My son recently purchased 2010 Nissan maxima 3.5. He is disabled and this his only ride which was recently purchased. From the day he got it it broke down. He made it 7 miles from car lot the 1st time. I've had 3 people try to fix it and no one can figure it out. He's had the car 2 months and went thru 11 serpatine belts and 3 power steering pumps. Im being told it's snapping the shaft off the pump? There's been pulleys replaced, belts and pumps yet it's broke again. I know nothing about cars I just know he needs a ride to get to his Dr apts. And he spent everything to buy this car so I must figure the problem out. I do know the car has a salvaged title and was totalled 4 years ago. Something we wasn't aware of until the title came. Any help would be beyond appreciated as I have no ideal what to do. I can't keep buying pumps that only last few weeks or belts every other day. Please help

 

I would wager the frame is bent. This will cause the pump to be offset from the other pulleys and would be the reason for the belts shredding and pump pulley shearing off. There is a laser tool made by Dayco that you can get (i got mine on amazon) the check the pulley alignments that is relatively inexpensive. A clever mechanic could (depending how far out it is) drill out the mounting bracket to allow for alignments (assuming this is beyond shimming)

If it was only shredding belts, I would asvise getting an oem belt from nissan as most of us who used other belts would eventually shred them, just not nearly as frequently as your son's car.

Please let us know what the issue really turns out to be.

 

A side note here Wendie, It could be considered fraud if a business sells you a car knowing that the title is salvage and does not disclose this information prior to the sale.

With all the time and expense you have put into the repair of the car, i would be seeking the advise of an attorney

 

As said it definitely sounds like one of the pulleys isn't in line with the others, this will stress out the belt and cause it to shred. It sounds like its the pump out of line due to that pulley shearing, you would have to take it to a mechanic that is able to verify which pulley is out of line, and if it's the power steering pump that is out of line as it most likely is, they would have to shim it or modify it to get in proper alignment which is definitely possible to do. Smaller shops are usually more knowledgeable and willing to to those jobs over dealerships

 

x2…….

@LtLeary on point, but considering the amount of times the same job was performed and broke down 7 miles from the lot, and getting a salvage title later unbeknownst to the buyer 🙄🤔🙄🤔🙄🤔, …..hhhmmmmm … well we know better …

 

You may want to do a “Carfax” report on the car. If the accident was reported, the carfax report will show where and how the car was hit.
Have you contacted the seller of the car and told them all the problems you are having with the car?
Good Luck

 

My 2010 started shredding belts this past Dec after I had personally replaced the idler pulley. Turns out that I needed to replace the upper idler pulley, and the tensioner assembly, (2 additional pulleys). This job cost me $525 on top of the $25 I had spent on a new gates belt just 4 weeks earlier.