Car is messed up...power steering gone,all lights in cluster on, weird noise

[2gBlkGST]

ok i have a 95 tsi awd 40k..all stock. Latley when I started the car sometimes, and pulled out my drive way the power steering was really tuff, and felt like it wasnt on..just when i pulled out, but then i would go, and it would be fine, thought mayb cus its cold right when i start it up.

So last nite everythings fine.. i go to olive garden to eat, and park. I come out like an hour later, and start it up...the power steering does not work, the battery light, radiator light, and brake light are on, and the heat blows cold. Its like the car wasn't on, like when you put your key in the ingtion, but not start it, and all the lights in the cluster are on, and shit.


So im like wtf...and I drive it home with no power steering..a lil hard but i did it. So i check the power sterring fluid, it looks low, so today i went to pepboys to get some.. On the way there I notice that my engine temp, is all that way up that the H! and then im idling at 1500 and it jumps from 1500-2500 on its own at red light, and keeps goin up and down. So i get the fluid, it doesnt do shit. Then on the way home I notice that stereo goes off, all the lights on my cluster dim, i turn on the head lights switch, my speedometor drops to 0 and dont move, I put ont he wipers, and the move slow as hell. Then I am driving and the car like studders like its gonna die out.


So right now there is liek no power, power locks didnt work, and rpms, and speddo and all the lights on dash just went out, and power steering still out, and it was makin some werid noises. Im afraid to drive it. Any ideaS?

 

[BUCK]

DUDE - your freaking belts are gone!

 

[Eliminat0r]

dude how long have you been driving the car with no belts damn man, did you not look under the hood, you might want to also get your timing belt replaced also but man you lucky you still have a car. get it towed to a mitsu dealer, or buy belts and do it yourself, but for god sakes dont drive it anymore!!!!!!!! :thumbdown :thumbdown :thumbdown :thumbdown

 

[2gBlkGST]

Which belts are they? All, And timing too? I just bought the car about a month ago.

 

[Mike1992]

Is this guy serious?

 

[Eliminat0r]

yea he's serious

balance shaft belt, timing belt is all you need to know buddy just take it to a mitsu or chrysler dealer and say i need all the belts repalced o and can you also check if i ahev bent valves cause thats probably what the nosie was.

 

[Mike1992]

Originally posted by Eliminat0r
yea he's serious

balance shaft belt, timing belt is all you need to know buddy just take it to a mitsu or chrysler dealer and say i need all the belts repalced o and can you also check if i ahev bent valves cause thats probably what the nosie was.

What I meant was 2gBlkGST has to be the biggest NEWBIE of them all!

 

[Eliminat0r]

now now no need to flame but seriously thoguh hes been on here since june 2003 thats as long as i have been on here and he dont know much. its like he just bought the car last week and has no idea whats going on, but seriously thoguh man just hope you didnt do any head damage or have bent valves. also since there replacing all belts get the waterpump done too

 

[shelbyz]

i dunno, maybe its a pultergeist

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by Eliminat0r
now now no need to flame but seriously thoguh hes been on here since june 2003 thats as long as i have been on here and he dont know much. its like he just bought the car last week and has no idea whats going on,
...

I dunno, I looked at some of his other posts and see he's quite capable of listing all the mods that have been done and expressing himself.

I do take difficulty in trying to figure out if he thinks this is a joke. It's also hard to imagine he's been driving it straight off the battery and not notice the misfire and all the other symptoms of a rapidly dying battery.

Lets hope he didn't cook it for that was a pretty extensive list. I guess we will hear about it when he starts asking how to rebuild the engine.

So if he starts posting 1/4 times we can figure out he's just looking for attention or thinks he going to put one over on us. Time will tell.

Cheers,
GTM

 

[BUCK]

Of course he could have lost the P/S belt & Water Pump belt without taking out the Timing Belt - let's just hope he didn't cook a head gasket running with no water pump. The bad part is that the poor thing tries to give him a heads-up on a belt crisis via the early P/S problems - he just didn't take the hint.

