i took my car to a body shop to get some front end damage repaired...and it came back looking perfect. but god knows what they did to the inside...any advice on the following? (all happened AFTER my car got returned!)

1) while driving temp. is fine, but when stopped at a light or stuck in traffic...guage goes waaaay up almost past the 'H'. fan, sensor?

2) at low rpm's and generally low speed (havent tried it at higher speeds) it feels like my power steering is giving out, not shuddering but the wheel is hard to turn and like it turns a little bit then gets stuck n gotta push it harder n turns some more then gets stuck...but at highway speeds it turns pretty good, as far as i go (i dont intend on doing u-turns @ 70) belt? nasty fluid?

3) when i turn on the air conditioning, i get a blast of cold air , and a bad sound like a squeeky bike wheel, not continous, but like a repetetive sound over n over again, but when i get going at higher rpms/speed it goes away 90 percent of the time?

u take it to fix one thing, they break another! this car ran perfect before it went to the body shop, please help! any advice is good!

 

1. Fan fuse maybe or even a small hole in your rad ? ro is your thermostat finally dead ?

2. Alignement f'd up ? take to midas its free to have them inspect it

3. Fan belt replace/tighten it

good luck

 

DO NOT USE AIR CONDITIONING IN TOWN


THE MAZDA MOTORS ARE TO SMALL TO HANDLE IT


THAT IS WHY YOUR HEAT SENSOR IS GOING UP>..



if your air conditioning is on for like a couple red lights

you will see in any car the guage going up garrantied.

 

im not sure about the car not handling it, may be right though. although before it went to the shop it blast the fan at the highest setting with the dial all the way to the cold side, mid 90's in a black interior really sucks. at most it would inch up a little bit.

As for the front end , they took of the front bumper, left fender, left inner fender, hood, radiator/fans, and left light assembly (was a front left collision).

 

good possibility and an ez fix if they forgot tooo.....

for #2 - is your wheels somehow rubbing when you turn?? also, i'd take a look at the front suspension; see if you can tell if anything *looks* bad/feels loose.

 

Well this morning i took it to one of my dad's friends, he has a garage. apparently the body shop somehow mis-aligned all the pulley's, they were actually at an angle instead of a parallel plane to the engine block...as a result the belts ran at an angle, scraped away and i was left with about a 1/4 inch width belt that powers the a/c and power steering, and something to do with the water pump for the coolant. the mechanic said that at low rpms there was little or no tension on the pullies/belt and that it was slipping around everywhere, but the reason why everything worked at high rpms was because there was enough tension somehow ?? either way he ran the engine for about 2 or 3 minutes as soon as we figured out the problem, and sure enough the belt snapped soon after. Thanks for all the help though !

 

apparently the local mazda dealer doesnt sell the power steering pulley alone! they want you to buy it WITH the pump, and fork over 700 dollars!!! looks like a trip to the local junkyard for me...