My Sisters Car Problems

[Blue88Comanche]

My sisters car is broken down a couple hundred miles away from us, but is near my aunts house. She also works all week in Auburn but is stuck in Calera (about an hour away)

 

the accessory belt broke on her car and it needs to be replaced. the car is currently parked in a parking lot. so here are our options.

 

1 have a local mechanic replace the belt (and risk getting ripped off)

 

2 My uncle attempt to repair the car (he oped not to because of his limited knowledge of cars)

 

3 dad and i drive up to her in his jeep and she takes his jeep back to auburn and we repair her car and drive it home. (but may or may not be able to make the repair in a timely manner due to the storms in the area)

 

4 We can tow dad jeep to my sister for her to use and we tow her car home to make the repairs at home with all our tools (u-haul does not recommend my 05 4.7L WK to tow other vehicles, but we may can use my uncles Dodge 1500)

 

 

other notes,

 

My aunts house is full with out of town family, so we may not be able to stay overnight if the repair takes longer than expected.

 

there is currently a huge storm front passing over Calera

 

my sister has already messed a day of work (college student with 2 part time jobs)..

 

her car is a 2005 Ford Five-Hundred Limited AWD

 

 

Looks like tomorrow will be interesting no matter what we chose to do, any advice?

[gogmorgo]

A belt's not that hard to figure out.

http://www.justanswer.com/ford/2o7km-replace-serpentine-belt-ford-five-hundred.html

Further down on the page, the guy refuses to pay for the answer because when he went to Autozone for the belt, they gave him instructions. She'll find it empowering to change it herself. As long as she gets the right belt, but the automaton behind the counter should be able to figure that out.

Have your uncle help out. A belt's a belt, whether it's on a vacuum cleaner, washing machine, or car.

[Sir Sam]

If it really is just a belt why is it such a big deal to drive up, replace the belt, and drive home?

[Harley]

:agree: :yeah that:

[dfreeman616]

unless the belt failed due to a locked pulley or a bad tensioner, they are not bad.

[Blue88Comanche]

Well my sister finally called and said that one of our aunts friends can do the repair for $50. So her car will be fixed some time tomorrow hopefully.

 

The reason this was a big deal is because she is 4 hours away, bad weather expected, and missed a couple days of work. She was freaking out.

 

I could have done the repair my self but 8+ hours of driving round trip would have sucked both time from work and the little cash I have for my bills. Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow.

[HOrnbrod]

Bad weather? Light rain is all. C'mon man.

[Blue88Comanche]

A belt's not that hard to figure out.

http://www.justanswer.com/ford/2o7km-replace-serpentine-belt-ford-five-hundred.html

Further down on the page, the guy refuses to pay for the answer because when he went to Autozone for the belt, they gave him instructions. She'll find it empowering to change it herself. As long as she gets the right belt, but the automaton behind the counter should be able to figure that out.

Have your uncle help out. A belt's a belt, whether it's on a vacuum cleaner, washing machine, or car.

 

Thanks for the info, I think when my uncles where looking at the car they where just looking top down, the engine sits like a FWD car so the belts are on the passenger side. The engine bay on that car in very very cramped.

 

They also only have very house hold basic hand tools, apparently no wrenches and what not. It's most likely a good thing they did not try to work on it, we can't afford more expenses on her car.

 

 

unless the belt failed due to a locked pulley or a bad tensioner, they are not bad.

 

I hope that's not the problem, guess I will check that the next time she is home

[Blue88Comanche]

Bad weather? Light rain is all. C'mon man.

 

Well I was just going by the weather radar for tomorrow.. The car is stuck without steering in a parking lot, that would have been a fun repair in the rain haha

[Harley]

Well I was just going by the weather radar for tomorrow.. The car is stuck without steering in a parking lot, that would have been a fun repair in the rain haha

 

Its only a belt, not the end of the world. If the only problem is no power steering it can still be driven and not be stranded.

[Blue88Comanche]

so, yesterday was interesting.... the Mechanic replaced the Belt for $50, but the a/c compressor was toast to the point the clutch and pulley where locked up and not free spinning. he quoted us $700 to replace it, I asked if the AC could be by passed and it could not be. I looked and one of our local mechanic friends said it can't be by passed. we told him no where where going to tow it home. I then spent the next 3 hours looking for a truck and trailer to use. when dad and i finally got a truck and a trailer we discovered that the insurance cards where expired, so we spent an hour getting the up to date ones. as we are packing up, dads job called and told him to be in LA by tomorrow (well today now), but at least while he is on the boat he is making money. Dad ended up having to shell out the money for the mechanic up there to replace the AC compressor.

 

I made and received more phone calls on my cell phone yesterday than I normally do in a month.

[gogmorgo]

Damn, that's rough. But yeah, you'd need to get an idler pulley where the a/c pump goes (or somewhere thereabouts if you go with a different belt, since the belt won't clear straight across from the harmonic balancer to the power steering pulley (Tensioner's in the way). And since A/C was standard, there's no factory "delete" kit. You'd need to cobble pretty hard, and very few mechanics today seem willing to do much beyond replacing parts...