Need some technical assistance with my Sunfire!

[psycho_freke]

My '99 Sunfire is finally starting to act stupid after 195k miles of great service. I was hoping you guys could help with some ideas so I'll have a better idea of what to look for this weekend.

1st problem: Last week, my serpentine belt broke, only on one edge. Only broke one of the ribs. The think looked like it was dry rotted and a figured that was the problem so I went to Autozone and replaced the thing sitting in the parking lot, only to have it break on me again last night in the same manner and on the same side!

2nd problem: Lately my car has been doing some really stupid stuff. It gives me problems starting on occasion but other times will start up perfect. One night, all of the lights dimmed and the motor went down to about 400rpm. As quickly as it dropped, it came back and I didn't have another problem out of it that night. Another time the car died on me completely just after starting without any obvious reasons. Started right back up when I tried it. Last night, while driving down the road, I had a complete blackout for a second! Everything went off and came back on! Then, my ABS system acted like it went out, even though the brakes were working fine. After turning my car off and restarting, the ABS lights went out, but the radio lost all of it's presets, time, and the last station it was on before shutting the car off, like someone had killed power to it! I've had a couple of people tell me they thought this could be the ECU. Any ideas?

[Gutling]

Go to autozone/advance and have a free batt/alternator testing. I had a sunfire a long time ago that I would be driving, and then stuff would start shutting off till the car died, and turned out it was alternator.

As for belt, unless you overtightened the new or something it sounds like maybe something is rubbing against it, or a pulley is lose

[Captain-Obvious™]

^^^agreed the shutoff thing happened to my buddies car and it was the alternator

[suprapower]

dont overtighten your serpentine belt, make sure your pulley is all good. and yeah gutling is thinking what im thinking. alternator

[Z0_o6]

does that have the automatic belt tensioner on it? they are pretty bad about breaking, and right before they go they start eating belts. check that out.

[psycho_freke]

Yes, it has a tensioner. How am I supposed to know if that's bad though? Seems to be holding the belt! Would be a PITA to change though... It's really close to the inside of the fender. Alternator was my first thought, but the fact that it's just random stuff going out and coming back on, is kinda strange. I've had the alt go out on me before (about 80k miles ago) and when it went, I had everything go out on the car electrically... one thing at a time. All of the warning lights started coming on and the car ran and rode like crap. Then, I pulled into a gas station, left the car running to go use the phone, and by the time I came back out it was dead. I can't see how the alternator would cause stuff to randomly go off and come back on. Regardless, I will prob take it to Autozone over the weekend and have them run a couple diagnostics machines on it. I've been told they may even be able to tell if the ECU is what's going bad?

[psycho_freke]

Guess nobody has an answer for this one...huh? I'm also wondering if I can just grab an ECU off of any Sunfire or Cavalier and stick it in mine...

[psycho_freke]

I think the tensioner is the problem with the belts... It doesn't appear to be lining up right with the crank pulley and the belt doesn't look like it's on the tensioner centered up where it should be. I would assume the belt going onto the crank pulley crooked is causing the problem with the belts, however I'm still not quite sure about all of these electrical issues!

[preferredduck]

its a sunfire, sell it. lol j/k.

[blackshine007]

I would pull the belt off and inspect all of the pullies. The best way to take that tensioner out is to remove the engine brace and jack the engine up slightly. I think there's 2 13mm bolts that keeps it together.

As far as the electrical problems go, I was thinking more on the lines that you have a short somewhere, possibly in or near the fuse box. I've seen on some cars (Ford Contour just to name a name) where battery corrosion would eat away at some of the power wires, namely the main one that went to the alternator and fuse block. I wouldn't hurt to check the alternator too.

[jew_boy]

it cant be the ECU. my sunfire does the same thing but when it does try to die i just bump it in to neutral and give it some gas ans it will stop. my car usually does it right after i start it and go to stop.

[JITB]

www.jbody.org

im sure they can help u!

[psycho_freke]

I've searched the j-body website... to no avail. They don't have a tech area like IA does.

I've inspected the pulleys and everything looks okay except for the tensioner. Thanks for the assistance on getting the tensioner off. I'll have to try that (probably next weekend). I replaced the alt about 80k miles ago. Seems a little odd for the alt to cause that type of trouble. I don't think they go out sporadically like that, do they? As for a short, I've wondered that as well... However not everything that's going off and back on is on the same circuit and it's so random that it's hard to believe it could be a short.

Preferredduck.... I cannot sell it. I wouldn't get enough money out of it for as dependable as it's been to me. This is the first time in 195k miles it's had a major issue and I wouldn't get what it's worth to me out of it. I use it for my paper route. Saves me from having to destroy my teggie's interior with the trash that I clean out once a week from drinking coffee to help stay awake (I've spilled a couple times since the cup holder is crap in that car. I'd be angry if that happened to my teg) and all of the ink from the newspapers. It's also a lot easier to drive an auto than a stick on the paper route, since I roll papers while I'm driving.

[jew_boy]

they best thing i can tell you man is take it to the dealership. it might cost alot but it will be solved

[fawk_you]

Just get a new car.

[psycho_freke]

they best thing i can tell you man is take it to the dealership. it might cost alot but it will be solved

I've worked with mechanics. Don't trust them much after the way I've seen them shortcut other people's cars. That's why I work on my own cars (that and the rediculous price of labor).

Just get a new car.

You evidently missed my response to preferredduck on this one. Great idea, though! I'll get a new car that I can tear up on the paper route and spend thousands more buying that car than the couple hundred or less it will take me to fix this one not all of us are rich enough to just go buy a new car whenever we have problems with our current vehicle. Besides, ditching a car just because you encounter a glitch is

[fawk_you]

Sarcasm bro. Just chill. You'll get it worked out.

[psycho_freke]

Sarcasm bro. Just chill. You'll get it worked out.

chillin'