Mystique Belt broke

[buzlink]

My g/f Belt broke on the passanger side of the car. It is a fairly large belt.
I was wondering how hard is to change this belt, and what accesories or critical items run off this belt? I know her power steering runs off of it, becuase it went out.

Thanks

95 Mercury Mystique

[pre98zetec]

I would check all the pulleys before replacing them. Usually the belts don't snap for no reason.. Check the water pump, a/c , altenator, power steering and the tensioner. One of them could be locked up

[Lord Stanley]

I would check all the pulleys before replacing them. Usually the belts don't snap for no reason.. Check the water pump, a/c , altenator, power steering and the tensioner. One of them could be locked up

Do not forget the idler pulley

Anyways, pre98 is right, one of them is probably frozen up... How many miles on the car? Has the belt ever been changed? FYI it is called a "serpentine" belt, so you know what to tell the parts guy...

[buzlink]

How hard is it to get one back on.
Any write ups on how to replace the belt?

I"m afraid that something did freeze up, and hoping that is not that case.

[Matt R]

Everything runs off this belt... the car won't run without it.

To replace it... take off the passenger front wheel, and take off the plastic splash guard. Route the belt according to the sticker on the strut tower. You need to push up on the tensioner with a breaker bar, slip the belt around its pulley, then release it. Find out the cause for the broken belt first... check all the pulleys and spin them. There's pulleys for the alternator, power steering, air conditioning, and crankshaft. Then you also have the idler pulley and the tensioner pulley.

IIRC the belt goes, starting at the top back of the engine, over the alternator, under the idler, over and down the power steering to the AC, around the crankshaft, and finally under the tensioner. Check the routing diagram on the car though.

It's a fairly simple job even if you are mechically disadvantaged. Harder than changing a tire, but easier than doing brakes.

[buzlink]

Thanks for the info!

I just hope nothing else is broken.

[mcgarvey]

Everything runs off this belt... the car won't run without it.

Actually the car will run. It simply won't have charging current, power steering, coolant flow, or air conditioning.

[pre98zetec]

Actually the car will run. It simply won't have charging current, power steering, coolant flow, or air conditioning.

yup.. You can drive it still as long as you watch the temp... My belt broke cause the water pump locked up, i was able to baby it home, which was about 5-7 miles. I know it got hotter then hell but it got me home. I advised not doing this though.

[hopalong]

Buz, it's not all that hard to do, it's just frustrating, cause you can't reach top and bottom at the same time to keep it routed while you get it on all the pulleys.

Get it routed over all the pulleys, then pull the tensioner back to get it over that pulley. Let the tensioner go back in place and it should all be good.

Like everybody said, check the pulleys on all your accessories, especially the A/C. We seem to be having a rash of A/C issues, but I'm sure that's because we're all using it so much this summer.

[zorrex]

Buz, it's not all that hard to do, it's just frustrating, cause you can't reach top and bottom at the same time to keep it routed while you get it on all the pulleys.

Get it routed over all the pulleys, then pull the tensioner back to get it over that pulley. Let the tensioner go back in place and it should all be good.

Like everybody said, check the pulleys on all your accessories, especially the A/C. We seem to be having a rash of A/C issues, but I'm sure that's because we're all using it so much this summer.

+1. I ACTUALLY did this myself . Just a simple wrench to pull back the tensioner and some muscles to pull the belt over the pulley is all it takes.