Hello

I have come across a particular situation that I wanted to ask about and clarify. Back story, first.

Late last month - about 3-4 weeks ago, when I was out of town, my wife was driving my car, and it "stopped in the middle of the road". She had to towed to a mechanic we know, and he said that the alternator was shot and had to be replaced. He charged about $600 for this fix.

Forward about 3-4 weeks and (wayy) less than 500 miles later, I started to hear a noise as if there were a twig stuck at the bottom. I immediately stopped the car and looked below, it looked as if one of the belts was shredding and coming off in lengthwise pieces. One such piece was scraping the ground and causing the problem. I only drove the car for perhaps a couple of thousand feet after that and parked it. I had it towed the next day to the same mechanic.

He eventually told me that both the S (serpentine?) belt and the P/S (power steering?) belt were completely shredded to pieces. In addition, the tensioner was shot, the crankshaft pulley was shot and the Timing belt cover was burned out. He also said that he "luckily" spun the timing belt and removed shredded pieces from the timing belt drive, which might have easily been missed. He charged me a total of about $950 for this - 500 for parts, 400 labor and the rest tax.

His reasoning was that the tensioner had gone bad causing the belts to scrape against each other and cause them to shred also burning the timing belt cover in the process. The Crankshaft pulley (he showed me) had "melted" along the inner flat-edge. I asked if this was because I drove the car the 2000 feet or so after I heard the noises (which seems unlikely), and he said that this was likely normal wear-and-tear.

Sorry for the long story.
Now I have several questions.

1. Are these charges ($1500+ in total) correct or am I being ripped off?
2. Could the original alternator problem (that he first fixed, perhaps incorrectly) be the cause of the second one?
3. Is this "normal wear-and-tear" or some other more specific reason? (especially the crankshaft pulley).
4. Wouldn't he have found the crankshaft pulley problem (had it been an old one) at the time of the alternator fix?

On another note, I have a 120K service coming up, any references to reasonably priced mechanics in the San Jose, CA area?

Much TIA
lsiravi

 

Im not familiar with 2g TLs yet but I'm pretty sure changing serpintine belt/ps belt are usually common(suggested) to change as well with the alternator if it looks worn in most cars. I usually do.

I feel like the mech did a shoddy repair on your car. Hopefully other members chime in, but I dont think those parts failing/breaking like that is common on a tl unless careless work has been done.

I hope it all works out tho dude.
Look for other mechs, shop around.
How's the car running now?

 

SirThomas - thanks. The car's running fine now.