It helps to act smarter than the belt...

 

[Lordpaxin]

Dont beat on this guy too much., shit happends. you learn, and you go on. It was very possble for somone to know whats under the hood, but have no idea about the workings of it, mabye the guy that sold him the car, had the mods wrote down ?

weve all made stupid mistakes.
hell, just as "itsstockofficer" about me boosting my valvecover full of psi, and my bov line running to the intake.

im sure the biggest part of us on here, have storeies like that, everyone is a newb at one point and time.

 

[Eliminat0r]

yea but this is liek super newb how can you even think its ok to drive a car with no power steering and all lights on. Hes gotta be joking and i give him a thumbs up he had everyone going for a minute or so. if your not joking maybe you should buy a dsm shop manual and read it front to abck before ever driving a dsm again. a haynes might work too

 

[BUCK]

super newb

We are breaking new ground here - another Thread that didn't start out well & turns out GREAT! Damn we're good!

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by Lordpaxin
Dont beat on this guy too much., shit happends.
...

weve all made stupid mistakes.
...
im sure the biggest part of us on here, have storeies like that, everyone is a newb at one point and time.

All of what you and other subsequent post say is true. It's difficult reading between the lines to see what intent was on his face. I've been had more than once and it make me gun shy at times. We give our time and rack our brains out of good will and as a stimulus for our own knowledge base. There are people who get pleasure out of watching you jump through hoops while they kick back with a smirk on their face thinking how powerful they are.
............

Rereading another of his posts where he listed all the mods it is now obvious he was reading from a list. I still take difficulty that when bells and whistles go off he didn't lift the hood to inspect. I also would have thought the steam coming from all parts up front would have been a pretty good awakening that something was wrong even if he didn't believe all the warning lights.

Cheers,
GTM

 

[2gBlkGST]

Originally posted by Lordpaxin
Dont beat on this guy too much., shit happends. you learn, and you go on. It was very possble for somone to know whats under the hood, but have no idea about the workings of it, mabye the guy that sold him the car, had the mods wrote down ?

What mods you guys talking about? This thing is stock, as it says in my original post.

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by 2gBlkGST
What mods you guys talking about? This thing is stock, as it says in my original post.

Wasn't it you who posted in another thread:

"good buy? what you think? I came to terms on a price today with this guy"
..................

What's the status of the car now?

Cheers,
GTM

 

[COOLER]

mine did that when my alternator went bad and my batery died! check your alternator!

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by COOLER
mine did that when my alternator went bad and my batery died! check your alternator!

Cooler, just to get you in gear here. Think about all the symptoms he gave us. You are right in thinking the alternator, the battery would die after a while from the fans running and the other electrical draws.

But but but, the light bulb was he lost power steering and a non charging alt. won't have any influence on the steering unless the belt is broken. The heater was the clue it had lost coolant.

What you don't want to do when making a diagnosis is to send someone off in a wrong direction for it wastes time and money. My point is trying to show you how to fit all the pieces together when you don't have the car to look at.

Cheers,
GTM

 

[Lordpaxin]

When my Harmonic Damper Ate shit and died,
I lost steering, and all my lights came on.
but when it went, i shut the bi*** down, towed it home, got apart, fixed it , then started it.

when someting happends, i usually spend 2 weeks on tuners talking about it, before I try to fix it, haha
a 1 day job takes me 2 weeks.

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by Lordpaxin
When my Harmonic Damper Ate shit and died,
I lost steering, and all my lights came on.
...
when someting happends, i usually spend 2 weeks on tuners talking about it, before I try to fix it, haha
a 1 day job takes me 2 weeks.

Hey, I'm older than you, it's called the GTM factor.

Did we forget to mention the harmonic balancer as another possibility??

............................

