Riddle me this car geniuses

[41magsnub]

PTK, his GF, and I drove in my 1999 Toyota Avalon to the boomershoot Saturday.  I nailed a rock on the highway, due to my own idiocy being too close behind a truck that cleared it not leaving enough time to react..  I'm already pissed enough at myself so lets just move past that shall we?

We looked underneath and didn't see any damage or leaks so we drove on, car did just fine another 45 or so miles.  At the shoot we checked it again and the car was whining and we watched..  both of us..  the belt with the alternator, water pump, and AC stop and all the flywheels stopped as well.  This happened a couple of times.  I shut the car off.  A few minutes later I wanted to see it again and the car would not start, dead battery.

Our theory was that the rock nailed the water pump which was intermittently seizing stopping the AC and the Alternator resulting in a low charge in the battery when we got there.  Thinking that further running of the engine would be bad, I had it towed all 175 miles back to Missoula for bucko $$$

Flash forward to tonight, knowing that the battery was old (though it tested out just fine in all respects 6 months ago) I replaced it since it had to be about time and draining it that far is bad for them.  I started the car off of this new battery and, praise Cthulu in all his dark glory, it was healed!  It runs perfectly, I watched it run for 20 minutes without a hiccup, shut it off...  started it again..  same thing.   The idiot light did not come on after the rock it or now, it does not have a voltage gauge.

So... what the crap is the deal with my car  

[CNYCacher]

At the least, your belt is shot, so you need to change that.

While you are changing it, spin each wheel to determine which of them might be seizing.

Don't rule out power steering pump.  The steering rack is usually down low.

[Bogie]

Whining sounds like power steering - how is the fluid level?

[Jim147]

I would pull the belt. And try to check all the pulleys. The hard part is it may be hard to tell until the bearing get's so hot you can't touch it to check.

I've had a water pump lockup on me once. I have had an A/C compressor lock up twice and an idler pulley once.

The water pump was the only one that gave a little warning but I couldn't tell what it was until the pulley and belt came flying off going down the highway.

The rock thing does leave the possibility of something getting up behind one of the pulleys and causing an intermittent problem.

jim

[Boomhauer]

I've had a water pump lockup on me once. I have had an A/C compressor lock up twice and an idler pulley once.

The screeching noise that results from this is hair raising...

Had the AC compressor lock up on me once, too. I seriously thought the engine was disassembling itself. Managed to get off the road quick, as I thought something was on fire. Popped the hood, jumped out with the fire extinguisher...fortunatly no fire...

 

[41magsnub]

Different rigs, but I have been through AC lock ups twice and they were a lot more dramatic than what was happening here involving shredded belts and fire.  When it was happening to this car it was a relatively slight rubbing or whining.

Power steering makes some sense...  a loose ground wire makes some sense except for the belt stopping thing.  I'll get it up on jack stands this weekend and look for specific damage.

[Brad Johnson]

Pull the belt and hand-turn all pulleys/accessories to check for problems.

Brad

[RoadKingLarry]

A few months ago I had the water pump start to fail in my '92 Cherokee. Hidieous squealing noises and the smell of smoked serpentine belt whenever the A/C compressor would kick in (defroster mode).

I made the assumption that the A/C comp. was toast so I bought a bypass pully. I movd the comp out of the way with out dsconnecting all the freon hoses and mounted the bypass rig. When I went to install the new belt I found the water pump pully was as floppy as Pam Anderson's ******, It had even managed to cut a groove into the body of the pump almost into the water passage. The surprising thing was that it wasn't leaking a drop of coolant.

It is possible your problem is unrelated to hitting the rock.

[Tallpine]

It is possible your problem is unrelated to hitting the rock.

Yeah, I've had that old "two separate problems at the same time" routine several times. 

[280plus]

Geez, I hate that. I was just working on a freezer and the very last time I checked it before I left the damn bulb inside blew. 

[Tallpine]

I had a timing gear go out on an old pickup, and by the time I finally got it fixed, the head gasket blew out.

