A belt has broken on my 2003 Renault Scenic

lolly_896

Driving home, at the end of a pretty long drive and the car started making a funny noise. Had a quick look could see nothing - drove slowly and the stearing got really tight, felt like the car wasnt catching. Anyways slowly got home had another look when we got home and there is a belt drivers side that has gone towards the front of the car that has broken, disentigrated etc.

Anybody have an idea what it's called from a little bit of help from google, i think it's a auxilary belt? Does anybody have a clue if this is right and whats the damage to replace these at a garage? No DIY here lol

Thanks all

lighting_up_the_chalice

Sounds like the belt for the power steering. Cost to replace and fit should see change out of £50. Maybe add another £20 if there's a tensioner involved.

oldagetraveller

If your car has hydraulic power steering using a pump driven by this belt then that's probably the one that's broken.
If it drives the p/s pump only then it will be exactly that - power steering (auxiliary) drive belt. It could drive other stuff in addition though, e.g. alternator, aircon (if fitted). If so then you should have a not charging warning lamp and the a/c will not work.

davidsuffolk

From your description it must be a belt that is visible when you open the bonnet which makes it either a fanbelt (ie one that turns the fan to cool the radiator) which will also probably drive the water pump (which makes water go through the cooling system). Without it the engine will overheat. An auxiliary belt may also drive the power steering but you would notice if that broke as the steering would immediately seem very heavy. On some cars the same belt also drives the alternator (which gives electricity & charges the battery) or there is another belt separate to that.Belts vary from a simple V belt costing very little to wide multi grooved types which cost more (though still not a huge amount).
None are hard to fit (and provided, if it is the belt that runs the water pump, you didn't let the car get too hot and damage the engine) the replacement will be not too expensive. Easy DIY job if you have any mechanical friends and any garage can do it, not necessarily a Renault one.

lolly_896

is the fan belt the same as auxilary belt? steering did get really heavy, not tried the air con. i dont think the car got to hot - nothing was scorching when i opened bonnet. Thanks again all

Jamie1981

It will be the auxillary drive belt that has gone. I have just changed mine today actually on a Honda Accord 2004 and the part was 13.50 odd from A E Cook (Gates belt). Fitting would take 10 minutes so a good garage should not charge you more than £10. All in I would be dissappointed paying more than £25.

Just be careful taking it to a garage as like it has been mentioned, you dont want to overheat the thing as you could end up in the murky waters of head gasket failures etc and that would cost you considerably more. Did you notice if the temperature reading went up?

Just for information also, they can be called auxillary drive belts, fan belts or drive belts. Just give the garage you reg number and they will get the correct part.

lolly_896

Thank you Jamie, i've just realised im part of rac at home assistance with my bank - so im really really hoping that they can sort it for me if not outside the house they can tow it to garage.

I beleive the temp reading did go up - i'm pretty sure it did

datostar

Renault call these a 'Serpentine' belt because of the complicated routing. They drive the alternator, waterpump, power steering pump and aircon compressor. Your cooling fan is electric and doesn't have any kind of belt. Best not to drive it for reasons already given, plus the fact that bits of broken belt in the lower housing have been known to take out the cambelt as well, which is an expensive business. You've been quite lucky there but probably as well to get the cambelt checked while you're having the aux belt replaced just in case of any damage to it.