A Bad Alternator: Pt 1: Loosening the Serpentine Belt

So, funny story...I was driving to work for about 2 weeks and when I'd come to a stop at a light or stop sign, occasionally, but not every time, the car would stall, and then start right up again no problem whatsoever. I couldn't figure it out, and since it wasn't stopping me from getting where I was going, I was just rolling with it. The frequency was increasing, so I figured the problem would sooner or later reveal itself, which it did, when Mr. Battery light turned on.

So when your battery light turns on: it does not mean that your battery is bad, but it means that you are drawing power exclusively from your battery, aka the alternator is not doing it's job. An alternator is a really remarkable device. As you spin a wire, there will be an induced current. So, if you already have something which needs spinning, of which there are no short supply on your car, why not throw a wire into the mix, which will spin, and induce a current into windings which can charge your battery and power your car when it runs! Great idea right! The idea, however, is that the car for the most part is entirely dependent on this alternator as its source of energy. The battery is there for starting up and to kind of help out when the alternator is not spinning so fast, aka when you're idling etc. When you're going full speed, it's actually powering everything and creating energy to spare, which the car uses to recharge everything it's robbed from your battery. When your alternator stops working, you're not going to get very far. So, there is a snakelike belt which wraps around a great many things in your engine, known as the serpentine belt, or drive belt. This is what spins the alternator around. Since my alternator was dead as a doornail, and I happened to have one that worked just fine in my other car, let's swap it out and see how much more milage I can get! Step 1: Get the pesky belt off of that alternator. You're not going to get very far with this attached. So, under the hood, where the front shock is mounted, there is a lovely diagram which shows how the belt should be wound. The key is the tensioner, which is there to keep everything nice and tight, i.e. provide tension. If you turn this counter to the tension, you'll relieve all of the tension in the belt, and then slide it off at the easiest possible point. This is the first step in freeing the good and bad alternators from the shackles of their cars.

Mercury Mystique: Where To Jack Up A Car On The Front End

I usually have some stress about trying to find out where to raise a car. This is a great place to raise the car which I use every time I raise the front end.

DISCLAIMER: I feel like I have to put this on everything. I am not in any way affiliated with Mercury nor am I a certified mechanic. I'm a do-it-yourselfer who relies heavily on intuition, youtube, a manual, and my father-in-law. I am willing to show the rest of the world what I tried to make things work. I'm not promising that it will be the same for you, or that these fixes are sanctioned in any way. Please don't sue me.

A Big Mistake: Jack Stands On Pavement

Something I did that I thought someone else might benefit from: throw a piece of wood under your jack stands to keep them from digging into your driveway. I love my jack stands but I also love my driveway.

DISCLAIMER: I feel like I have to put this on everything. I am not in any way affiliated with Mercury nor am I a certified mechanic. I'm a do-it-yourselfer who relies heavily on intuition, youtube, a manual, and my father-in-law. I am willing to show the rest of the world what I tried to make things work. I'm not promising that it will be the same for you, or that these fixes are sanctioned in any way. Please don't sue me.

Introduction: My Piece of Junk

Hello friends! So, here's the story. I used to drive a 1999 Mercury Mystique. Great car. Super great on milage. Very reliable, but ultimately gave up the ghost at 215k miles. Bottom was so rusty that I could barely jack up the back end of it! And the glorious illumination of the check engine light was shining bright, and the intermediate exhaust pipe was rotted out. So, time for some new wheels!

I hatched a plan. On my '99 Mystique I had just bought new tires, had new plugs, 5 sets of windsheild wipers, new master cylinder, new calipers, new set of rear drum brakes, newish rotors. You get the idea, I had some really solid hardware left on the car, even though the frame was rotted to heck, the transmission was leaking, and the my dashboard looked like a christmas tree. So, my idea was to get as similar a car as possible, hopefully with ~100k miles on it, swap over all my good parts, and poof, newish car! I found this guy on craigslist for a grand.

I didn't look too hard at it because I was in desperate need of wheels. It drove well enough, but it looked like it had been sitting for a while. OK, so I'm going to have to do a few things, but who cares? I'll learn about cars and get this baby on the road! So far, I've changed out the front control arms, put new front brake calipers on, changed out the rear drum brake cylinders/pads, and swapped out one cracked headlight. Not so bad? It gets me to work so no big deal.

Now I've encountered three new problems. The alternator gave up, my antifreeze is turning to white steam from somewheres under the engine when I drive it, and my brake line blew! Wahoo!

So, I have decided to try and turn this into the most positive experience as I can. While working on this "piece of junk" as I'm not naming it, or POJ for short, I'm going to chronicle all of my anguish. This should have a multi-pronged effect:

1) Hopefully I can turn all my stress into a little bit of humor, and focus on trying to make entertaining youtube videos instead of driving myself crazy when parts on POJ fail.

2) So, I know some of the basics about cars. I know how to change the oil, and I know how to do the brakes, and the tires. Other than that I'm learning quite a bit as I go along, but I do enjoy a challenge, so I'm hoping that I can try learn something and pass it along to the rest of the world.

3) I have noticed that there are a scarcity of Mercury Mystique videos on youtube. Not everything I'd like to see is up here, so if I can help out my fellow man with some issues, that would certainly make me feel like this is worth it in some capacity.

4) My video chronicle is also partially for me. If any of these parts give up again in the future, I can go back and take a look at what I did way back when and remember exactly how everything is supposed to go!

So, this is my journey. I hope you enjoy the ride, have a laugh or two, and if you're at roughly the same level as I am with cars, maybe we'll learn a few things from each other along the way.

DISCLAIMER: I feel like I have to put this on everything. I am not in any way affiliated with Mercury nor am I a certified mechanic. I'm a do-it-yourselfer who relies heavily on intuition, youtube, a manual, and my father-in-law. I am willing to show the rest of the world what I tried to make things work. I'm not promising that it will be the same for you, or that these fixes are sanctioned in any way. Please don't sue me.

Here we go again.....