Battery light and overheating

[TetonLC]

For my latest missadventure, yesterday I was on some old logging roads outside of Smoky Mountains National Park doing some work for a magazine when I started to hear a loud but low whine associated with rpm. I started to head down the mountain and my battery light kicked on and voltage dropped - very much like a bad altenator. Within a minute all the other lights kicked on, I lost head lights, but maintained brakes and steering (unlike my suburban when altenator went out while descending a pass).

I pulled the cruiser into a parking lot and left it running for a minute. The heat went up and all the coolent dumped on the ground.

As usual, I'm many hundreds of miles from home when this happens and held up in a hotel on the Cherokee reservation till I can get this worked out.

Any thoughts?

 

[PADDO]

Sounds like your water pump took a dump and that chewed out the serpentine belt too.

 

[TXLX100]

The water pump rides on the timing belt.
Def sounds like a bad alternator, and maybe a thermostat. Is it leaking out the resevoir or somewhere else?

Or maybe it just got hot while you where driving down. I'd put a new alternator and belt on it and see if it gets hot again.

 

[PADDO]

The water pump rides on the timing belt.
Def sounds like a bad alternator, and maybe a thermostat. Is it leaking out the resevoir or somewhere else?

Or maybe it just got hot while you where driving down. I'd put a new alternator and belt on it and see if it gets hot again.

Yes it does, disregard my previous. Thinking of something else entirely!

 

[onpoint01]

Can you verify that your serpentine belt is still connected? The water pump doesn't ride on the timing belt rather the water pump is mounted over the timing belt. If the serp belt is connected, I'd be curious to know if there is any tension on the serp belt?

 

[CreeperSleeper]

X2. Sounds like you lost your serpentine belt.

 

[Ermagerd]

Are you saying you kept power steering and lost both alternator and water pump functions? That doesn't make sense to me when the pump takes more force to maintain pressure than the alternator or water pump would, meaning a failed belt would make all of them go out unless you were misfortunate enough to have the alt and wp seize at the same time.

 

[TXLX100]

Can you verify that your serpentine belt is still connected? The water pump doesn't ride on the timing belt rather the water pump is mounted over the timing belt. If the serp belt is connected, I'd be curious to know if there is any tension on the serp belt?

I thought the timing belt spun the water pump? Is it just mounted behind the belt and the serp spins it? I'm pretty sure the timing belt spins the WP. So u could have the serp belt break and maintain cooling, but lose all other accessory systems.

If the serp spins it, then might just need a new alternator and belt.

 

[onpoint01]

Doesn't appear WP is connected to Timing Belt.

 

[2001LC]

Make sure to check your tension and idler pulleys. NAPA has bearing for tension pulley for ~$5.00 but not idler. Of course tensioner must give proper tension also.

 

[2001LC]

View attachment 1072893

Doesn't appear WP is connected to Timing Belt.

This does not look the 100 engine. Correction it doesn't look like water pump, it's the fan bracket. Make sure to check it as well. Water pump runs off TB belt, not serpentine aka generator belt aka drive belt.

 

[onpoint01]

So your saying the cooling fan is not attached to the waterpump? Serpentine belt drives fan which I sure thought was the WP.

 

[onpoint01]

This does not look the 100 engine. Correction it doesn't look like water pump, it's the fan bracket. Make sure to check it as well. Water pump runs off TB belt, not serpentine aka generator belt aka drive belt.

And that pick is straight out of the 2001 FMS.

 

[onpoint01]

This does not look the 100 engine. Correction it doesn't look like water pump, it's the fan bracket. Make sure to check it as well. Water pump runs off TB belt, not serpentine aka generator belt aka drive belt.

Your correct that is not the WP and the fan bracket like you indicated. Sorry, been wrong once before.

 

[TetonLC]

Are you saying you kept power steering and lost both alternator and water pump functions? That doesn't make sense to me when the pump takes more force to maintain pressure than the alternator or water pump would, meaning a failed belt would make all of them go out unless you were misfortunate enough to have the alt and wp seize at the same time.

Yes, I kept steering and brakes. Blew my mind! And truth be told, given the road, I'm probably alive because of it. I remember trying to bring my suburban under control when this happened and it was a pretty scary situation on a considerably milder road.

 

[TetonLC]

OK so here is the current update. . .

I had the LC towed to a shop in Sylva NC. They tested both the altenator and battery - both were fine! huh?

Their official ruling is that the thermostat housing went out, causing the water pump to blow water onto the serp belt. This in turn caused the alternator to malfunction and the battery to die.

They said that the belt was fine but I asked them to replace that along with the thermostat housing, o-ring that connects to water pump, and the thermostat for good measure since they are already in there.

The battery was completely dead. I couldn't even put it into neutral this morning to have it loaded up on the flat bed.

Does any of this make since?

 

[2001LC]

No worries, in older engine most all water pump where turned by fan belt aka serpentine belt.

In the 100: If serpentine belt broke due to age or had one or more bearings go bad or became lose due to weak tensioner. Well this may cause malfunction like broken or slippage of belt. This would hinder: alternator, cooling fan, power steering and air conditioner.

Note: Water pumps usually give warning before complete failure. That is they leak and get noisy. Leak can be seen at weep hole just below and behind harmonic balancer (large pulley at bottom of engine) IIRC the 100 has this weep hole. The exception is if run dry (low coolant), which water pump will then fail very fast.

 

[TetonLC]

No worries, in older engine most all water pump where turned by fan belt aka serpentine belt.

In the 100: If serpentine belt broke due to age or had one or more bearings go bad or became lose due to weak tensioner. Well this may cause malfunction like broken or slippage of belt. This would hinder: alternator, cooling fan, power steering and air conditioner.

Note: Water pumps usually give warning before complete failure. That is they leak and get noisy. Leak can be seen at weep hole just below and behind harmonic balancer (large pulley at bottom of engine) IIRC the 100 has this weep hole. The exception is if run dry (low coolant), which water pump will then fail very fast.

What sort of noise does the pump make if it's going bad?

 

[2001LC]

What sort of noise does the pump make if it's going bad?

Like any bearing or bushing they get nosy (whinny or chirping sound most common). If battery dead, but it & alternator good; either was not installed with grease on battery connection which is common mistake. Or belt was slipping for some time. It would take more than a few minutes to run down a good battery.

 

[TetonLC]

Like any bearing or bushing they get nosy (whinny or chirping sound most common). If battery dead, but it & alternator good; either was not installed with grease on battery connection which is common mistake. Or belt was slipping for some time. It would take more than a few minutes to run down a good battery.

When I pick up the vehicle tomorrow, I will be heading right back up into the mountains again for several more days. Though they are replacing the serpentine belt and any problems directly associated should be picked up on, a greased battery connection is probably not on the radar.