Tuesday, July 1, 2003
At nearly 6500 miles since the last inspection, it was time (well, actually a bit late) for another oil service. I showed up and chatted with my mechanic as usual. "Been pretty reliable lately? I haven't seen you", he said. "Well, " I said (while tapping the side of my head), "knock on wood, yea."
I mentioned I'd started to hear that annoying "sounds like bad A/C compressor bearings but is most likely just an "old loose belt" sound, and asked him to check it out and replace it if necessary.
An hour and a half later, the car had fresh oil and filter element, along with new A/C and fan belts. My mechanic showed me the A/C belt in particular and revealed several splits in some of the splines. He said that while there could still be sufficient tension on the belt (there was in this case), when the splines start to split, the belt won't grip as well under load, which could also explain those familiar sounds.
While we were on the subject of consumables I asked about all those coolant hoses with 80000 miles on them. He said "don't worry about them...they typically outlast the cooling system components, but if you really want to pick a time to replace them anyway, 100K would be a good idea." Okay, good enough for me.
Total labor $108.00, Parts, $98, Total $219. Mileage 79818.