[roastbeef]

i took a look under the hood and everything is in pretty close proximity... i'm not confident i can even see the right pulley.
her description of what happened was her a/c was on, and she was backing out of a parking spot when her power steering "went out" and she smelled what she described as a burning rubber smell. she turned off the a/c and the car behaved like normal. no warning lights. car drove fine afterwards.
looking down into the engine bay, i can see rubber shavings near a line on the main crank pulley. nothing besides that out of the norm, no weird noises. belt looked healthy, despite the shavings observed. i didn't want to turn on the a/c just to see what happened, since i'm pretty confident that is what it is.

that being said, anyone have some experience with this? i have a feeling this is going to be a very labor intensive job. i can do a lot of things, but i don't really mess with freon... not super confident with that.

[CO335D]

Your wife’s crank pulley/harmonic balancer is what took a dump. Very common failure piece on these cars. Do a search, and you’ll find all you need to know about replacement parts/procedure.

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by CO335D

Your wife’s crank pulley/harmonic balancer is what took a dump. Very common failure piece on these cars. Do a search, and you’ll find all you need to know about replacement parts/procedure.

thank you very much, i'll poke around. i'm kinda curious why it would be intermittent like that...

[CO335D]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

thank you very much, i'll poke around. i'm kinda curious why it would be intermittent like that...

It’s probable that it hasn’t totally failed yet. The ac belt adds additional tension, so it would make sense that turning the ac off would have an impact.

[Owen81]

Classic harmonic dampener failure

[roastbeef]

i see. she was able to drive home about 15 miles just fine. i guess she'll be taking my car to work tomorrow. she doesn't need it to take a dump on her 40 mile commute.

[dmanb2b]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

i see. she was able to drive home about 15 miles just fine. i guess she'll be taking my car to work tomorrow. she doesn't need it to take a dump on her 40 mile commute.

Do not drive it anymore as you risk overheating. HB replacement is easy diy.

[335stoner]

once the HB fail your accessories will NOT spin... no ac, no power steering, no alternator, and most important NO WATER PUMP!!

she is lucky it made it home! park it and do not drive it.. I would say its safe to say the motor will overheat its not a risk... its going to happen

super easy to change out... the most difficult part of the job is removing the cooling fan.... which isn't hard at all.. then the job is simply belt change with a pulley swap

[roastbeef]

you guys were right, main pulley. $1,200 at the dealer. sucks, but she needed the loaner and couldn't wait until my guy could get to it next week.

[335dsleeper]

Wow. That’s crazy expensive.

Originally Posted by roastbeef

you guys were right, main pulley. $1,200 at the dealer. sucks, but she needed the loaner and couldn't wait until my guy could get to it next week.

[335stoner]

$1200 for having them fix it? that sucks!

DIY is under $400 and 2 hours of time! ($360 is what I spent for belts, bolts and HB)

seems like they charged somewhere around 800-900 for parts and the rest in labor which seems about right

next time get a economy rental for $40+/- a day and order parts online.. you would still save $600+

[roastbeef]

Right, just bad timing. I simply didn't have he time at the beginning of our work weeks, and when I do it myself, it usually takes four times as long as I like to take my time and look around.
Sometimes the dealer gets to bend you over and you just have to take it.

[335dsleeper]

Well if you’re into that sort of thing.

I agree with stoner. Get a rental for a few days, install yourself and save a lot of money. It’s a very simple procedure.

Originally Posted by roastbeef

Sometimes the dealer gets to bend you over and you just have to take it.