1997 Neon, 118000, 4 cylinder, automatic

This morning my sister tried to drive my dad's car. The car started alright and she put it into gear and the car would not move. She called AAA to have it towed. The AAA guy looked at the car/engine and said it was some kind of belt. It got towed and our mechanic told her it was a belt that had broken. I was unaware of that a belt could keep a car from moving. Is this true and if so which belt is it and how does it effect the car from moving and how hard is it to replace?

The engine has a timing belt that will prevent it from starting but if the engine is starting, there are no belts that will prevent it from moving if the engine is running.




78 Corvette Pace Car For Sale-18k mi orig-Florida

I called her back she said it was a shifter cable? Does that make any sense?

Yes, that makes sense but it has nothing to do with a belt.




78 Corvette Pace Car For Sale-18k mi orig-Florida

Miscomunication from her to me. Is this tough to fix? Is it expensive to fix? What might cause it to break?

They are very active cables so they can see a lot of wear. You'll have to get it examined to see just what happened. Sometimes if it's just a plastic clip that attaches it, possibly that can be bought separately. If it needs a whole cable, you could be looking at a couple hundred bucks.




78 Corvette Pace Car For Sale-18k mi orig-Florida

Well that is better then had the transmission gone out which is what we first thought, so while it looks not real cheap, much cheaper then fixing/replacing the transmission.