Treebore wrote:There is a "tension arm", all you have to do is releases it, pull the old belt off, put the new one on. There should even be a diagram inside your engine compartment showing how the belt goes around all the pully's. Then tighten in back up, and your good to go. The question is indeed what have they put in the way of that tension arm that you have to remove before your even able to loosen it. Rest assured, they do it intentionally. The "industry" makes far more money off of you if you cannot do it in your driveway, garage, or back yard. Even the mechanics hate it, but they are lucky if they are making $15/hour doing the work, its the shop owner getting the most out of it. Unless they are part of a chain, then they get a small percentage of it too, and Corporate gets most of it.
Not a bad answer except I have never worked on a serpentine belt where you can release the pulley. Not saying there isn't, I've just never come across one. What there is is a spring loaded pulley. This is usually at the top of the engine. Make no mistake this pulley is very hard to pull it enough to take the belt on and off. If you can see it you might want to change it yourself. Pry the spring pulley with a crow bar (That has never failed me) and remove the belt starting with moving it off the spring pulley. Then put on the new belt in the opposite way. You might even get someone to help you move the spring pulley. Make sure that when your pulling the pulley that the crow bar or whatever you use does not interfere with anything surrounding it. You might
cause more damage that is unnecessary.
Before you change the belt try these two things. The first may seem counter-intuitive, but grab a hold of the belt (where it is easy to reach, and with the car off) and pull on the belt as hard as you can for about two seconds. If it still squeaks they have a "No more squeak" can of fluid you should be able to buy at a automotive shop (You won't find one at the mechanics, probably shoot for something like Wal-mart, Mo-par or whatever you have there.) I'm not high on these fix-it-in-a-can type products but this one works pretty good. If it continues to squeak then resort to a mechanic.
Again, you can use a generic belt rather than a factory belt. They are usually close in function. They sell factory belts so they can jack-up the price because the average person feels that a factory part is more "safe" than generic parts.
You can also check your belt. Look at the underside, of the belt. If it is still fairly smooth then the belt is just slipping and the two above options should be good. If it is cracked then it needs to be replaced.
A good book to have, about your car and how to fix it is the
Haynes book. Fairly cheap and has loads of information. This gives you an idea of how something is fixed, if you can do it yourself or at the very least you are somewhat armed with knowledge when going to a mechanic. Like Treebore said, do not try to change the belt without some kind of schematic showing the proper way.
You should really learn how to change your own oil/filter. It is the easiest thing to do with the hardest part being jacking up your vehicle to get to the plug. If you want step-by-step of the procedure just ask.
I could go on about how the industry is lying to people about when you should change your oil. It has nothing to do with the seasons and all about how much your travel. But, even I don't bother to keep track. Instead I change the oil only twice a year (Beginning of spring and the beginning of fall.) This is way over-kill for me and I mostly do it to change the viscosity of the oil. Doing it yourself means you can change the oil using synthetic oil. (Yes it is much better than normal oil) which means you can change your oil and the synthetic will be cheaper other than getting an oil change with regular oil. Though regular oil is more than enough if you change it twice a year, and you'll have no need to go with fancy oils.
"Paranoia is just another word for ignorance." - Hunter S. Thompson
