When I turned 16 years old, my dad bought a flashy new car and passed down to me his aging 1997 Buick Skylark with the 2.4-liter engine. Though it was getting a little long in the tooth, he had taken take excellent care of it, so the problems have been very minor. The biggest issue to date was when the serpentine belt broke, causing the all of the accessories -- power steering, air conditioning and alternator -- to stop working. Fortunately, replacing this belt is about as straightforward as they come.
I found the belt tensioner on my 1997 Skylark near the top of the engine, between the power steering and alternator pulley. I rotated the tensioner counterclockwise with a 1/2-inch-drive breaker bar to relieve the tension on the belt.
