Well, you all know how I have ranted about how difficult these vehicles are to work on because of to me , an attitude of the engineering/design politics at GM------


But, anyhow--Robin's 2003 with the I 6 engine developed an auwful oder the other day accompanied by some noisiness----I had just recently done an alternator rebuild and I thought that that might be the area to look (I'm a strong proponent of looking at what was recently done when looking for causes of new symoths)


Well, its been cold, snowy, and since I finally got all my projects into the garage, there's no room for her car so its an outside job----


Turns out to be the AC clutch bearing and dragging causing heat problem and noise---seems to be very common on these vehicles------Solution I came up with was to check inventories of replacement parts at my two favorite dealers, but she and I couldn't decide on color or transmission gears----


Sooooooooooo--this morning I did some careful calculations and measuring and came up with a dimension of 69 1/2 inches for a belt to bypass the AC and the idler by it and just drive power steering, water pump, and alternator.


Belt size is tight and only around $25 so AC repair can wait till spring-


Part numbe r at Napa is 25 060690 ( 06 ribs 069.0 inch length)


now quiet and no more smell or smoke---------