| Subject: | power steering belt pulley |
| Question: | I have a 94 mirage ES. I recently replaced the power steering fan belt, but just this morning, it began squealling shoirtly after starting the engine. The squealing gets louder, and soon smoke begins to appear. I looked at the lower three pulleys through the front driver wheel well, and the first pulley on the left of the three is not turning. This is chewing up the belt, and is the source of the smoke. It appears that this pulley is not turning. Is it a simple issue of looseing the center bolt to allow this pulley to turn, or is this a very complicated and costly issue? |
| Answer: | David, If you've got some free time and don't mind getting your hands dirty, you can probably do this job yourself. You may have a stuck pulley like you indicated. I haven't dealt with replacing belts on your model of Mirage, but it should be "easily" accessible. That bolt may be on there very tight. Usually pulleys that have been on a car for 10 years or so a not easy to remove. You may need a breaker bar and a lot of WD-40. If you have a real difficult time removing the bolt, have a mechanic
do it. You don't want to strip anything. If loosening the bolt and
making sure the tension on the belt is set correctly does not help,
you may have a burned out power steering motor. |