bye bye belts

so I'm driving down saginaw in lansing a few days back, in rush hour, going about 40mph, and go off into the turn lane. Suddenly no power stearing...going towards my turn really fast So I slam on my breaks and force the stearing wheel over, and pull into the good year that was right there. Pop the hood thinking the pressure line I just replaced blew out...Instead there were tons of bits of rubber everywhere. The belt from the crank to the alternator & powersteering pump had disinigrated!!!

So I walk into good year, they wanted $50 for both belts!!! I was like wtf, called my friend, went to autozone, got them for $12

1/2 an hour latter good to go, I figured I may as well replace both of them at the same time.

moral of the story, everyone go look under your hood right now and check the belts

Hmm.. I've never had a catastrophic failure of a drive belt. It must be because I always carry spares. The SVX belt began squealing a little on slow turns after a cold start and I could see little cracks so I had them replaced at 66K along with the timing belt. Were you aware the belt was weak or too tight? Is this related to your failing alternator? B.

i recently had both belts replaced.

when i got the car I looked them over, they seamed good. Keeping in mind, it just had every last thing replaced on it before I bought it. But right now I'm not too impressed w/ the shop that did all the work.

I dont quite see how the alternator problem could be related...I spun the cranks around, and they seamed fine, not warped, or sticky. But there was a rubbing noise in the alternator at one spot.

you have an alternator problem too? whats going on with it?

[249SVX]

Replaced them with the timing belt last summer.

[LarryIII]

Whenever I buy a car, new or used, I always buy an alternator/PS , and an A/C belt. I usually put them in in the spare tire/doughnut well. It's cheap insurance.

[Landshark]

i believe the timing belt should be replaced at 60k miles. if its 6 years old or more, i'd replace it anyway. more miles or years than that and you takes your chances. do you feel lucky, punk?

Alan

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by Landshark
i believe the timing belt should be replaced at 60k miles. if its 6 years old or more, i'd replace it anyway. more miles or years than that and you takes your chances. do you feel lucky, punk?

Alan

Service interval on the timing belt is listed at 60K. However, a law in 1995 required timing belts to last for 100K "In California." Inasmuch as the part number for a California Timing Belt is the same as any other state, I think you'd be safe in waiting until the 90K service interval. That's just my opinion. Others may vary.

[Aredubjay]

Sorry, I probablly WOULD have checked after reading this, BUT, I'd already checked BEFORE reading this. I had to select "NO."

[Chris]

when I had a moment of total belt(s) failure it was due the the crank pulley comming apart and not linning up properly. Might want to look at it just in case. I know I am not the only one to have a crank pulley separate on them.

i had to check 'no'...because, well, i check under my hood at least once a day. lol...it's basically me staring at everything wondering what will be the next thing to go...i figure giving everything under the hood the evil eye will scare it into not breaking heh ::taking bets on what will break next:: and yes...i know i'm weird

[ensteele]

I checked my belts the other day, so I didn't have to.

Originally posted by srmifer
... I check under my hood at least once a day.

My crystal ball says your hood release is the next to go..

My alternator is no good too, and my belts came half off today, too!

Oh, and BTW my timing belt was first replaced at 100k, 10 years old. The belt that they took out is perfect, BTW.