balance shaft belt? [No, the water pump belt]

[Matt4g63]

This morning my balance shaft belt snapped and here are the symptoms. I'm wondering if you guys think I got lucky or not?

It probably 0 outside right now and after letting my car idle for about 5 minutes I left to go home. After about 2 minutes of driving my power steering goes out and I thought it was just a stupid DSM thing and it had gone out. At that point I was just mad I was going to have to replace the PS pump or whatever. The car was running fine no problems.

Well, I get a bad feeling and pull over a few blocks down and pop the hood to find my belt in shreds.( I was thinking it was just the PS belt and was just going to drive home with no PS) I take it out and start the car back up and its idling at 1-2k which is has done before. Again I thought it was a stupid DSM thing because its very cold outside.

I go a few more blocks and it starts to turn into a 55 mph zone and I notice violent vibrations and overheating once I hit 40+ mph. So i turn around go back into a parking lot where it still is now.

I checked the coolant and the oil didn't seem milky to me? And the violent shaking only starts after 40+ mph. There were no leaks from what I could see and all my other belts were in tack. I didn't take the timing cover off but I'm assuming its fine because it was still drivable.
What do you guys think?

Thanks, Matt

 

[SOADweskey]

If you didn't take the timing cover off how do you know that the balance belt snapped? It is under the cover and behind the timing belt. Did you still have a belt turning you water pump? That could defiantly cause the overheating problem.

 

[JusMX141]

Balance shaft belts aren't visible without removing the timing cover, so we can eliminate that as a cause.

If it's overheating, you're missing the belt that runs the water pump and alternator. There is a seperate belt from the water pump that drives the power steering, so if the water pump belt is missing then your car will have no power steering, as well.

 

[Matt4g63]

Do you guys know what could cause the virbrations then?

 

[JusMX141]

It's still possible the balace belt is broken, but here's something to consider....

While doing a routine timing belt replacement during a cam upgrade on my buddy's '95 TSi, this is what we discovered:

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The car still ran a 12.55 @ 108.9 with only one balance shaft turning, and it honestly didn't vibrate all that bad. It shakes worse now with a pair of 272 cams and both balance shafts turning than it did with stock cams and one balance shaft turning.

 

[Mr Peepers]

It was the alternator/waterpump belt that snapped. Too much %water and the coolant froze. Started the car and the belt snapped trying to turn the water pump.