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Serpentine belt broke, How much?


OldSkoolSTS

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Serpentine belt broke on my 92 STS. Explains why I have no power assist in my steering. Did it mess up the engine as on some cars when this happens? And how much does a repair like this cost? The engine is a 4.9L V8. Need advice, car has 185,000 miles on it. Is it worth the repair?

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Serpentine belt broke on my 92 STS. Explains why I have no power assist in my steering. Did it mess up the engine as on some cars when this happens? And how much does a repair like this cost? The engine is a 4.9L V8. Need advice, car has 185,000 miles on it. Is it worth the repair?

I think you might be confused, you appear to be thinking about the rubber timing belt that some cars use, if they are interference engines the valves and pistons can hit bending every valve. The 4.9 is a push rod engine, it has a timing chain, and we never hear of them going bad.

On the 4.9, besides your power steering you should be getting a BATTERY NO CHARGE condition and should be OVERHEATING as the serp belt spins the AC Compressor, Alternator, Water Pump and Power Steering. A new serp belt is about $30 to $40 and installation is easy. BUT, NOTE, check your water pump by grabbing the pulley connected to it, if the pulley wobbles you need a water pump. Typically the water pump bearing goes bad the pulley wobbles, coolant leakes out, your serp belt shreds and the belt comes off, you overheat, get no steering get a no charge, etc. I had one go bad at 70 mph 20 miles from my hotel and was flatbedded to the hotel, and replaced the water pump in the morning with borrowed tools from the hotel superintendent behind the Marriott Hotel. The temp went to 260 before I could pull over. Thank heavens for cell phones. My daughter was 5 and still remembers it. You will find a serp belt chart under your hood to help with the proper routing.

Perhaps someone could post a photo of the 4.9 serp belt and water pump my network is not assembled yet since I moved, and its on my file server, Mike

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

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If the belt broke and you stopped. The car is ok. Maybe $20-30 for a belt, a wrench, back up and running.

I hope, you did not drive the car more then a couple of miles like this. The 4.9 does not have overheat protection software in the ECM/PCM.

That being said, I cannot remember any head gasket issues with the 4.9.

Old belts can fail. But as Fisher suggested, check the water pump rotation for load, and check the AC hub bearing.

If either locks up the belt can fail.

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