When I bought my 1996 Mystique with 109,320 miles on it, it had a fairly bad belt slap.  In getting the belt replaced, it was discovered that both idler pulleys had bad bearings, and also needed to be replaced.  The old belt looks like it's in good shape, and I strongly suspect that it was the idler pulleys, and not the belt itself, that caused the belt to slap.


{I do hate spam, but that isn't really part of my email address.  Remove the string ?HatesSpam? from the email address ?BobHatesSpam@blaylock.to? to email me.  No advertisements.  Spammers will be dealt with very harshly!}
-------
Moonlight Blue 1996 Mercury Mystique GS , Zetec engine, ATX.  No mods. (Well, OK, one mod.  Before I got rid of my previous car, a 1994 Tempo, I swapped radios.  I liked the Tempo's radio better.  That counts as a mod, doesn't it?  I also kept one of my Tempo's wheels to use as a spare.  I hate those stupid ?compact? spares that come with modern cars.  Does this count as a mod?  If so, I guess I have two mods.  Replaced burned/melted blower switch and connector on 19 February 2002 with a 1P3T toggle switch from Marvac and a Molex connector from Rat Shack; I guess this now makes three mods.)