Aircon belt broke on car...

[Phil K]

Hi, I was driving yesterday in my 1995 Mitsubishi Delica 2.8 turbo deisel, when one of my engine drive belts started squealling. I feared that my water pump had seized. I couldn't stop on that particular road, so I kept driving. then the squealling stopped. I then noticed that the air conditioner was switched on by mistake.

When I got home, I looked under the hood and found that the aircon belt has disappeared. It looks like a bitch to replace. Is it okay to drive the car with no aircon belt for the time being?

As far as I can see, there are there should be thee drive belts in total, all driven by pulleys on the crankshaft: (1&2): the waterpump+alternator belts (two identical belts, running side by side) and (3) the aircon belt qhich is harder to see, because it is lower down.

As far as I can determine, the only thing driven by the third belt (the one that's now missing) is the aircon.

Is it okay to drive the car with no aircon belt in place?

TIA PK

[Huge]

Yes.

[Andrew Gabriel]

You may find this has happened because the compressor has seized. That happened to my brother's Jag, and the aircon switch no longer allowed the compressor to disengage after the pulley overheated, so the AA bloke took the belt off so the car could be driven.

[Davidm]

As aircon is still an option on many cars it usually has a seperate drive belt. It's fine to drive the car without a belt, probably best to leave the aircon swithched off though or the ecu/bcu might flag it as a fault. Pain in arse to fit a new belt though, as it often means removing all the other belts to get at it.