TOBs...

So this one time, I had car trouble. Well, it wasn't car trouble just yet. I had some seriously squeaky belts. Every time the a/c in the Sube was on, it made a horrible screeching noise under the hood. So, being a mechanic's daughter and all, I figured this to mean that I needed to have the serpentine belts in the Sube replaced. So I took it in to the Subaru shop that is literally 18 feet away from our house and asked how much it would be to change the belts.

"Well the belts are about $18 each and with about a half hour of labor...should be around $85."

Ha. I don't think so.

So I started on my own little adventure. Found a tutorial on the web (which pretty much turned out to be useless). Went to AutoZone and got the belts for a whopping total of $23. Popped the hood, disconnected the battery, marveled at my engine, and called my neighbor for assistance.

So we got to work.




Had a little trouble finding which bolts the tutorial was trying to have us loosen, which was when we decided to forget the tutorial and just do what made sense. So after the moved the alternator around a little bit, voila! The old, cracked, and split belts popped right off. One of our other neighbors walking by called us her new favorite TOBs...tough old broads. I guess I'll take that :-)

Putting the new belts back on took a few minutes. We were so excited when we got them off, we may have forgotten to look and make sure we knew how to put the new ones back on. So after a few tries, we got it. And after some tugging and pulling and grunting, we got the alternator back in place which put the right tension back in the belts. And before we knew it, we were ready to start up the engine.

And sure enough, it started. And for the moment of truth, we turned on the a/c to full blast. Without a single squeak or screech. A job well done, in my opinion. Sure it took about 2 hours when the Subaru guy said it would take him about 30 mins, but whatever. And we got to celebrate with the satisfaction of doing it ourselves. And grease on our hands. And with a couple of Root Brewskies.