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This is more of a vent than anything. Last night on my way home from work the AC Compressor seized up with the clutch locked and burned off the belt. Why the Honda engineers thought having the AC compressor and the alternator share the same belt was a good idea, I guess I will never know. I am just happy I was close to home and not closer to work as I don't know if I could have made it back on only battery power. Anyway, my plan at this point is to bypass the AC using a belt for the same year Civic that did not include AC. Googling showed that as the way to bypass the compressor.

Annoyingly, no one has the belt in stock, so I cannot get it fixed today. Thankfully, we have a second vehicle that I can get to work in, but the work I was doing on it has to wait.

 
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Newer Civics have one belt that runs everything, including the water pump. Consider yourself lucky

 
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That seems to be the way they are going in the automotive industry in general. On my 2005 Chevy truck, everything but the AC compressor is on the main serpentine belt, the AC has a dedicated belt. I thought that was a great design. The 1997 Van I used to have had only one belt, and when the AC compressor seized the truck was basically dead. I had just gotten a truck to replace it, so it wasn't a big deal except for seeing how bad an idea having the AC compressor on the vehicle with everything else is. I would have hoped Honda would have done a better job in the later generations. Even the way the belt system is set up with having to unbolt the power steering reservoir and remove the power steering pump belt to replace the mission-critical belt to the alternator seems like a backward design. I am thankful that I don't have one belt as I can easily bypass the ac compressor until I have time to get a new one installed.

 
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Other civics have multiple belts? I have a hybrid of the same vintage ('03) and it uses one belt for the water pump and AC compressor. Maybe because it doesn't have hydraulic power steering or a typical alternator? I've seen my fair share of normal civics in the junkyard, but I've never noticed that they have multiple belts. Anyways, best of luck on fixing your civic!

 
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Mine does, outside one for the power steering only I think, and the inner one for the alternator, AC compressor. Design-wise, having the power steering and compressor on the same belt makes much more sense in my mind as I can keep driving with that belt broken. I can't really keep driving without an alternator.

 
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temp fix:

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/3...ss-solved.html

 
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That is what I have done.

 
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sorry, it seem that I can't read well you said that in first post...

 
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Well, one of the downsides of having used vehicles is how people have "fixed" things in the past. Apparently, one of the previous owners or their mechanics decided that the tensioning system is not needed for the power steering pump or the alternator. Getting things loose was the expected challenge, but getting them back together and the belts tensioned is a bigger challenge especially with the pivot point of the alternator being at the top, so I cannot just use a prybar, at least not easily. At least the belt for a Civic without an alternator fits.

 
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car-part.com for nearby scrapyards, yank one off

 
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Finding a way to use a prybar to tension the alternator proved easier that I expected. The power steering pump, on the other hand, was more of a challenge. While I really don't like the tensioning system in the 2005 Civic with its stupid wing-bolts, at least with it, I would have been done quicker. At least bypassing the AC compressor with a belt for a Civic without AC worked. Now I have to decide if I want to spend the money on a new compressor and probably a new condenser as well since I am guessing that pieces have broken off inside the compressor and some have already made their way to the condenser. Not replacing it would just mean having them work their way through the system and destroy the new compresser.

 
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Believe me, nobody likes that.