Power steeing delete on a Matrix, project and how to

[Weather Spotter]

not sure I want to try to take the belt on and off while the engine and hoses (that you rub, bump, and push with your hands) are hot. trying to do it cold might add some odd factors into the test. there is also the cost of just driving for ~30 miles just to warm up the drive train to a steady point.

I might try it after work one day this week when the car is hot.

Questions:

Would I want to test steady state MPG (which I know how to do) or acceleration (no ideal how I would do it) or both?

What would happen if I took the belt all the way off? (no water pump) anything bad? If I could it might make a nice comparison test, OEM belt, no PS or AC, and no belt at all.

[arcosine]

Yep, good eyes, TC, that's an AC compressor, not a PS pump. That delete will have almost no effect on mpg since it acts as an idler when AC is not engaged.

PS pump looks like this:

Originally Posted by Tango Charlie

Isn't #3 in that picture the AC compressor? I thought #5 was the PS pump. The wife has the Vibe this morning or else I'd go look myself.

WS, I'm not seeing your video.

[Weather Spotter]

Its hard to see in the video but the belt change removes BOTH the AC and the PS pump. the video only shows the ac pulley as the PS is in the back on the engine and hard to see.

[Weather Spotter]

here is my new route of the belt OEM on top mine in red:

[Tango Charlie]

OK, so it's a ps AND ac delete. Now I see.

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

What would happen if I took the belt all the way off? (no water pump) anything bad? If I could it might make a nice comparison test, OEM belt, no PS or AC, and no belt at all.

I wouldn't recommend that. I would postulate that it would overheat pretty quick. But you can try it if you want, it's your car.

[Weather Spotter]

I was asking as I figure its a bad idea to run without the water pump but I was not 100% sure.

[Weather Spotter]

Well I tried to do some ABA testing today, but ran into some issues as I am having troubles trying to switch out the belt while the engine is hot. It does not seem to be easy to get in there with my hands or tools without burning myself and I'm need more than just my two hands to do it. The new belt is also the exact right size and is very hard to pull off once I get it on. So I am not sure if I will ever be able to get a good testing done .I did get the first set of A results in and I'm pleasantly surprised with the numbers.

With moderate winds 5 to 10 miles an hour east northeast my north and south runs we're doing pretty good. My north runs average 51.5 miles to the gallon. My South runs were a little more chaotic but averaging about 58 miles per gallon. My testing was done over a 1 mile average . With a 1 mile coast down And a one-mile accelerations . Testing was done at 55 miles an hour steady speed using cruise control. Which is the first time I have use cruise control in almost 2 years

Average out. its not actually a very bad steady-state speed MPG for my car considering without all my mods and stuff previous testing had shown about 30-35 miles per galon. So if I were to do a long steady speed trip without any coasting repulsing gliding which I normally do, I should be able to average low to mid 50s.