belt and steering wheel help

two of my belts weren't moving including the one connected to the alternator, the only one running was the one way at the bottom, I was on the highway and on my way to switching to 2nd gear, i heard some metal falling off my engine, my battery light went on and i pulled over. At this point my steering wheel became extremely hard to turn. I turned off the car then restarted, thats when i realize the belts weren't moving, i cant believe i could still drive the car with only 1 belt moving, but i did. The belts were making horrible noise. After a while when i shifted to 4th gear, the belts made a loud noise and all of a sudden the two belts started moving again, and my steering wheel became easier to turn. My coolant became completely emptied and this morning it was full, i dont think a full tank of coolant drained that much in one day *sigh* my steering wheel is a little better now but makes a loud noise when i turned it half way, this hasn't happened before, only after the incident. Anybody know what happened?? plz help, thanks in advance *sigh* oh and i have a 1994 corolla dx

Your power steering pump went, making it hard to turn, and if it is slightly easier to turn now, but still harder then normal, I would be willing to bet that it is on it's way out.

Your power steering pump went, making it hard to turn, and if it is slightly easier to turn now, but still harder then normal, I would be willing to bet that it is on it's way out.

I don't think you're looking far enough into the problem. While yes a bad power steering pump will cause harder steering, theres other accesories on the belt system that could have caused it to freeze.


I've never heard the desription of "metal falling off of the engine" . I'm trying to imagine that sound but can't seem to understand it.
Power steering is an accesory. In most situations a car manufacturer will put 1 belt on accesories and two belts and critical items. Usually since everything is driven off of the crank pulley, the only item to get two belts is the water pump. I tried researching your pulley configuration to confirm this but came up empty handed. My guess is that there is a pulley siezing up somewhere, whether its on an accesory, the water pump, or just a tensioner. I would think the coolant situation would be backwards. Normally the belt would stop spinning, causing the coolant to be stagnant, and heat up rapidly. It would boil causing itself to fill up/over flow the resevoir tank. Once so much of it left, the system would then try to vaccum some of it back in, putting the resevoir back to normal, if not a low level. In this sense, I am confused on your situation I would suggest running the car up to a local mechanic and have them take a quick look at it.

*Sigh* thanks for the replies guys, right now my steering wheel is more easy to turn now than before, is this strange? it feels like its sliping or something because it turns too smooth and easy, not like before, i have a bad feeling about this, i still dont know whats going on with my car. The metal falling part, sorry for my bad explanation, but when it happened it sounded like a bunch of bolts fell off, which probably did.

My belts sounds so horrible now, this morning i started the engine and the belts made REALLY LOUD noise for like a minute or so, and then sounded normal, this is the first time it's like this.

My clutch doesn't feel the same as before in first gear, it rumbles more when trying to "go" in first gear.

My coolant is draining faster than before, yesterday after my highway incident thing, my dad fill the coolant to the "full" level, and after an 1 hour drive, its almost half way out, im thinking i have a leak somewhere or something else is draining my coolant way faster than before.

I took it to the mechanic the same day it happened and he says the belts are fine....he didn't take them apart and examined them carefully, but he said they are running just fine. He said maybe it was the AC pump that locked for a minute, then suddenly started up again, or something like that..

Other than those listed above, my car seems to be running ok as for now...i just hope nothing happens for the next month or untill i find a job, i'll take it to the mechanic again once i find a job *sigh*

Any other ideas on what happened to my car would be greatly appreciated.

update: my belts make a loud noise every time i start my car

my guess is that the bearing on the water pump failed and is leaking and binding up the accessory belt.

thanks a lot drdisque, i'll check the water pump, i owe you one

hmm...mechanic checked the water pump and said it was ok? hmm....same problems, but this time my car idle more than normal, when i turn on the car, the belts make a horrible loud noise and the idle is higher than normal, sometimes 1500 rpms, then it slowly goes down to about 1000, after a while, the belts would stop with the noise.

I've tried spraying some belt stuff on, it works for a couple minutes, then after a while, the same problem occurs, i dont know whats wrong.

my coolant is still draining faster than normal, mechanic said there is no leak, and he couldn't explain why my coolant was draining faster than normal, hmmm....

Any ideas on what happened to my car would be greatly appreciated, thank u

Sounds like you need to find a new mechanic. A good one would have taken the belts off and tried to turn each accessory by hand to see if it was binding, includind all the idler and tensioner pulleys. You can do this yourself. There has to be something that is binding or the belt is worn and stretched. As far as the coolant problem, if it;s not leaking, it has to be leaking into the combustion chamber via a blown head gasket, but if this were the case you would gets lots of white smoke out the exhaust. I suggest that you start the car up and inspect everything with a flashlight for a coolant leak.

Sounds like you need to find a new mechanic. A good one would have taken the belts off and tried to turn each accessory by hand to see if it was binding, includind all the idler and tensioner pulleys. You can do this yourself. There has to be something that is binding or the belt is worn and stretched. As far as the coolant problem, if it;s not leaking, it has to be gettinginto the combustion chamber via a blown head gasket, but if this were the case you would gets lots of white smoke out the exhaust. I suggest that you start the car up and inspect everything with a flashlight for a coolant leak.