1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I'll tell you a funny story...
I was driving home from north carolina a few months ago, going pretty fast on the highway, and i kept hearing this weird high pitched noise.
For miles and miles, i could not figure out what it was.
I thought it could have been this semi rig in front of me, or possibly the different types of pavement as i go over them, but i really couldnt pinpoint the noise.
When i decided to stop for the night, i pulled onto an offramp, and started to slow down...
the noise got louder and louder, clearer and clearer, as i slowed down, until i came to a complete stop at the end of the ramp, and i was SHOCKED to hear that it was coming from under my hood!!!
I had been driving with the A/C on full blast, to keep me awake ;) so naturally i went for the ACC OFF button, and the second i hit it, the crazy noise stopped.
when i say crazy noise, i mean like a serpentine belt squeal, "reeee-eeeee-reeeeeee-eeeeee" with an underlying, "waa-waa-waaa-waaaa"
just NOT stuff you want to hear coming from your engine when youo're over a thousand miles away from home...
but like i said, i pushed the acc off button, and it went away INSTANTLY.
so i pulled into the hotel for the night, and turned my car off, took care of getting a room, and got back to my car, and started it up...
again i get the noise, very VERY loud... and again i hit the OFF button, and it goes away!
i was so tired i couldn't deal with it, so i went to sleep, and the next day i checked under the hood, but as far as i could see, everything was fine... miraculously, and driving it home, NO NOISE... with the ac on, OR off...
but...
the AC stopped working at all for the rest of the trip, the air was warm...
i drive almost a thousand miles home, at top speeds of over 110mph, and get home, and no change, no squeal...
so a week or two went by, and i end up thinking my ac compressor took a poo on me and stopped working... and i asked a few people about it and they agree.
so i tell my friend with a 92 9k turbo, and he asks me to pop my hood,
and he says "HERE"S THE PROBLEM, your AC belt came off!"
and i was like, "no way man, it was on the last time i checked..."
but sure enough, as easy as i pull a cookie out of a cookie jar, he reached into my engine compartment and pulled out my AC belt, complete in one peice still.
I was totally confused, it was on last time i looked, and it was on when the ac still hadn't been working...
so i look further down on the passanger side of my 1990 9000 turbo, and i see a weird metal object, just hanging out in the engine compartment.
It was this HUGE idler pully, the tensioner for the AC belt... that had COMPLETELY fell off the side of my engine. That is the picture you see below. There are THREE places for bolts... and i don't think it's a coincidence that they all got loose somehow, at the same time...
ME THINKY SOMEONE FORGOTS TO TIGHTEN THEM!!! ;(
oh well, i really dodged a bullet though. i mean REALLY. this thing could have come flying off the engine block, and into the serpentine belt, at over 100mph, and then who knows what would have happened, if i didn't die, my engine sure might have... sheesh...
it had, however, been slightly touching the serp. belt just enough to grind the outer edge of the belt down about 1/8th of an inch. I'm going to eventually need to replace the belt much sooner than expected, because this i'm sure weaked it up a whole lot. I don't really trust it anymore, i'm just a slacker at replaceing it...
ANYWAYS...
the point is... components in the ac system can have a larger effect on your car and it's life than you think...
so...
get it checked out, by you, or a proffesional...
and please excuse my leopard skin carpet... ;)
-gavin
posted by 69.168.104...
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