Inodoro Pereyra wrote:Check the pulleys. Make sure the ribs are not deformed, or cracked/missing sections. Also, make sure they're properly aligned. If everything is ok, just get a high quality replacement (Dayco or Gatorgrip are the best I know), and keep the receipt. IIRC, Dayco has a 3 year warranty.
i agree, its very unlikely for a belt to fail after that short of a time without just cause. even a cheap no name belt should last longer then that.
Definitely not normal wear, the belt was perfect when I checked tension on them all last week.
It's times like this that I wish we had more room in the engine bay. I'm going to work on it tomorrow, after class gets out, I couldn't bring myself to tear into it while it's raining. My mood is just crappy when it comes to cars right now.
As the others have mentioned it could be your tensioner pulley or the A/C compressor pulley has seized... Or if something came loose and interfered with the belt rotation...
I was worried it had something to do with the clunking and bouncing whenever I go over any bumps. I'll have that dealt with soon, but it's definitely been hard on the car.
our engine bays really arnt that bad. i was surprised how much room there is to work on that side of the engine bay while doing the timing belt. dont get me wrong, there are easier cars but the honda accord i was working on recently had barely enough clearance to fit a ratchet between the engine and the side of the car. it was also almost impossible to fit the timing cover on the engine. i was expecting a much more difficult time then im experiencing with the mx.
replacing that belt/inspecting everything shouldnt take you more then 30min if your direct and to the point. an hour if you take your time with a beer.
I didn't go into detail on that I meant bouncing whenever I go over a bump, as my front struts are blown. I'm impatiently waiting for my GR2s to drop onto my porch!
For an import, they're alright. The last 2 cars I worked on, other than an MX3 were an '01 Mountaineer and a '93 Suburban. Needless to say, I was spoiled when it came to elbow room.
Good luck with this. I'll pray for easy cheap fix.
There is a reason the belt shredded so check into it before throwing a new belt on. Either one of the pulleys has seized or the harmonic balancer has become undone. So if nothing is obviously seized then inspect the crank pulley to see if the outer ring has come loose from the center portion.
Thanks for that Dan, it's snowing right now btw. I'm still going to do it. I waited yesterday because of Rain, and today it snowed; if I skip today, it'll be golfball sized hail tomorrow.
Thank you davmac, I appreciate it.
Definitely, I'm inspecting it all before I even go to pick up the new belt. Hoping that the time it takes will allow the snow/sleet to die down a bit.
davmac wrote:Either one of the pulleys has seized or the harmonic balancer has become undone. So if nothing is obviously seized then inspect the crank pulley to see if the outer ring has come loose from the center portion.
I checked all of the pulleys, and the tensioner. They're all free spinning, with no more resistance than normal. The A/C compressor pulley was pretty grimey, but not enough that it should throw the belt.
The outer ring of the crank pulley turns independently of the pulley itself... Am I to assume that this is my problem? There were no burrs/stress points anywhere else. With fairly light pressure, I can wiggle the outer ring on and off the pulley. I haven't removed it, but is that movement normal?
.more then likely a bad bearing on one of your pullies, or some jagged metal on one. thats not normal wear... is it possible your ac has seized?
The last 2 cars I worked on, other than an MX3 were an '01 Mountaineer and a '93 Suburban. Needless to say, I was spoiled when it came to elbow room. 
I'm still going to do it. I waited yesterday because of Rain, and today it snowed; if I skip today, it'll be golfball sized hail tomorrow. 
