Technical Alternator belt snapped!

[Printings]

Hi guys, on the A1 today I noticed bits falling off my 1.8 115 ELX weekend - lifted bonnet to find alternator belt shredded. Drove home 30 miles with battery light on anyway! Is it safe to drive any distance as it is? Is it one belt that drives the water pump/ power steering too? Is it an easy job to repair myself or expensive garage job? Is it time to buy a Ford Focus????
Help and advice please. Thanks.:bang:

 

[andy ilsf]

Hi guys, on the A1 today I noticed bits falling off my 1.8 115 ELX weekend - lifted bonnet to find alternator belt shredded. Drove home 30 miles with battery light on anyway! Is it safe to drive any distance as it is? Is it one belt that drives the water pump/ power steering too? Is it an easy job to repair myself or expensive garage job? Is it time to buy a Ford Focus????
Help and advice please. Thanks.:bang:

well my alternator belt on my r reg astra td estate snapped then got stuck un der the cam belt then it jumped a tooth on the cam belt then the engine was a write off so i will say it's not safe to drive untill you change it or the marea's may be set up differently i dont know ..

 

[MikeG20]

You dont neet to buy Focus-that 1.8 Fiat engine has excellent japanese electronic by Hitachi
That belt drives alternator, power steering and A/C kompressor-water pump drives "other" belt.
Its not hard to change it, its recomended that you change tensioner also and guiding pulley if you have A/C
Btw you can drive like that as long as your battery got juice-then car will stop-alternator generates electricity for car while runing

 

[pycoed]

Hi guys, on the A1 today I noticed bits falling off my 1.8 115 ELX weekend - lifted bonnet to find alternator belt shredded. Drove home 30 miles with battery light on anyway! Is it safe to drive any distance as it is? Is it one belt that drives the water pump/ power steering too? Is it an easy job to repair myself or expensive garage job? Is it time to buy a Ford Focus????
Help and advice please. Thanks.:bang:

If the belt is completely missing, then it's OK to drive as long as the battery lasts, but if it's still there in bits, then it may get into the cambelt with disastrous results.
I'd charge the battery off the car, then you should be OK to drive to get a new belt - try to minimise electric usage - go in the daytime!
Dunno the 1800 engine, but auxiliary belts are fairly easy to change, shouldn't be more than half hour labour if you have to pay someone to do it.

 

[hagar]

having recently changed aux belt on my 1800 it was very easy job to do just needed a 2nd pair of hands to release tension off the tensioner while i slotted belt on took me about 15 mins start to finish

 

[Renegade_8]

Agree about the "1.8" which is really 1747cc. It's actually ans Alfa engine and fitted with Hitachi EFI as noted. Keep the car they go well and are easy on fuel.

 

[Printings]

Thanks for the help....

Well i decided to let my mechanic mate do the job for me - needs the car 4 days and informs me that he needs to replace two pulleys also at a cost of £18 each. I'm not expecting a bill of more than £80 total i hope! Have decided to keep it for now - had it 3 years next month! Thanks for all your help - i hope i won't need it again for some time!