[PTK]

Ah, yes, now that I think of it, on an Avalon the power steering pump/water pump/alternator/etc. are all on the same belt, indeed... do replace the belt, at least. I still feel awful that this happened, we kept distracting you with conversations. :(

[Brad Johnson]

Ah, yes, now that I think of it, on an Avalon the power steering pump/water pump/alternator/etc. are all on the same belt, indeed... do replace the belt, at least. I still feel awful that this happened, we kept distracting you with conversations. :(

Belt on that Avalon is a teensy bit more of a PITA to change than the one on the Vic, ain't it. 

Brad

[PTK]

Indeed... I wish I were in Missoula to help 41magsnub out, too, but I'm not.

[41magsnub]

It's cool, my Dad, expert in all things hands on, is coming over this weekend to visit and I'll put him to work helping me!.

[PTK]

Ask him to bring that welder over too, if he's ok with parting with the 110V one for a bit (or for good, with cash to replace it) - I could REALLY use it for the machining project for you.

[41magsnub]

I'm still confused but I threw a bunch of parts at my car and it seems ok!

I replaced the waterpump, coolant, all the belts, and the thermostat (since I was already in there and had it drained).  Everything seems fine, ran the car for 30 minutes with a multimeter on the battery and while running it kicked the voltage up to 14.4 and stayed there.  Amperage was perfect too.  No bad noises.  When I got underneath it I did not see any way a rock could have gotten the water pump but still don't feel bad about replacing it since the car is just short of 90K miles.  All of the belts were pristine.  I drove it around for a while Sunday and it performed perfectly.

I'm wondering if what we saw was the AC disengaging for a second and kicking back on.  That does not explain the noise we heard though.  Then we had a cooincidental problem where the battery really was fried.

The only damage I see underneath was one of the tow hooks in front took a hit from something big and there is a nice dent in the exhaust, but not bad enough to care about.  My current weak theory is that the rock nailed the tow hook, which would explain why it shattered so dramatically, and a fragment got up near one of the flywheels.

The car is not going on the highway for at least a month, I want to keep it in town and drive it so hopefully if there is something still wrong it will crop up in a convienient place.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

The car is not going on the highway for at least a month, I want to keep it in town and drive it so hopefully if there is something still wrong it will crop up in a convienient place.


thats whats wrong with you young fellers  no sense of adventure 

[41magsnub]

The car is not going on the highway for at least a month, I want to keep it in town and drive it so hopefully if there is something still wrong it will crop up in a convienient place.


thats whats wrong with you young fellers  no sense of adventure 

I spent my sense of adventure on the $500 tow bill!

[bedlamite]

I spent my sense of adventure on the $500 tow bill!

You do have a friend with a pickup, right? One of these, a tank of gas, and a 12 pack is a lot cheaper.

[41magsnub]

You do have a friend with a pickup, right? One of these, a tank of gas, and a 12 pack is a lot cheaper.

If I could have arranged it in time I would have done that, I have a pickup and just would have had to told a friend how to get into my house and where the spare key is.  The issue was we needed to get back that night and the catch a ride options all fell through.  My best buddy and usually the go to guy for this sort of thing was home alone with a fussy 6 month old.

[Tallpine]

You do have a friend with a pickup, right? One of these, a tank of gas, and a 12 pack is a lot cheaper.

We did that once.  Went with our Suburban and rescued our friends and their mini-van that quit on a camping trip.  One the way back, nine of us total and four dogs with the van full of camping gear behind us on the dolly, doing 70mph up the hills with the a/c on 

Probably the fastest that van had ever gone up that hill 

[KPT]

thats whats wrong with you young fellers  no sense of adventure

Hey now I'm young (28 in 2 weeks). I rebuilt my transmission (first transmission I've ever rebuilt), drove the truck 15 miles home and then immediately left on a 3 hour trip.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

now we're talking! i went to allentown from pg county md in a 1970 vw camper . with my spare motoer in the back  installed it at 2 am in york on the way home

[Tallpine]

now we're talking! i went to allentown from pg county md in a 1970 vw camper . with my spare motoer in the back  installed it at 2 am in york on the way home

That's real adventure: traveling in a VW with only one spare motor