Changing power steering belt 95 Elantra and newbie encouragement

[vdubber]

Hey all
I am in the middle of changing out my power steering belt, and I just wanted to offer some encouragement to other newbies, especially if your Hyundai is your first car. You can do this kind of work yourself, it's the cheapest way to repair your car, and what you teach yourself you can use on any car you work on.
I realized when I studied the engine layout the alternator belt has to come off first (95 Elantra, 1600 Mitsubishi motor). Good thing in this case. My power steering belt was shredded badly and was causing a serious pulsation in the steering wheel when turning hard left when the pulley hit the bad part of the belt missing teeth. It would go thump-thump-thump when you were turning the wheel, the same symptoms of a bad CV joint which I thought it was at first. Looking around showed me the slipping belt and experience has taught me it was causing the problem in the steering.
The bonus thing was when I got the alternator belt off I realized it needed to be changed also or else it wouldn't have been removed. I am going on a road trip in this car next week and I don't need to find out that belt was bad on the road.
For now I am going to ignore the A/C belt, if it's bad I don't need it in Winter. Maybe I will change it when I inspect the timming belts in a few months when warmer weather gets here (Southern California high desert).
Anyway, the Mistu engine puts everything pretty tight up against the drivers side framerail but it's pretty straightforward to get changed out. I ended up pulling the electric fan off the radiator to get more room for my paws to work around topside, and under the car Hyundai thoughtfully installed removable plastic splash/gravel guards that can be taken off to get to the engine. It took me more time trying to work from up top and stay clean until I realized I just needed to get under the darn thing to get to the job.
It's a little annoying that the serpentine belts have to be turned sideways to slide out from around the pulley's, they kind of don't want to twist, and there is less gap between the pulley and the drivers side engine bay sheetmetal than how wide the belt is, but it can be done.
All in all, things are going smoothly, just working slow as I am unfamiliar with the engine. The point I want to make is you other newbies can do it too even if you are unsure about your abilities. I have been working on cars since I was a teenager, I am 35 now, and the best way to learn is doing it yourself.
Take it easy, have fun, and remember to keep the fire extinguisher close!

[pucci]

I second the newb encouragement.

prepare yourself - get a manual or print out the proper pages from WebTech for whatever you are doing and read them 100 times. get those nice exploded view diagrams and absorb them & then go look at your car & identify what you can see & visualize the internals.

I'm not ashamed to say that I didn't do my first oil change until after I was 21(a few short years ago). prior to that I knew NOTHING about cars other than I liked them & wished I knew how to work on them.

at this point the only thing I have not done is engine/tranny r&r, but that will happen soon enough. eventually I plan to build a motor from a bare block.

so yeah, just get started with the easy stuff and go from there. its all about 'baby steps'. 8D