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Feb. 9, 2012 11:14 a.m. stroker HalfDork

Yesterday the car gave a lurch with a muffled "whang" in the parking lot. Driving home the temp gauge was in the middle but blowing no hot air. Stopped to get the girls from daycare with steam billowing from under the hood.

Had it towed to the shop. Bracket holding the radiator fan broke. Fan blades perforated the radiator and the harmonic balancer is destroyed. Shop claims no used products available from any salvage source. Closest dealer wants 7 days to get the parts and bill looks to be north of $1600.

The whole things sounds very suspicious to me, coming off the car being in the shop last week for an oil change. Could somebody have overtightened the fan belt? Anyone know of a alternate source of parts?
Feb. 9, 2012 11:16 a.m. DoctorBlade Dork

No salvage parts? That sounds suspicious to me. Of course, I'm not a mechanic or anything.
Feb. 9, 2012 11:29 a.m. oldtin SuperDork

What else got killed - fan, radiator, balancer, belt, radiator bracket? Seems like $500ish in new parts, plus labor - $1600 doesn't sound insanely out of line for dealer rates. OTOH, maybe $200 in used stuff, and a saturday of your time. I somehow don't think there's a shortage of junked/parted sidekicks.
Feb. 9, 2012 1:00 p.m. HappyAndy HalfDork

Can't help you with the Sidekicks, but I did once a have the PS pump bracket on one of my SAAB 9000s just break for no good reason. Sometimes stuff like that just happens.

If it was a common problem the Suzuki stealerships would keep them in stock. Sounds like its time for a trip to the U pull it.
Feb. 9, 2012 1:15 p.m. Klayfish HalfDork

Tons of Sidekick parts out there, check around at yards. The Tracker was a badge clone of it, so look for those. There's a small sub-section of the Suzuki message boards for the Tracker/Sidekick. You can check there too.
Feb. 9, 2012 1:23 p.m. mad_machine SuperDork

what else used that engine?

Or are we looking at an LSx Sidekick swap?
Feb. 9, 2012 1:25 p.m. Streetwiseguy SuperDork

I'm gonna suggest the balancer came apart and caused all the other damage. For something else to have broken that would be unusual.

Costwise, if you don't want to search up the used parts yourself, you will have to pay someone else whatever they want. Thats the rules at my shop.