I can’t believe this crap. It’s barely been over a year that I paid to have the pump replaced, and lately been having sounds of it squealing...mainly in cold startups or tight turns.

Well lo and behold, I look under to tighten the belt, there’s a tensioner but no bolt to tighten. It even looks like a piece of the housing around the tensioner broke off. Something tells me the result of a shoddy crankshaft seal replacement by a previous mechanic awhile back, as it wasn’t making the sound prior.

The belt somehow stays on, but checking the deflection it is very loose and could easily slip off. Hope I’m not in for another pump replacement.

Update: problem solved (somewhat). Basically it was the power steering bump mounting bracket broke off, but there was enough material left to place the adjusting bolt onto.

I’ve tried a couple times to get a new bracket off a salvaged car, but it’s a royal pain in the a** to get to. So for now I’ve left it. Interesting part is: the a/c compressor is designed the same way, and now I’m trying to fit the adjusting bolt into the pulley bolt, so I can have an idler pulley for the compressor considering the previous owners seemed to had it removed.

Great. Just great.