Had a problem last night that wanted to run by the more mechanically inclined here and seek some advice

Was driving home last night about 2am and all of a sudden the DIC read "SERVICE ENGINE SOON" I asked my passenger to pull out my manual to find out what the message meant and what I should do.

As they were looking all of the sudden the car started beeping and the DIC read something like Coolant Over Temp and I checked and the coolant gauge was all the way in the red buried. Then the car said REDUCED ENGINE POWER and it felt like it was running just a couple of cylinders

I immediately pulled over and called roadside assistance and they sent out a flat bed within 30 minutes and took my car to my servicing dealership. While waiting, I opened up the hood and noticed coolant on the tank and some one the engine. I then noticed that there was no belt on the pully that is at the top of the engine on the driver's side of the car.

I reached in and found the belt just laying there. I pulled it out and it was in one piece with the exception of a small strip that was pulled partially away like string cheese.

I just had the belt replaced by the dealer back in January and only had maybe 1000 miles on the car since then. My main concern was my engine damaged by the temperature going so high??? What would cause the belt to come off like that??

Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, my car is still under GMPP.

 

any odd noises before all this happened?

the over heating is obviously from the belt breaking... No belt no water pump... so the water wasn't extracting heat from the motor... therefore it over heat.. pretty simple... right? but why did the belt break? If it wasn't installed correctly (maybe it was hanging off a little on the harmonic balance) it would wear the belt very quickly...

Id examin the color of your oil... if it's not black you could have blown a head gasket... I'm not familiar with the electronics on the car but i'd guess gm has the computer set to kill it's self if it gets to hot ( car seems to have all kinds of little safety thiings on it like that)... and thats where you felt the loss of power.... or you could have blown the head gasket and you were feeling the coolant flood your motor.. which willl also slow you down...


PS... take pictures of the belt as soon as possible... if the motor is damaged.. you'll need them.

 

Thanks -

Nothing odd was happening before - and no strange noises. The car was running great.

The car only started running bad when the DIC said Reduced Engine Power.

When all of that happened, I immediately pulled over.

Car is at the dealer now and waiting for them to look at it.

I hope everything is ok - just really worried about any damage the overheating may have caused even though it was a short time.

 

If you shut down very quickly you might be ok... if you took it back to the same dealer see if you can't see the belt and get a picture of it...

 

Are there any other things I should look for or ask the dealer to look for to be sure there was no damage done by the overheating?

I told the dealer to save the belt and I will post a picture of it later this week.

Thanks

 

Without the belt, nothing is turning the water pump - and that makes for quick overheating.

Perhaps a pulley, or the waterpump itself, locked up and threw the belt off. Or maybe the tensioner is wobbly and let the belt jump off. Lots of possibilities here, good luck.

 

I agree with everybody on this one.

I would check the "run-out" on each of the pulleys as well as the amount of drag for each to turn. Obviously they will differ based on what they are turning, but all should be rather free to spin.

If you have an issue I would suspect it is one of the idlers, probably the tensioner located upper left as you look at the engine.

Good Luck

 

Maybe the "Goodwrench Guy" wasn't really that good...

Worked at Chevy dealer before and seen horror at first sight...


Sorry. :o

 

Ok, received my car back the 5th of July.

The dealer said that the belt was defective and that was the reason it came off. They stated they checked all the pulleys, the tensioner, etc and there were no problems with any of them.

They also stated they checked the engine and there was no problems from the short overheat.

I have been driving it and no problems to report. They didn't charge me anything and supplied a rental car as well.

Thank Goodness - I was starting to worry there.