The other week I took my car to my dealer due to a loss of boost. The dealer diagnosed a bad clutch on the supercharger (just couldn't have a faulty aux pump like everyone else) and ordered a new one, along with a gas tank (mine has become difficult to fill), door seals for excessive wind noise and a new sensor to replace the one that constantly activates the BAS/ESP light.

Good news: all of the ordered items came in. Bad news: while driving to work this morning the battery light came on in a very pretty shade of red. In addition, the steering stiffened up considerably, the brakes required a much greater effort to use, and the coolant temp rose quite a bit. Ah, I thought, a broken accessory belt.

I was close to work so figured the extra couple of minutes needed to drive there wouldn't cause a problem. After work I popped the hood and...good news: the accessory belt wasn't broken. Bad news: the pulley for the supercharger had just about worked its way off it's shaft and allowed enough slack to let the accessory belt to come off the other pulleys. Good news: the supercharger pulley hadn't fallen off. Bad news: the reason why was because there is an aluminum pipe in front of the pulley which just managed to hold the pulley on it's shaft. Unfortunately this noble effort by the pipe resulted in quite a bit of it being ground away by the pulley. Another pulley next to the supercharger one was also damaged.

The car is back at the dealers and will probably be down for at least another week waiting on more replacement parts. But hey, least my supercharger will now be installed. Bad news: for now I have to drive another rental. Good news: it's a Jeep Liberty, a much nicer vehicle than the utterly forgettable Sebring I drove the other week.

Brent