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| Red 1993 Mazda MX 3 |
I am driving a 1992 Mazda MX-3. It has 285,000 miles on it, so bear that in mind.
My car frequently squeals on startup, and for the first 5 seconds to 3
minutes of driving. This issue is shorter or non-existant in the summer,
and more towards the multiple minutes in the winter or in the rain.
This morning
(20 degrees F outside) as I started it up to go to work, it did the
normal belt squealing, but it didn’t really stop until about 5 minutes.
When it stopped, it was accompanied by a loud “thunk” sound, and sometime about 5 minutes later, I noticed my dashboard battery light was on. (My e-brake has been disconnected, so there is no tension on it, and that dashboard light frequently comes on for no reason, so I’m not sure whether the battery light came on right away.)
I have about a 25 minute drive to work, and my car is always nice and toasty by the time I arrive. This morning,
despite having the heat on, I could see my breath the whole way,
despite my engine temp dial being nearly straight up, past the hot zone.
My first thought is that my alternator
belt was heating up and the idiots at the shop who told me it was
normal for old cars and wasn’t a problem didn’t think a bout what would
happen if the pulleys for that belt were really cold… So this morning it snapped and my car made it the rest of the way to work on battery. Any other thoughts or advice for what I should do now?
-Brent in Canada-
Answer: Well you have two seperate problems here, first off the squealing was from a loose drive belt
which eventualy just snapped and broke from all that time you ignore it
plus they wear out anyway. That noise you heard was the belt snap and
then it flapped and hit something as expected it spins fast. Battery
light might be on cause that belt should run the alternator aswell so
now it broke ur only running off of battery power till the battery dies
which wont take long…. then it wont run at all. With the belt breaking
it might run the water pump too I cant remember some engines water pump
is with the timing belt but yours may be with them drive belt
as well I forget to, anyway I’m assuming now the water pump isnt
turning which over heated your engine which is why temp gauge is
standing up and without warter pump turning it cant move the coolant
thru engine so no heater either. And by now if you got it that hot it
may have guzzzled out some of your coolant so it may be low on coolant
now in the radioator if it got that hot then it most likely did. So you
need a new drive belt make sure it isnt loose this time and u need coolant. Before replacing drive belt it probly has a automatic belt tensioner
or a manual one make sure it holding good tension to keep belt tight.
Also check pullys make sure one of them hasnt locked up on you which
could of caused squealing. The only thing you can do is replace belt and
fluids and check the other pulleys and you should be good to
go. also check belt tension as a reminder… no matter how old the car it
should never do this… But if the belt was oldready to snap it may have
been squaling from ready to snap so u may just need new belt and coolant
if need be but always better to double check yourself.
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