to bad.....unless the compressor is locked up
Then I reckon with the belt off, if you put on defrost which electrically locks in the clutch, if the pulley won't turn for reasonable pressure, the compressor is $hagged. Yeah?

Joe
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Old 02-21-2003, 03:45 PM
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Old 02-21-2003, 05:41 PM
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Didn't I tell you to check your AC compressor in the last thread!
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  #11  
Old 02-21-2003, 07:49 PM
alacrity024
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yeah, the compressor pulley seems a little harder to turn than i seem to remember it used to be. Am I going to completely replace the compressor, or can I just replace a component within the compressor unit?

-adam
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Old 02-21-2003, 07:57 PM
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If it's just the clutch bearing locking up you can replace that, but in your case I believe the compressor is junk and it will have to be replaced. Haven't priced one of thoes yet.
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Old 02-21-2003, 08:10 PM
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I agree. Get another compresser from one of the parts SVX's and rebuild the old one.

You could then use the rebuilt one and sell the other one or whatever you want to do with it.
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Old 02-22-2003, 12:59 AM
alacrity024
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not a bad idea guys, thanks. the cheapest i was able to source a used compressor unit (do i need to buy or replace anything else besides the actual compressor unit?) was $125.. No idea if it'll actually WORK or not, but.. you take risks. I could also just remove the bunk compressor and rebuild it in the remaining winter months.

Five Words:

How Do I Do It?

Anyone with the proper FSM (I only have engine/tranny and electrical) feel like scanning the appropriate pages?


Thanks for the help, folks

-adam

SPECIAL BONUS TIDBIT!!!!!

This is my 555th post. To my knowledge, 555 is a relatively signifigant tobacco producer in parts of Europe and for quite some time was/(is?) the primary sponsor of the Subaru World Rally Team. The number 555 will be forever associated with the Blue Subaru.

In an extremely limited run around 1998 or maybe 99, Subaru and STi released a limited edition WRX. It had the standard STi 2.0 liter turbo four bored out to 2.2 liters, thusly, the boxer-powered car was designated 22B.

Fire up any calculator capable of converting decimal numbers to hexidecimal (the regular Windows calculator should do it in Scientific/Advanced mode) and enter 555 as a decimel. Convert it to hex and you get 22B.

Kind of neat.

Last edited by alacrity024; 02-22-2003 at 01:05 AM.
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  #15  
Old 02-22-2003, 12:27 PM
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Yes. Chances are there is still freon in the AC system. That will have to be evacuated by a special machine at a garage. Or you could just blow it off into the atmosphere, but I don't recomend this because it's illegal and if you get the AC oil on your paint it could eat through it, so bad idea. Don't for get you will also need to have the system recharged by a garage and with the price of R-12 going up, right now would be a good time to get it converted to R-134 it's alot cheaper. And I have no idea how to rebuild one, I would just get a used one and call it done.


What the hell is a hexadecimal.
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