pneumagger
Probationary Member
- 27
- 0
- Sep 13, 2009
-
St. Pete Beach,
Florida
1992 tsi awd, H/G and belt change only 1500mi ago, Mitsubishi & parts dinosaur belts.
Mobile 1 synthetic oil/filter and some Lucas oil stabilizer.
Driving home from the mall today & glanced down while waiting @ stop light. Zero oil pressure but no engine lights or oil lights. Engine temp normal, everything feels fine. I give it a little gas to see if the oil pressure just resting low because I'm idling @ a light. Nothing... oil gauge is dead zero. I often check my gauges when I'm stopped so it must've just happened in the last mile or so. Nevertheless, I pretty much stopped driving immediately. I pop the hood and check the oil. Golden and pretty full... on the top notch of the dipstick. Engine still has both balance shafts, so I'd definitely know if the oil pump (& rear bs) stopped spinning - I would be getting bad vibrations.
I caught a look @ some of the accessory belts and noticed the alternator belt was shredded and half was missing.
Not like half the belt was worn/shaved away... the belt split and shredded down the middle and half the belt fell off the pulleys (see pics).
I cut the broken loose half of the belt off to get it out of the engine and noticed it seemed to have taken some sort of wire harness with it (see pics).
The wire has a black sheath around it and appears to oly have one or two wires in it. I'm unsure if it's broken or simply disconnected.
The broken alt belt piece was a still complete loop, but I simply cut it to easily get it out of the pulleys. That's why it is cut in the pictures.
a) Why would an alternator belt fail like this? Nothing appears to be rubbing it.
b) I'm going to guess driving with half of a badly damaged belt is a no-go. ??
c) What is that little broken wire and connector?
d) Why is my oil pressure reading zero? The oil pump & timing belt appear to be OK.
Mobile 1 synthetic oil/filter and some Lucas oil stabilizer.
Driving home from the mall today & glanced down while waiting @ stop light. Zero oil pressure but no engine lights or oil lights. Engine temp normal, everything feels fine. I give it a little gas to see if the oil pressure just resting low because I'm idling @ a light. Nothing... oil gauge is dead zero. I often check my gauges when I'm stopped so it must've just happened in the last mile or so. Nevertheless, I pretty much stopped driving immediately. I pop the hood and check the oil. Golden and pretty full... on the top notch of the dipstick. Engine still has both balance shafts, so I'd definitely know if the oil pump (& rear bs) stopped spinning - I would be getting bad vibrations.
I caught a look @ some of the accessory belts and noticed the alternator belt was shredded and half was missing.
Not like half the belt was worn/shaved away... the belt split and shredded down the middle and half the belt fell off the pulleys (see pics).
I cut the broken loose half of the belt off to get it out of the engine and noticed it seemed to have taken some sort of wire harness with it (see pics).
The wire has a black sheath around it and appears to oly have one or two wires in it. I'm unsure if it's broken or simply disconnected.
The broken alt belt piece was a still complete loop, but I simply cut it to easily get it out of the pulleys. That's why it is cut in the pictures.
a) Why would an alternator belt fail like this? Nothing appears to be rubbing it.
b) I'm going to guess driving with half of a badly damaged belt is a no-go. ??
c) What is that little broken wire and connector?
d) Why is my oil pressure reading zero? The oil pump & timing belt appear to be OK.
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