Drive Belt or Water Pump?

[Secondtyme]

Here is my situation, in brief. Went to go to work yesterday, car started up fine, normal idle, no warning lights. cracked the sunroof, put the car into Reverse. As soon as I got into R, the car lurched very heavily, which it has never done. Started to back down the driveway, no power steering! Looked at the dash and now i have the EPS, Brake, and Battery warning lights on. Put her back in drive and pulled back into my previous position in the driveway, put the car in Park and shut it off. Waited about ten seconds re-started the engine, warning lights still on, still no power steering. Tried to close the sunroof and it wouldnt shut . Looked at the dash again, no CEL, tried to run a scan with the SGII anyway with no success. Shut her back off and took the old Subaru to work instead. On the way to work it occurs to me that my drive belt has been on the car at least 90K and the tensioner was marginal last time I looked at it (during last oil change three weeks ago) So I ASSUMED ( i know, i know) the culprit was a broken or worn drive belt and or tensioner and got replacements yesterday evening. When I arrived home yesterday evening i inspected the belt/tensioner and the belt LOOKS fine (again, i know) the tensioner is unquestionably shot, witness marks aren't even visible. That being said, I could smell coolant when I opened the hood, STRONGLY though the overflow is empty. I got in the car turned the key to on and the dash stayed clear of warning lights and I was able to close the sunroof (good because its raining like hell today ) What i need is an objective analysis of what I have here. The belt and tensioner are getting changed out tomorrow regardless, I'm just wondering if the water pump has s*** the bed as well. Any and all help is greatly appreciated! Current mileage is 202,890 BTW

 

[Davicho]

My opinion is a bad battery or alternator. The coolant smell is a very well known trait on our wagons. Even us the 2nd genners are not immune to it. On my previous 1st gen the coolant smell was always there but never a noticeable leak or low coolant level...who knows!!

 

[Secondtyme]

The alternator is a relatively recent replacement, about 25K or so ago, I'm pretty sure its OK. That battery is another story. It was run flat as a pancake WHEN the alternator died, recharged without issue, but it was once again deader than dead with this latest issue. I hadn't given the battery a seconds thought until you said that, now I realize its probably in need of attention. Odyssey battery here I come! Woot!! Oh, and replacing the drive belt goes a lot smoother when you don't chase your own ass with the belt routing BTW :/ I never knew about the coolant smell thing, I've never had it be so strong until this happened. I also never realized that the water pump is spun by the timing chain, not by the drive belt, which can be good or bad depending...

 

[Secondtyme]

And the winner of a chicken dinner for two is Davicho! Battery was so fried that as soon as i took it off the battery charger it wouldn't light the interior lights up, and they're LEDs :/ Oh well, back to VatoZone for a battery.... Incidentally the drive belt tensioner was absolutely shot, its no wonder the battery discharged. See what happens when you never change the X-gauges on your SGII? I had a nice clear charging amps gauge set up and haven't looked at it in six months Do-OH!

 

[Davicho]

Well, I am glad you figured it out. At least you got a new battery, belt and tensioner out of this mishap. Now get back to reaching 300K...LOL

 

[Secondtyme]

You bet, just as soon as I replace the alternator, which is also dead :/ Installed the new battery this morning, fired up the car and the charge warning light is on! I figure the tensioner allowed the alternator to slip, the slipping alternator allowed the old battery to discharge completely, and the old battery, once completely discharged wouldn't accept voltage, so the poor alternator got fried trying to charge up a defective vessel. The joy of driving a vehicle with a lot of miles...

 

[Davicho]

I'm curious to see your rig. You should post a picture up of her, to see how well or bad she wears 200k+ miles.

 

[Secondtyme]

I will try to take few photos soon. She is actually doing pretty well, the paint on the front end, that had been redone after a collision that occured with the PO is flaking (clear coat really) There are rust bubbles on the drivers side rear fender arch ONLY (WTF?) The slider door lock actuators don't work by remote anymore. Other than that she purrs like a kitten and has digested more than a thousand miles a week without complaint. If I weren't so busy I could keep up my preventative maintenance program and stuff like the bad belt/alternator/battery wouldn't happen...