As a new member and this being my first post, I'm hoping this is being posted in the correct section.

I have a supercharged 99 Buick Park Avenue Ultra. The serpentine belt disintegrated this afternoon as I was backing out of my garage and the engine immediately quit. I found pieces of the belt on the ground underneath the car where it stopped. I have about 113K miles on it. The serpentine belt was replaced about 30K miles ago by a local auto repair facility (non-dealer).

First of all, I am mechanically inclined, have worked in gas stations many years ago during college and the service, and am comfortable working on cars myself but it has been a long time.

I have a few questions:

1. How difficult is it to replace the belt myself?
2. Where is the best place to get a replacement serpentine belt?
3. Any particular brand better than another?
4. Do i need to change the tensioner also?

Any other thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Sorry for all the questions but i want to get know if I should attempt this myself or have it done commerically.

Thanks in advance for you answers.

Welcome to the forum Don!

We have many technical how-to articles in the Tech-Info section. Here is one on changing the supercharger belt, but its pretty much the same procedure because you have to remove the lower engine bracket bolt and spacer. You will also need a 15mm socket to take be able to move the other tensioner.

I need to ask Dan about the electrical connector removal. I never had to disconnect that myself.

Feel free to ask any questions.

https://www.gmforum.com/mechanical-134/changing-supercharger-belt-278822/

99 Might be a different mount setup. I remember 98 being a total nightmare to swap the engine due to the PAU bracket. IIRC 99 they may have changed over to the same mount system as a 2000 Bonne.

Well, after looking more closely at my engine, I can now see that it is the supercharger belt that has come apart. Additionally, I can see what appears to be a plastic smooth pulley (no grooves on it) that just wobbles around when I try to spin it with my hand. It looks like the center portion of the pulley has broken. I have a piece of the belt that is about 8" inches in length but the rest of it is all wrapped around the pulleys for the main serpentine belt.

So, being 72 years of age, I am going to use some of those "wise old man" juices and take my Buick to a local repair shop. This appears to be beyond my capabilities.

Thanks for the replies though. At least this forum got me started in the right direction.

Just thought I would follow-up on the outcome of my broken supercharger belt...

Well, $956.24 later, I have a functioning '99 Buick Ultra again. It turns out that the broken belt was due to a mechanical failure and that failure also resulted in the destruction of several other components in the area. The idler pulley had literally melted due to the bearing for it seizing up. Once the center of the idler pulley melted, it caused the belt to come loose and slip off of the other pulleys. The belt then proceeded to whip around and become wedged in and behind the crankshaft damper destroying it along with the crank sensor wiring and connector. The repair shop replaced the supercharger belt, alternator belt, crankshaft damper assembly, crank sensor and wiring.

Could I have done this repair myself? Probably not...

Hopefully my next question about my Buick will be one that I can do myself, along with the help of this forum...

I just changed one on a Sunfire it was quite a pain in the but had to undo motor mounts then the motor slid towards the fire wall and almost took out the ac.But it was better than paying $400.00.