how do you put belts on?

[Phyrestorm]

Weird problem and story... I was driving on the highway about 80mph and boom lose power steering, lights dimmed, message Check Charge System, and then my car overheated insanely hitting 280 degrees. I immediately pull over and pop the hood and my BELT came off?! A bunch of black grease or black substance is everywhere on my alternator and near my belts, my supercharge belt didn't come off and my main belt is intact and looks fine but was all greasy and seemed like the greased made it slip off...

My question is, does anyone know what might have happened? and can anyone help me out and show me how the belts come off and on? I know how somewhat but can I just do it with just the hood popped up or would I have do more?

[lash]

Here's the belt path diagram:



And here's instruction diagram:



Before you put that belt back on, you had better figure out what caused the grease explosion. My guess would be that somehow you developed a major leak in your supercharger casing, since the location would lend itself to grease/oil getting all over your alternator. IMO, that is your real problem.

Clean up the top of your engine really well and try to see if there is any obvious place where that oil came from.

[Phyrestorm]

Thanks for the diagram!

I checked all my fluids and all seem to be fine. It's a really thick black grease and doesn't smell like engine oil at all and I checked my engine oil seems to be fine, but totally agree I definitely need to find out what ruptured and sprayed it all over, it's all over the bottom of my engine near the belts and pulley area especially all over where i put my powersteering fluid in.

Could it be the CV AXLE ruptured on my passenger side?

[tan96ssei]

yes the ruptured CV boot is a possibility but i have experienced a thick greasy mess on my pulleys and it end up being the snout seal on my supercharger. although mine was a slow leaker if the lock spring breaks it could lead to a "explosion" of grease.

easy way to check is check against gravity. i know sounds stupid but its true the S/C is the highest belt driven oil filled part on your car and when the snout seal leaks you will have the sticky grease like stuff and noticeablly have a trajectory towards your intake. this due to it spraying out towards the pulley and the pulley reflecting it back up the snout towards your intake. at least that is what i experienced. i also noticed that the cruddy build up gathered on my pulleys and belts. another logical place for a leak is the coolant elbow and some antifreeze specially dexcool (orange colored) tends to solidify in high temps and it gets sticky also having a "sweet" smell.

i recommend checking your S/C oil seeing as how you checked the rest of your fluids. its a 3/8 allen head i believe on the front side of your snout close to the center of the S/C

oh on a side note you might be looking to get that performance pack quicker than you think; as you will need to take the pulley off to access the snout seal.

[Phyrestorm]

Well it's confirmed it seems to be coolant all over around the pulley area and deeper, overfill tank is near empty however my radiator is full of coolant still is that odd or normal?

I took my belts off and the accessory belt had some coolant really concentrated in certain areas within the ribs...

I've taken the opportunity to take pictures of it and if anyone cares to take a look and see what they think it would be?

http://www.hv-network.org/carproblem/

[Archon]

Check the coolant elbow from the LIM, and check the water pump.

[tan96ssei]

Check the coolant elbow from the LIM, and check the water pump.

on top of what archon mentioned i would also check the two hoses closer to the firewall that go into the tensioner assembly (two hoses above the power steering and just behind and below the alternator) those hoses are the supply and return to and from the heater core check those hoses from firewall to the motor

[Phyrestorm]

Time to get my hands dirty this early morning... Luckily I have today and tomorrow off from work so I hope I can work on her all day, I'll check out the hoses and see what's up.

Are these places easy to get too or would I have to start dismantling a few things to get to them?

[tan96ssei]

these aren't to difficult to spot they are about the diameter of a quarter maybe a bit bigger. as for they elbow thats directly under your supercharger snout it goes into the motor through the lower intake manifold. water pump is the large smooth pulley right underneath the supercharger pulley

[Phyrestorm]

I think I was able to find the hose that is causing the spraying of coolant I hope, what is the hose in these pictures? In particular the 3rd picture, it seems to have coolant pooled in it and how the area is sprayed might be spraying upwards towards the pulleys, onto the belts, etc...

The hose that connects from metal to rubber.. Would this be the coolant elbow?


It's located behind the pulley and under the powersteering reservoir.

[Archon]

It's hard to tell for sure, with the angle, but it appears to be the high pressure hose for the power steering. If it appears to be in that area, check the lower elbow from the tensioner. You can see that to the right in your second picture. Have you looked for a leak with the engine warmed up and running?

[Phyrestorm]

When I start the car it makes an awfully loud noise and it's hard to describe maybe a intermittent suction noise, would be the best description.

I plan on just doing all the hoses to prevent any further failures, coolant elbow and all, since my ride is pushing 125k+ im pretty sure it would be a good idea right?

Any idea what parts will I need, where to get them, and how much it might run me? NAPA? Carquest? AutoZone?

[Archon]

Have you done the LIM gaskets, yet? If you're doing some preventative maintenance, you may as well add that job to the list. Also, check the water pump for any play, and try to observe under it with a mirror to see if you may have a leak there.

The elbows are carried at Autozone, and some Advance Auto parts stores in the "Help" cards section. I don't know if NAPA carries them or not. Most hoses should be available at NAPA. The inlet/outlet tubes from the tensioner wouldn't need to be replaced...just the O rings.

[tan96ssei]

ok if it appears to be the high pressure line on the power steering pump then i would check the fluid on your power steering the dipstick is on the cap with a range between hot and cold. check that and get back to us and if it is low that can explain your vacuum/ humming noise. when low on power steering fluid your pump will whine and moan while making turnsand your steering will be tough at low speeds

[Phyrestorm]

Wow, forgot to reply and say it ended up being the Water Pump. There was a lot of play on the water pump pulley, bought a new one from Autozone for $40 had to take off 2 pulleys and then replace the water pump, going to do a coolant flush when i can get around it.

Water Pump stopped working and the coolant bursted out of the seep hole spraying everywhere and onto the accessory belt causing it to come off, time to clean up the engine bay :(

Thanks Archon and everyone else for the assistance!

[Archon]

Good job on getting it taken care of.