Well I was driving with all the lights, radio, wipers, defoggers and heater going and my charging system aka battery light came on. It remained on for the five minute trip home. After restarting the car the light did not come on until I turned all the all the accessories on, but went off when I shut everything off. This morning it came on and remained on. So I took it to Auto-zone and it tested at something like 11v.

Then I got home and noticed something (by the passenger fog light) just hanging out of the bottom of the car practically touching the ground....and yep it turns out to be a belt. Obviously this is the source of the issue. But are there any other problems that would cause the belt to break or fall off that I should know about? And how hard would it be for me to get this fixed myself? Thanks.

 

You need a new alternator and belt. It was going bad and that is why it could not handle the full load with everything on.

 

Will agree the belt was probably old. Did you get a loud squealing at start-up, or in turns? The alternator belt is not the hardest thing to do. Need a 10mm socket to remove the splash guard, and a 15mm socket to loose the upper & lower alternator bolt. With them loose, get a 13mm or 1/2 socket and loosen the adjuster bolt in the back of the alternator cover shield. That way it can slide back and fourth. Push forward, install new belt. Slide the alternator back to put tension on belt. Tighten the 13mm adjuster bolt until properly tensioned, and then tighten the upper and lower bolts. Put your splash guard back and be on your way.

Something to think about is you wanna get fancy

http://www.lfsracing.com/proddetail.php?prod=LFSODP

 

you forget the PS and AC belt are in front of that belt he is going to have to remove the Thermostat neck with the 10 mm rachet, and use a 13 MM on the adjusting bolts on the PS pump. and getting to the pivot bolt it is eaiser to remove the motor mount. the pivot bolt i think is a 15mm

and when you replace the altenator belt dont over tighten it. it is really easy to overtighten it when your doing the bolt that faces the firewall (13MM) that will be the first bolt you tighten up when your putting everything back together.

 

Yeah. I did miss that. Guess my hatred for ac/ps has a lot to do with the space they take up. Waiting for my ac to fail so I can yank it out.

 

Thanks guys I had it fixed last week at a shop...I wasnt going to have time to do it on my own. Im sure this will be helpful later on.