My friend's '98 altima broke down last night. When I first looked at it, and from the symptoms he described (screeching noise, especially when turning or going slow, then a loud noise and the charge light went on, heat stopped working, and power steering went out) it sounded like his ps pump had gone bad and broke the belt. When I got to the scene we looked under the hood and the belt was intact but had come off of the idler pulley. I gave him a ride home and we towed it back today. Upon closer inspection, the ps pump seems fine (turns easily by hand) as does the alternator and water pump, but the idler pulley which I now see bolts directly to the engine block at the top, is broken. The bolt attaching it to the block is completely loose and the pulley probably would have fallen out of the compartment while he was driving except that the bolt is long enough and there is so little clearance that it hits the side of the engine compartment before coming completely out of the engine so the pulley can't fall out. Is this a simple part to replace? It looks like we'd have to pull the entire engine out just to get access to it, is that true, or can we just pull off the wheel compartment or something else? Thanks for the help,
fowdawgg at gmail com