Serpentine Belt- broke something

patrickjcrum · Post by **patrickjcrum** » 14 May 2010, 14:27

1995 850 T5r

My wife was driving my volvo home and told me that the power steering was out and that a "whole bunch of lights are on."
I found that the Serpentine belt was competely gone- all that was left was a couple of strands. As near as I can tell, the tensioner, pulley, compressor, aleternator, and sterring pump are fine and turn ok, but something else is broken. There is a part of the harness that comes from by the right side of the car in the vicintity of the CPU/coolant reservoir and ends near the evaporator. It has 3 or 4 terminals on it I think- it's smashed up a little. Where I think it goes is the end of some sort of sensor that is broken and has a IC chip exposed and hanging out. Can anyone identify this part so I can replace it? I'll try to take pictures of it tonight or tommorrow and post it.

Thanks in advance,
Pat

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 14 May 2010, 21:41

Pictures would help a bunch but the only wires I can think of are the wires to the coolant overflow tank on the top side of the motor.

What colors are the wires?

...Lee

Post by **jreed** » 15 May 2010, 04:54

Just wondering how many miles were on the serpentine belt? I replaced mine recently at ~20K miles due to long parallel cracks. (Continental belt).
Thanks !

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 15 May 2010, 12:11

I have the long parallel cracks and am going to replace mine today- I know I should have ordered something off line but bought one at Autozone- a Gator Belt, which has a good reputation- let's hope it fits like it's suppose to.

patrickjcrum · Post by **patrickjcrum** » 17 May 2010, 09:58

I'm not sure how many miles- my odometer gear broke a couple years back and I haven't bothered going in and changing it. I know it's at least two years old, and at least 4-5 oil changes (based on the service timer)

I figured out where the wires went- they went to what looked like a "dummy" plug near the hood latch-The little sensor thing is still a mystery- it sits on the steel vacuum lines near the condensor. it appears that it had some sort of cover glued on with silicone.

I replaced the belt with one from advance auto- it was a "poly cog" brand- they had 2- one was about $15 and the other was $25- I went with the $25 one. It actually took me longer to fabricate a tool for the tensioner out of some heavy angle iron than it did to put the belt on!

Cheers!
Pat

waynej · Post by **waynej** » 17 May 2010, 10:19

Remember you need to change the tensioner assembly every other belt change. The whole assembly, not just the bearing.
If you don't the belt may split length-ways within 10k miles and the rear 10% of the belt will come off. In one case it got tangled in the timing belt and caused valve damage.

patrickjcrum · Post by **patrickjcrum** » 17 May 2010, 12:04

I wasn't aware of that- thanks Waynej