So I was driving to work today and my battery light and Brake light on the dash come on. Brakes OK, car running OK. I go to pull off to check it out and no power steering either. My suspicions were confirmed that the drive belt for the alternator and P/S was broken. In fact, it was mostly gone - just a few strands left. I was able to get to work and the Advanced near me has one, so should be an easy fix. I am hoping the brake light was a problem with the ABS unit not getting power. Could it be something else? Is this a common problem? Possible anything else causing the problem. The alternator spun freely. The car has 64K miles - '02 WRX. Also, I am going to get the belt with the 1 year warranty as opposed to the one with the 90 day warranty at Advanced Auto. Is this belt OK or should I get an OEM belt from the dealer when I am able?
Weird my drive belt did the exact same thing at almost the exact amount of miles. It was just like 2 or 3 strands. I got the mitsuboshi belt from advance. Not sure which one that is, but it looks like the same one I have seen on 155235 sti's and I have had 0 problems with it. I also have an 02.
Thanks for the replies. I will get the Advance belt and hope for the best or at least it will hold me over until I can buy an OE belt.
So I didn't heed WJM's advice (mostly due to proximity to a Subaru parts dept) and had to get one from Advanced. The first one I get after moving the alternator to allow most room for the belt, I still could not get it on. I then went to Autozone and got the belt they had in their system, and opposite problem - I could not get it to tighten. As a temporary fix, the AC belt that autozone sold me though was too small for the AC, actually fit on the PS pump / alternator. I know it isn't the correct width, so I trek to SOG today at lunch to get the correct Subaru parts (BTW, they were no more expensive than the belts at Advanced / Autozone - $14 each). After I leave (my mistake), I compare the Subaru belt to the too short one from Advanced - it looks the same length! I will try it tonight. Is there something I am missing. Are these just hard to get on? Is there a trick I do not know. I started to use a screw driver to work it on, but I noticed I was marring the pulley some and quickly stopped. BTW, one other note - the P/N I bought from SOG was 809218270. An online scanned parts list (I think I got it here, but can't vouch as to version or authenticity) calls for 809218250. Are these the same? One other note, the AC belt I bought from SOG was a perfect match to the one that was on there. I can't compare the original alternator belt because it is somewhere on Hwy 20 between Cumming and Sugar Hill.
I will answer my own question because I got the new belt on last night. The part I got from SOG did fit. It was just very tight getting it over the lip on the pulley on the alternator or the PS pump. I got it over the PS pump pulley with some effort. Once over that lip it was loose and I was able to tighten it. As it turns out the belt from Advanced probably would have fit. It just didn't seem right at the time.