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=708705#post708705

I still not convinced this guy is playing straight arrow with us. He insists the car is stock yet the above post lists turbo, 550 injectors, bla bal bla. Unless I see something to convince me he's being honest I'm not going to believe anything he says nor when he has a problem will I waste my time. Frankly anyone that would pay $11,500 is probably smoking something funny. Someone prove me wrong and I'll fall on my proverbial sword.

Cheers,
GTM

 

[2gBlkGST]

No I have a stock one, my friend wanted to buy taht one, thats why i was asking. But that 11.500 for that is a good deal i tink. Freash built up 6 bolt. and all fresh everything. but the car is getting checked tomorrow

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by 2gBlkGST
No I have a stock one, my friend wanted to buy taht one, thats why i was asking. But that 11.500 for that is a good deal i tink. Freash built up 6 bolt. and all fresh everything. but the car is getting checked tomorrow

Ahhhhh, would have helped if we knew they were 2 different cars. My opinion is that is NOT a good deal, it's several thousand too much.

Where and how is the car going to get checked? You can't ... read my lips do _not_ drive if that main alternator belt is missing or broken!!

Good luck,
GTM

 

[2gBlkGST]

no i wasnt drivin it since my first post, left it in a parking lot at a shop, but just told them to look at it yesterday...it was just the alternator belt. Everything is fine now. But as far as that one that my friend might be gettin:

you think that 11.500 is too much, the guy has $10,000 in reciepts, all done at one time, and he has driven it 80 miles since it all got finished, full setup, with built up 6 bolt block, everythings fresh. But doesnt matter.

im glad myne wasnt anything to serious, with just that belt.

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by 2gBlkGST
no i wasnt drivin it since my first post, left it in a parking lot at a shop, but just told them to look at it yesterday...it was just the alternator belt. Everything is fine now.
...
you think that 11.500 is too much, the guy has $10,000 in reciepts, all done at one time, and he has driven it 80 miles since it all got finished, full setup, with built up 6 bolt block, everythings fresh. But doesnt matter.
im glad myne wasnt anything to serious, with just that belt.

Phew, had us worried you had toasted the engine and were going to be out $$$$. Hooray you got wheels again, must be a good feeling!
..................

Buying used cars involves an awful lot of things to consider.

These are some of the questions which need to be asked and answered by the people involved. We are not talking a small investment that imposed a bit of hardship on a pay check or so, this is a high dollar purchase. It can't be financed by a bank under a normal loan for they won't touch a car that has been modified. They know it's a bad investmet for cars that are modified are frequently driven too hard and crashed, impounded for speed exibitions etc. and they loose their money because the owner defaults on the loan.

You need to ask why is the person selling it after spending all that money for it's a poor investment.

I could gather up a bunch of receipts and wave them around but do you really know if they all went into the car.

What's the competency level of the guy that built it.

As another poster mentioned most people buy an unmodified car and then make the changes _they_ want or as the pocketbook can afford.

I don't follow what cars are selling for but this seems to be pretty pricy.

My personal evaluation, I never buy or would buy a modified car. Reason, the previous owner was too interested in speed. Modded cars that are owned by drivers who go looking for people to street race will drive them hard frequently to excess. They get trashed and thrashed, wrecked and fixed. There is something always needing fixing, and you don't know the skill levels of who did the repairs. Parts are stress to the max thus dependability is lost to speed. If you need transportation this is not the car to own. Was the car totaled and a salvage recovery, what was the history.

If it's only meant as a fun car and you don't mind it spending half it's life in the shop fixing it and the initial price is reasonable then maybe it makes sense. This are personal choices. I've never been that type of person, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy a spirited drive in the right car at the right time in the right place. When you get older and have the family in the car you don't do reckless things. I enjoy keeping my driving skills up and testing the limits within reason.

Your friend doesn't want to impulse... or got the hots purchase, there will be other cars and this guy may be dreaming if he thinks he's going to recover all the money he's invested. This is just an opinion and not meant to insult anyone's choice of cars or how they conduct their life.

Cheers,
GTM