re:ac belts, 1990 Loyale Wagon

[sunking247]

Hi, this is my first time posting, but I've got a real problem here.

 

I own a 1990 Subaru Loyale Wagon, bought it with 120,000 miles and have since put on another 30,000. The last owner treated it pretty well, but did alot of the repairs himself, and not very well. On a trip up to the Rockies 6 months ago, it threw the timing belt and I was stranded. Long story short, had it towed to a nearby town and ended up spending 2 nights in the mountains while I waited for the par to show up and the labor to be done. In doing the labor, most of the front half of my car had to be removed and then re-installed in order to access the timing belt casing. When it's all said and done, I've spent about $700. 2 months later, a bearing in one of the pulleys that the ac belt runs on seizes, the pulley freezes, and burning rubber smoke is coming out from under the hood. My poor wife was driving and was able to limp the last mile and a half home, but was literally scared out of her wits that the car might explode on her or something. Anyway, had the pulley replaced, had the belts replaced, good as new right? Wrong, in the last 3 months have had to replace the ac belt twice, both times getting stuck on the side of the road.

 

My question is: could the labor that was done to replace the timing belt have resulted in something in the assembly to be a little off, resulting in my ac belts constantly shredding?

 

Please reply, I need to know, before I go chasing this mechanic down.

 

Steven

[Partsman]

Sounds more like a problem with the compressor to me - too much drag? Which pulley got the replacement bearing? And were the other components tested for spinning freely?

[roxtar]

same thing happened to my dad's taurus, the compressor had gone bad and kept shredding the belts. bitch of a repair since the AC system on th 1990 loyale uses r12 coolant and most shops (at least the ones around dc) won't do the fix unless they convert your system to r134a coolant (not cheap)

[Partsman]

Conversion is cheaper than buying R12 at current prices! Glad I still have a little can stashed away from bygone years when they cost $3!