We recently had my husband’s Ford Escape serviced…tuneup, rotors turned, etc. It’s got over 150k miles on it (miracle for this model). NOW, the compressor is dying (there’s little to no AC in the cabin), the power steering has gone out, and the battery light is constantly on…and this all happened in the past 24 hours! Other than driving it over a cliff to put it out of its misery, any ideas as to what happened???
Hmmm…no AC, no power steering, and the battery is dying, I’m guessing because the alternator isn’t charging it. All of those things are run from the accessory belt on the engine. Just throwing out ideas, but I’d look there first. Could be that the belt tensioner went south, could be that one of the accessories has failed and is dragging on the belt, or perhaps the belt itself broke and isn’t powering anything.
Good job of putting it all together. BTW Kat, the battery will likely not be working for much longer. Driving the car under those conditions will likely cause it to die somewhere you would not want to be and could damage the battery. The only place that car should go is to the shop.