Hi all, this is my first post on the forum, I trolled a little before deciding to buy up my first Volvo car ever... I'll try uploading a pic.

Recently bought it for $1500 CDN, un-certified or inspected. I know from all the posts that it may have not been the best way to buy it, but here I am, and it's mine!

So, upon buying the car, I knew the power steering pump had issues, it was clicking loudly, although, no fluid loss, or problems steering/controlling the car.

A couple of days ago, the engine began to randomly have trouble starting, with lots of shaking going on. Finally, my auxiliary drivebelt snapped, from the lower side of the engine, where the AC compressor is located... Upon inspection of the belt, I noticed it actually melted and snapped somewhere along the bottom, near the AC pulley. I had sort of expected my power steering pump to fail pretty quickly (noisy means it's gonna go, in my mind), but I never expected the belt to snap where it did...

So, my question is this: can I manually try to rotate the pulley on the AC compressor to verify whether or not it is seized? I will be replacing the power steering pump as soon as I find one, but the location of the melt/snapped belt has me wondering if I may not also have a seized AC pulley down there?

Does anyone know how I can check this myself? I'm trying to get this baby on the road doing most if not all the labor myself, since I don't like shop rates, and I've always enjoyed fixing my own... You get to know your car intimately, and you have the satisfaction of being self-reliant...

Incidentally, after the drivebelt snapped, the engine started flawlessly, and even drove me home a half-mile in a hot residential neighbourhood, all without a drivebelt, so, no charging, no power steering, nada. I was impressed.

I'm completely new to the Volvo thing, but I love it already. I've had a number of quite forgettable american/canadian vehicles over the years, and I like how this car is solidly built.

Any advice you have is appreciated, thanks!


[IMG]local://upfiles/10749/E273858D33A44C539B5FC9D946E0E4CB.jpg[/IMG]

 

Is the drive belt the same thing as a serpintine belt?

 

That's correct, not the timing belt... Some also call it the auxiliary drive belt, I think.