Had one of those Oh **** moments today.

Driving along with the wife and kids.
All of a sudden, no power steering, battery worning light comes on.

Luckily there was gas station nearby, with no power steering, I had a hell of a workout on my arms. Popped the hood open and noticed that the serpant belt had snapped, and did some considerable damage to some wires for the fan when whipped around as well.

Called CAA, got the wife and kids on the subway(thankfully we were right at St.Clair west station).

So after three hours of waiting for the CAA truck, dropped it off at my mech, and taking the bus home. I left wondering how much will this cost.

Thought I would share my missadvanture of the day.

Oh well, could have been worst.

 

Damn that sucks, all depends on how much damage you did to that wiring...otherwise the cost shouldn't be too bad.

Was the timing belt already done on this car?

 

i hope things work out ok. where there any symptons prior to it failing?

 

The car has 190k.

Timming belt was done at 144k. I only have record up post 129k. So the serpantine belt was done prior to that. The privious owner was religious to the maintinance schedule, so I would assume it was done at the recommended time.

I'm hoping that the belt was broke due to wear and tare, and not because something seazed.

The morning of, I did noticed that there was a slight noise, check under the hood but the entire engine bay is covered so I really didn't see much.

When should the serpantine belt be changed and when should the Time belt be changed?

On most cars I think is at a 100k for time belt. 144 seems a little long.

 

i've been advised to replaced the serpantine belt the same time when you change the timing belt just because the whole engine is open up for repairs.

 

Ok, just got the car back.

The belt was replaced. $110. The wiring issue wasn't that bad, so my mech just sodered it back on.

Found some other issues though.

Front lower control arm and linkage, all the bushing were shot. $400
Rear Differential oil change. $40

 

All in all looks like things didn't turn out too badly for you. Good thing everything is back to normal now

 

I'm still having rear Diff issues. The oil change only temporarily fixed the issue.
I might need to swap it out.

Any idea how much this will cost. Are there rebuilt ones.