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power steering went. the i felt cold air coming through the heater.

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badabing33a

10+ Year Contributor
788
1
Oct 2, 2008
Louden, New Hampshire
ok so i was driving my talon and the power steering went. the i felt cold air comming through the heater. so i looked at the temp gauge and it was over heating. so about 2 miles later i got home steam was shooting out and i tried the garden hose to cool it down. later on i went out and put coolant in the radiator and started it up. now the rpms keep jumping up about 500 rpms. whats going on???
 
ok so i was driving my talon and the power steering went. the i felt cold air comming through the heater. so i looked at the temp gauge and it was over heating. so about 2 miles later i got home steam was shooting out and i tried the garden hose to cool it down. later on i went out and put coolant in the radiator and started it up. now the rpms keep jumping up about 500 rpms. whats going on???

You broke your power steering/alternator belt.
Don't try to drive it.
And as soon as you saw that TEMP gauge pegging, you should have stopped, the same SAME exact thing happened to me coolant shooting out and everything.
Luckily I didn't mess anything up.
You could have a warped head/ bad head gasket because you kept on driving it.
 
what would the power steering/alt. belt have to do with over heating?

and why would the rpms jump?
 
The power steering, water pump, alternator, ect belts are all serpentine, so if one belt broke then everything on that serpentine line would stop working as well.

I had that happen to me before, turned out I didn't have the alternator snugged in correctly and the belt kept coming off. I would lose my power steering, the car would smoke, and the engine temp would rise. Sounds exactly like what happened to your car. Check to make sure all of the belts in the alternator area are tight, or better yet, check to see if any of them are missing. Hope that helps.

As for the RPMS rising, do they go up, and then down? If so, that sounds like idle surge. It might just be a coincidence that you starting getting the surge too. I fixed my idle surge by replacing the idle air control valve.
 
Nope, not really. Anyone with basic car knowledge should be able to do it.

You will need to put the car on jack stands or make SURE the car wont roll off the jack.

Jack up car on the passenger side. Loosen belt tensioner bolt from underneath. You will need some extensions for your ratchet. You may need to tap the bolt with a hammer to unseat it. Furthermore, I had to loosen the belt tensioner from inside the engine compartment. Will need an offset wrench..space is tight.

Take new belt, route over crankcase pulley, water belt pulley, under tensioner, over alternator, the under tensioner. Smooth side of belt to tensioner.

Back under car, tighten tensioner...dont go crazy with the tension, you can put undo strain on your alternator and water pump pulley. Leave a small amount of flex on the belt...maybe a 1/4 inch when pushing down on the belt.

Tighten tensioner back...from inside engine compartment.

You are done.
 
Nope, not really. Anyone with basic car knowledge should be able to do it.

You will need to put the car on jack stands or make SURE the car wont roll off the jack.

Jack up car on the passenger side. Loosen belt tensioner bolt from underneath. You will need some extensions for your ratchet. You may need to tap the bolt with a hammer to unseat it. Furthermore, I had to loosen the belt tensioner from inside the engine compartment. Will need an offset wrench..space is tight.

Take new belt, route over crankcase pulley, water belt pulley, under tensioner, over alternator, the under tensioner. Smooth side of belt to tensioner.

Back under car, tighten tensioner...dont go crazy with the tension, you can put undo strain on your alternator and water pump pulley. Leave a small amount of flex on the belt...maybe a 1/4 inch when pushing down on the belt.

Tighten tensioner back...from inside engine compartment.

You are done.

I don't know what kind of car you are working on...

yea that belts missing. is it hard to put on? looks like a pain.

It's not hard to put on at all. You can do it all from underhood with no jack. Break the lower bolt loose behind the alternator. Break the lock bolt loose on the side of the alternator. Flip adjustment bolt out of bracket temporarily, and slide the alt towards the block to allow you to put the belt on. Put the belt on in this order. Crank, Waterpump, then Alternator. Thread out the adjustment bolt allowing it to sit in the bracket again. Then tension the belt with the adjustment bolt, tighten the lock bolt, then the lower bolt.
 
Why do you need to lift up the car to do this? Just loosen the alternator bolt, slip the belt on, and tighten the alternator back up. All done =)
 
ok guys ill do it in the morning durring the day so i dont have to move my dirt modified out of the garage. but thanks EVERYONE. its awesome to have questions and have a place like this to get answers. ill let you know how it goes. THANKS.

I pulled the long bolt out of the alt. I slipped the belt on but it was not very tight. I went for a test drive and everything was good. The only problem that it was squealing loud. When I got back I checked the belt and it was actually tighter for some reason.
 
snapped again. i thought i did everything right. i checked pulleys and none are locked up. before the belt snapped again, i could smell it. what could be wrong??
 
I dont know how different the belt setup is with a 1g than a 2g so im just going to throw this out there. On my 2g, i had a power steering leak, but filled it up frequently. One day while i was driving the power steering went out, i looked under the hood and there was a belt that snapped. It was my power steering belt of course. I checked my PS reservior, and it was bone dry.

If your belt keeps snapping, check your PS pump reservior. If your power steering pump is bad and not flowing correctly there will be extra stress put on that belt causing it to snap.
 
ok i got it. yesterday i put the belt on. and its alot tighter. it was only a 10 minute job. ( but i had a wratchet wrench LOL ) but thanks for everyones help!! i love this place!
 
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