Belt problems.. counting on your guys help!

[BoostInsideTSi]

I leant my buddy my car for a couple days.. and he was driving it back from work, when he said there was smoke coming from the engine and the car was running weird. he pulled over, and noticed some of the belts were tangled up and bits of it were shredding away. he drove just a bit up the street to the midas. The guy from midas called me today first saying that my idler pulley came loose and it hit my a/c compressor belt causing it to fail. he is now saying that they found the harmonic balancer went bad, and my a/c compressor ceased up. Are these guys blowing smoke up my ass? what could cause this, what should I do? he said he'd call me tommorow with a quote on these parts. Thank you!

 

[BoostInsideTSi]

any ideas?

 

[Old Mitsu Tech]

Wow, when it rains it pours. I have a 92 non turbo as my driver. This summer my harmonic came loose when I was in Kansas City. The first thing was I lost Air conditioning when going down the road. I didn't find the problem until later when I stopped and seen the belt was gone. I limped home monitoring the gauges for overheat and such. I have also seen the tensioner nut come loose on the ac tensioner. I would have to see the ac compressor to see if it was frozen up. I would put on a new harmonic balancer, all new belts and set all tensions properly. I would then look under the hood with the engine running and have someone turn the air conditioner on. If the ac belt squeals like a pig and tries to stall the engine, then I would say the compressor is bad. Also, if you distrust who is working on it, I would go with my instincts and politely have the car towed to another shop. The tensioner and harmonic balancer are relatively easy repairs. Let me know if this helps. Rick

 

[Defiant]

The harmonic balancer went first, and caused the rest of it.

 

[BoostInsideTSi]

thank you very much for the replies. hooked you up with some positive feedback rick. defiant, you have enough as it is I am still waiting for their phone call, but I will have them do the steps you recommended. Without changing the AC Compressor, and having them replace the harm bal. and pulley & belts, if the car is started and the ac compressor is found to be in non-working condition, will they have to rip stuff out again to get to it and replace it? I'll post the quote on the work when they give it to me. ALSO: What could cause this peice to go bad? I traded my DSM for my friends bike for 3 days; and it seems odd that after owning the car for 4 years, within the 3 day period that he had it, this happened. (He is paying for the repairs)
Mike

 

[Old Mitsu Tech]

I would let them do the repairs sans the ac compressor. If it is really bad then I would simply remove the belt till next spring unless you want it for defrost. Buy a good used one and replace it. Or have a reman installed with the receiver dryer and exp valve etc. This assures warranty on reman parts. If you don't have a receipt for all that being done then, well at least where I buy parts they will not honour a warranty. Keep all receipts and lastly ask for all your parts that they said were defective. You may have to pay a core charge on the compressor but the rest should not have a core. This keeps everyone honest and unless they work on a lot of mitsus they won't have a lot of "spare" parts laying around. Ask for your old parts before work is done. I tell this to all of my customers. It just makes it a little more difficult for an honest person to cross the line into dishonesty. Not to say they would, but it puts a little added leverage into your court.