Cars Suck II

At work, I've just moved into the new building. It's not quite done yet, so there is still a load of construction work being done. And debris in the car park. You know, like screws. Like the screw that punctured my tire (tyre?). Fortunately, I had reason to leave before lunch that day, and discovered the flat. I was able to call the leasing company and they sent out a service to replace the tire.

I got the right part for Amanda's car yesterday also, and went to my coworker's house to get the job done. He used to be a mechanic, so that made life much easier. After removing the fan belt cover, I discovered why the pulley failed in the first place. Whomever had installed the fan belt (probably from the factory) didn't get it over the power steering pump in the right location. As a result, it was putting side load onto the idler pulley. This caused the bearing to fail. If this car had been driven normal mileage during its life this would have been a warranty repair. But, it has always been a city car. It only made it to 40,000 miles after 9 years. Warranty long expired.

After getting the fan belt off, we had to 1) drop the alternator out of the way, 2) take off the bolts holding the casting that the idler and power steering pump were mounted to, 3) use a crow bar to pry it off of the rusted pin holding it in place, and then 4) replace the remnants of the old idler. This was actually easier than it sounds. Especially after we got the crow bar out.

We reassembled the bits together and went to put the new fan belt on. We tried three times before concluding that there is no way this belt fits. We fished it out and compared it to the old belt. Sixty millimeters short. Damn. Put the old belt on, and head home. Two hours.

Today, Amanda called me at work to say the battery had died. It was getting weak anyway, and the weather dropped well below freezing today. I figured that that was the end of the battery. When I got home from work today, I pulled the old battery out (marked as being installed in 2003, so very much due for replacement) , went and got a new battery, and swapped belts. Oh, I also noted that the light stock indicated that the headlights had been left on. :) (update: Amanda pointed out that there was some ambiguity as to who left the lights on. Amanda did.)

Of course nothing with this car has been simple. Not even the battery. Peugeot uses this weird terminal clamp on the positive terminal that is a one time install thing. You can try and pry it off, but it just ends up breaking. So, when you replace the battery you also have to replace this post clamp thing. Stupid French. Because this is after work, I now have to go to the Peugeot dealer tomorrow and get this stupid post clamp. It really is a stupid design. Why not just have a normal bolt on clamp like the rest of the world?

But that is it. The car should give me no more grief over the next few weeks. And in the end, I've spent less than ₤100 on Amanda's car, which is not bad for an el cheapo vehicle meant to get her around for a year. The total inventory on this car comes to:
Remove and replace blower motor to rid of voodoo spirits. ₤0.
Replace spark plug wires. ₤15.
Replace fan belt and idler pulley. ₤30.
Replace battery. ₤40.

I'm happy with how it all came out.