My daughter drives our 2005 Hyundai Sonata. Apparently, while she was at work today, a rat crawled up into the engine compartment. While she was driving the 4 mile distance home, the rat’s tail got caught in the serpentine belt, pulling the rat in between the belt and one of the wheels the belt goes around. Sadly, this resulted in both the explosive disassembly of the rat and the derailing of the belt. Of course, the power steering immediately stopped working properly, but she made it home, where it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize what the problem was.
Is this something I can fix myself, by loosening the tensioner pulley, re-seating the belt, and re-tensioning it? Or do I need to have it taken to a shop?
This YouTube video shows them replacing the belt, and that looks pretty much like my engine does (although that is a 2006 and mine is a 2005) but they have the engine completely out, so I don’t know how practical it is to change it while the engine is still, you know, inside the car.
Do you have the large rachet wrench and socket? That’s a big wrench compared to the rachet set most people have in their toolbox.
I saw at the end that he used the wrench to leverage up the assembly and slip the belt on. Looks like a two man job. That guy was using both hands on that wrench. You may need your daughter to slip the belt back on the pulley while you handle the wrench.
I used to change fan belts on my cars thirty years ago. But these serpentine belts are more tricky.
I understand you aren’t completely replacing it. You’re just getting it back on the power steering pulley.
No, it’s not going to fix itself, although personally, I’m hoping self-fixing cars are the next step after self-driving cars.
Can you fix it without taking it to a mechanic? Yes. I used to fix my own cars all the time. There is a secret to it. It’s called “Having the right tool for the job.” You need the Haynes or Chilton’s manual for the car, and then you need to look up replacing this belt, and make sure you have exactly each tool it says you need. If it says you need a ratchet and deep-well socket, a monkey wrench will not do. Pliers will not do. You need a ratchet and a deep-well socket. If you need to buy several tools, calculate whether the cost of the tools will be more than paying someone else to do it for you (probably not, and you will still have the tools, if you plan to make a regular hobby of car repairs).
Follow the manual step-by-step, and you can’t go wrong. Helps to have three hands.
Also, read through the whole thing at least once before you start.
Heh heh … just to clarify, RivkahChaya, when I said “self-fixable,” I meant fixable by me, rather than having to take it into a mechanic. It definitely wouldn’t be fixing itself, although that would be a pretty handy feature.
I don’t have a long enough wrench, but I can borrow one from my brother. I was mainly wondering if the car having been driven for a couple miles while serpentine belt was not properly attached would have caused any additional problems that a mechanic would need to fix, or if I can just pop it back in place. I do have several of those Haynes and Chilton’s manuals, but I don’t remember if I have one for this particular car. I’ll have to check.
Thanks, aceplace57 and RivkahChaya, for the responses so far.
[QUOTE=UB40]
There’s a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
There’s a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna go?
I’m gonna fix that rat that’s what I’m gonna do,
I’m gonna fix that rat.
[/QUOTE]
I third/fourth the importance of correct tools. The last belt I had to replace was the mower drive belt on our lawn tractor. The idler pulley could sit in two different configurations and I had to look at the schematics to figure it out.
I spent an hour on the garage floor before I realized it wasn’t going to work. It turns out the auto parts place sold me the wrong belt, which was a few inches too short. By that time my knuckles were bloody and my mood despondent.
I guess that the first job would be to remove all trace of rat. These belts depend on friction and rat guts might make a good lubricant. Besides that, they might attract more hungry rats.
Maybe your daughter could find somewhere better (ie - rodent free) to park.
You need a very long wrench. Like, either a special belt-remover wrench, or a breaker bar. You don’t need the length in order to reach anything, but because you need all the leverage you can get in order to move things enough to slip the belt back on.
Other than that, the only hard part is threading the belt onto the various components (alternator, water pump etc.) It’s frequently a tight and winding path and can be tough to reach. You might need one person under the car and one above it.
My opinion is you will have to replace the belt to find if you have other problems. While the belt was off, as you mentioned, there was no power steering. The AC was also off, along with the alternator and more important, the water pump. The only thing I would actually worry about is did the car overheat. If it did then you have problems.
