Power Steering Belts

[swfcdan]

i started a topic on this last week, but i thought i may get more responses starting a new one as its a slightly different question.

anyway ive been havng probs with my power steering being tight and making a noise etc, a neighbour of mine who is quite a car techie had a look this afternoon and suggested the power steering belts need changing.

he turned one over for me and there appeards to be cracks running through the belts. by this i mean there are grooves that run horizontally (ie in line with the shape of the belt), but there looks like there are cracks running through the belt vertically if that makes sense.

anyway my point is, does anyone have an idication of how much these will cost to replace, so i can get a rough idea before taking it to the garage tomorrow jus so i can ensure im not being ripped off.

cheers

Dan

[swfcdan]

for anyone thats remotely interested, had the belts change yesterday and cost me £75 all in.

all i can say is what a difference, all is good now

[Rob]

well that is surprising - what u described is aging of the belts the rubber gets hard and cracks. wouldnt have thought it would make much difference unless the belt was slipping

[Ellz]

Ive had a slipping belt but think its the fan belt

But my power steering is getting pretty hard to turn would this be the belt or the motor ?????

[spikes]

for anyone thats remotely interested, had the belts change yesterday and cost me £75 all in.

all i can say is what a difference, all is good now

always worth posting the cure as everyones faults and cures are different :)

[trevman]

It's possible that the belt was under tensioned or stretched with wear. It's amazing how manly problems incorrectly tensioned belts can cause.

My dad brought a car from a guy who thought he had a fault with the crank because of a nasty knocking. In reality the auxilliary drive belt was over tensioned and causing vibration through the alternator. After adjusting the belt tension the car ran smoothly.

[swfcdan]

yeh the belt has been slipping, i had it tightend on my last serivce in septemeber, but it only cured it for a short while.

the old belts seemed to have almost a criss cross style pattern on them where they had worn, as if someone had slashed then with a knife.

thought it may be the pump but its turned out to be the belts slipping and the car feels like a completely different car to drive now.