The 1998 Buick Park Avenue has an excellent engine that has been in use a long time, however, the accessory placement on this particular year of the Park Avenue makes it a bear to work on. Some mechanics may even have wished the designers an early transmission failure in the middle lane of the nation's busiest highway. Keep up on the preventative maintenance -- because little can be serviced on the road, not even the accessory drive belt.
Raise the passenger side of the car with the floor jack and place the jack stand under the frame. Lower the car onto the jack stand. Remove the lug nuts on the wheel with the lug wrench and remove the wheel.
Place a ratchet with the appropriate socket on the belt tensioner and pull the tensioner away from the serpentine belt to relieve the tension. Remove the belt from the pulleys. The belt will come off the pulleys, however, it will not come out because the belt passes through the motor mount arm.
Look through the fender well now that the wheel is removed and you will see the lower motor mount straight ahead on the frame rail. Look to the right side of the arm where it attaches to the engine and you will see a 2-inch section of the arm held in with two bolts. This section must be removed in order to remove the serpentine belt. Place the floor jack under the passenger side of the oil pan and raise the jack just enough to give support to the engine.
Remove the bolts in the engine mount support arm with a socket and remove the piece. Remove the serpentine belt and install the new belt. Don't worry about installing it on the pulleys, just place it through the motor mount for now. Install the piece of the motor mount arm and tighten the bolts.
Look at the diagram for the belt routing on the radiator cover. It is very tight fit between the engine and the frame. The belt needs to be installed a little at a time, starting at the top. Then go in the fender well and grab the belt and pull it down into place as far as possible, and then back to the top and so on until it fits.
Install the belt as illustrated on the radiator cover and when the belt is on all the pulleys, move the pulley tensioner away from the belt and install the belt on the tensioner. Allow the tensioner to operate and apply tension to the belt. Install the wheel and tighten the lug nuts with the lug wrench. Lower the car.