2006 (the one in the youtube) was the first year of a different generation of Sonata so I’d look for a how-to video that includes your model year or a couple years older. That said, the process is probably pretty much the same but I would want to be sure.
Serpentine belt replacement is pretty routine and the basic process (at least the path) is often included in the vehicle’s owner manual. Many official shop manuals are available online so I’d try to find that before buying an aftermarket manual (not that Haynes, etc aren’t good options). You can probably find a link to the official shop manual, tips, etc on a Hyundai forum. When I had a Hyundai I used hyundai-forums.com and found a lot of good info there. Here is the link to the sub-forum for your Sonata’s generation: Y2-EF(1989-2005) Sonata | Hyundai Forums
As others have suggested, it might be worth replacing the belt just in case it was damaged in some way by the rat or is…gooey. And if the belt is original to the vehicle it’s likely overdue anyway so might as well just put in a new one. A ratchet wouldn’t be my first choice for this job. The last time I did one I was able to use a combination wrench to release the tension and then zip-tied it into place so I could work on the belt. A breaker bar would have given more leverage but I’m not sure if the longer handle would have enough clearance.
The belt routing diagrams are easily imaged on Google. You do not need to buy a Chilton or Haynes manual. In fact the serpentine belt routing is often shown right under the hood someplace.
Just buy a new belt if you can, it will be about $20.
A breaker bar with the proper socket on the end or a socket wrench should make the job easy. But, releasing the tension on the spring loaded belt tensioner does not take much pulling effort.
If you pull back too hard with that breaker bar you can bend the belt tensioner out of alignment in which case it will throw the belt off every time you install it and you will end up having to replace the tensioner.
Don’t pull on that tensioner too hard, just enough to move the spring and get the belt on.
It helps to have a picture of the belt routing to refer to as it’s not at all obvious. Your car might be listed here: http://www.freeautomechanic.com/images/belt-routing-guide.pdf, or if the engine in the OP’s YouTube video is relevant then take a screen grab of that.
I’d charge the battery up at the first opportunity as they degrade by being left discharged. Your engine should be fine as the water pump is driven off the cam belt.
My experience is a little different than most of the other posters. I’ve never needed a big wrench or a breaker bar just a regular socket set. It’s like a compound bow, in that once you get it going it gets easy fast. Sometimes its nice to have an extra hand just to hold it while you monkey around with the belt.
I changed the belts on my 2.0 liter Subaru with just a regular socket set and no issues. When I changed a pulley on my wife’s old Exploder, I had to use a breaker bar. AutoZone (or similar stores) usually loan tools, so ask when you buy the belt. When I borrowed one, they just took one off the shelf. The deposit may be close to the cost of the tool, though.
Heh … yeah, I’m sure. As I was examining the belt path, I noticed what looked like a foot-long skinless snake stuck to the firewall and bottom of the engine compartment, and I was extremely puzzled and started moving the flashlight around. That’s when I noticed tufts of fur everywhere, which was even weirder. Then I found myself staring into the lifeless (yet somehow still accusatory) gaze of the rat, and things started to make more sense.
A most unpleasant experience, in several ways.
Thanks for the additional info, everybody! We definitely want to get a new belt, and my daughter is of the opinion that we should burn the entire car and house and move out of state as well. I’m hearing a lot of “Why aren’t engines covered up completely on the bottom so animals can’t get in?”
I wouldn’t need a breaker bar, except that the way my truck is set up, the breaker bar (18" or so) keeps my knuckles away from the radiator fan blades (which are sharp) as much as possible.
Otherwise, what the OP is describing is maybe five minutes of work. Very easy fix.
I think a new belt is a good call as it could have been damaged by the still spinning drive pulley after it got thrown. Also remember that you won’t have that much room to work, you’ll be reaching down the side of the engine bay and feel around a bit. Definitely use a breaker bar, it’ll keep your knuckles up above the engine and probably only require a few pounds of force instead of “opening a stuck pickle jar elbow deep in a cow” and I can’t tell 100% from the video but it might be easier to thread the top pulley last instead of the power steering pulley. It looks like there are some brackets in the way but it might be more accessible and easier to reach while you’re holding the breaker bar. Maybe not though.