[FRporscheman]

Friday I jump in the car and drive to LA to buy a set of wheels I found. I tossed my usual toolbag in the car but not my bag of goodies like hose bits, tape, jb weld, etc. I get to LA and the traffic was bad. It's like 95 deg F, and I'm still dirty from work (I'm a mechanic) so I'm all sticky. I hit the AC and left it on. I had it running for about 3 hours in all.



I get a voltage warning light. I pull over and look to see my ac/alt belt sitting there, like it hopped off the pulleys. OK I can fix that. I took off the belly pan and was greeted by a clean-snapped AC tensioner rod / turnbuckle.



OH FantastiK.



I try moving the AC compressor and saw MAJOR jiggle. The rear was hanging loose, and the front was attached but the bolt head was gone. Hmm. Well I'm absofrigginlutely stranded 200 miles from my apartment and 440 miles from my family. And my only friend in LA doesn't drive. Oh yeah and it's 7:30pm so the Porsche dealership I see just 4 blocks down the street is already closed. And so are muffler shops that could weld my tensioner.



I thought I could use short belt on the crank straight to the alternator with no tensioning. I called and tried to find a NAPA nearby, and Nada. I drove around for half an hour on my battery, found a Kragen, and they don't have the right size belt. At this point I asked the helpful Kragen representative if I could use their restroom to relieve myself of a big red brick. With 10 minutes until closing time, I rummaged through the store looking for an answer. I found something.



I ran with no rear AC bolt, only half of a front AC bolt, and the Powerbuilt tensioner for just shy of 200 miles. The belt was kinda loose but tight enough to not squeal!











10pm when I finished "wrenching" on my car, I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me - got some chai and hit the road.



Always be prepared. The toolbag was essential, but I should have also had a spare tensioner and misc bolts, because I knew this was a common failure.

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[968rz]

I am in the process of doing the same repair, I notice my belt running crooked and then I found my bolts the same as yours (back gone, front broken) then as I broke loose the bolt for the tensioner (not the lock nut) on the AC side it snapped.

I move what I could and drilled out the snapped bolt (seized in) and will replace it with a nut/bolt, the rear bolt I will just get the right one and install. As for the adjuster I made a temp unit from flat stock (slotted on the engine side) that should work for now.

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[gryphon]

AND that Powerbelt tensioner probably has a lifetime exchange warranty. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/laugh.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



Tom

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[unknown4u]

Great wrenching!.

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[FRporscheman]

Every time I see that picture again I laugh. I just looked at all the wrenches they had, and bought the one closest to the length of the broken tensioner, but just a bit shorter.



I got VERY lucky that the front snapped bolt had just enough left to hold the compressor hanging, but also enough missing for me to forcefully pry the compressor out and free. Then I just used pliers to remove the nub. The front hole in the bracket is chewed up but OK, so some new bolts and a new tensioner should fix this.

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[Anchorman]

As this thread starts to note, failure of the AC compressor mounting bolts is not unusual. It was such a failure that forced me off the track a year ago at Watkins Glen - I then spent most of the two-day session rigging a fix so that i could drive home. I was not as lucky - the compressor dropped completely, and when I got to the pit area I found it hanging by the AC lines - it was the loss of power steering on the track that told me something had happened. During that time, I also found that the tensioner bolt was fractured. These parts are worth regular inspection!!!

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[PorscheDude]

Awesome save! Great ingenuity. That wrench is probably set to last anohter 10 years!

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[ether_joe]

should this be on everyone's preventative maintenance list?

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[Anchorman]

IMHO, absolutely!!!

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[spectre996]

I too just had an AC compressor bolt snap too. Took it to the shop b/c it was running warm as well. I believe it was around $50 in parts including a new thermostat to curing the high temps. Cost almost $300 in labor to fix.

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[FRporscheman]

The new bolts cost me $3 but the headache and worry cost me a few gray hairs, a sore neck, etc. I think everyone should know this:



*loosen both AC mount bolts and both tensioner bolts when tensioning/slackening the belt.



*have a couple of spare bolts in the glove box.



My engine temps were always fine, and even the AC was blowing nice and cold until it took a dive. I think the proverbial camel's back just broke from the AC being on that day, for so long. I'm going to buy a new tensioner rod, and weld the old one back together to keep as a spare in the trunk.

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