Friggin car broke down...

[Jersey]

so i was driving down the gardner...normal speeds....120 ish

i get off at my exit, and i turn down the tunes and i hear an awful noise...kinda sounds like im dragging something or something is rubbing against my tires....the noise seemed to vary with speed....so i make the left onto lakeshore from parklawn rd and i stop right on the corner and check out my car to see what the hell is happening...i come to a complete stop and the car is still making the awful noise....so im thinking ****...im not draging anything...its something in the engine....

so i turn off the engine quickly and pop the hood...take a look around the engine bay....everything looks normal....check the belts. and what i can see everything looks aight...

so i hop back in the car....start it up...and the noise is still there...im only like 1km away from my house so i decide to get my ass home....pull out onto lakeshore and start to drive....the noise stops....i look in the rear view but didnt see anything drop out or anything....

about 300 m down the road my battery light comes on....and the engine temp is slowly starting to rise past normal...im on my street and home is in sight.....try to make the turn into my street and SHITTER....no power steering...gonzo....

get into my parking spot and pop open the hood....steam everywhere and my radiator is dumping coolant all over the ground....

its pretty dark so i cant see if there is a hose broken or its the actual radiator....but im ****in pissed....my guess is i broke a belt, that turns the alternator (why the battery light came on), coolant pump (why i was overheating) and I must have bust a line with all the pressure from the coolant over heating...but that is just my guess....im pissed!!!!

any input? sympathy welcome.... :crying:

[condition]

omg....thats bad to hear man.....do u still have warrenty on the engine?

[BlueSky]

oh man... that's bad...
i don't know what's the problem... but I feel for ya~ :angry:

[Jersey]

omg....thats bad to hear man.....do u still have warrenty on the engine?


nope out of warrenty....ill be gettin a tow to cross ave on monday

[dieselgrl]

I'm so sorry to hear bout that...what a rough night. :( I hope you'll have better luck finding out the problem in the morning. It's lucky you made it home...instead of being abandoned on a road somewhere.

[STALKER]

tough break bros, hope all works out well and its not to much $$$ of a fix. Good luck.

[laziemofo]

crap that sucks man!!!

[Regin8r]

I got's no input, but I'll give you lots of sympathy!

[yansha]

it sounds you have a broken belt.

[ianS]

Feel very sorry about that... :crying: that's why I willing to shell out $3500 for 4yr extended warranty.

[Chopper]

Sorry man. Hope it's just a broken belt and nothing more serious...let us know what happened. :(

[Jersey]

thanks guys...im gonna take a closer look at it today...but i think eric and ed are on the right track with a main serpentine belt being gone....lets hope so...its the only thing i can think of that would cause multiple faults like it did

[vm-323Ci]

Hey Jersey,

Sorry to hear about that.

Similar thing happened to me in Dec 2002. Don't remember any noise but my alternator light went on and lost power steering. It was diagnosed as a seized water pump which threw and cut the belts hence the alternator light and lost power steering. That will also explain the spilt rad fluid.

Luckily I was still under warranty so it was fixed at no charge. The dealership has a set charge for water pump (278 I think and the belts are 30 or 60 (depending on which one is cut). If you need any other info pm me.

[christyles]

Looks like it was really looking for a replacement. You might be getting that m3 sooner than you thought. ;)

[Golden]

hey alun,

that sucks man

i imagine BMW makes their cars so they start to fall apart right after the warranty is done...

i think your only solution is a m5 engine transplant... or maybe m3..

[ambasah]

is your car on 01?

they did a recall for faulty fan belts. that could be your problem...

[thebigsadler]

thanks guys...im gonna take a closer look at it today...but i think eric and ed are on the right track with a main serpentine belt being gone....lets hope so...its the only thing i can think of that would cause multiple faults like it did
and jason......

best of luck getting it fixed. water pump could be a little pricey, but then again so can belt installation if it has to be done via bmw. i kept telling my mom that it wasn't my fault the maxima was always breaking, cars do breakdown sometimes.

could have been a lot worse, let me know how things turn out.

[christyles]

i imagine BMW makes their cars so they start to fall apart right after the warranty is done...


Golden, it's Murphy's law. :p everything is produced, tested then distributed. Manufactureres already know how long something will last based on average stats, then work their "Warranty numbers" around that. And yes...meant to break after the warranty. All precalculated of course.

That's the way I figure it. :Idunno:

[two-timer]

and jason......

best of luck getting it fixed. water pump could be a little pricey, but then again so can belt installation if it has to be done via bmw. i kept telling my mom that it wasn't my fault the maxima was always breaking, cars do breakdown sometimes.

could have been a lot worse, let me know how things turn out.

try driving a Sentra...comes with a nice sound system complete with post-60000 km cracking ability, among many others

[Chopper]

Golden, it's Murphy's law. :p everything is produced, tested then distributed. Manufactureres already know how long something will last based on average stats, then work their "Warranty numbers" around that. And yes...meant to break after the warranty. All precalculated of course.

That's the way I figure it. :Idunno:


All manufac. wants to give the best/longest warranty possible without losing significant money as warranties brings in customers. That's why they calculate when the major problems will occur and make their costs calculations based on that. That's why it seems that things break down once the warranty runs out. On average, your right!! :thumbsdow

[Magnus]

damn .. that really sucks .... i hope everything works out for you