Matsui

I have a 94 ls with ~250k miles.

Since yesterday, I noticed some funky sound coming from the exhaust system especially from underneath the front passenger side. So I drove it to work this morning with these symptoms hoping to get it checked out today. As i was reverse parking my car, it stopped and all the dash lights came on. Also, there was smoke coming from front of the car. I'm not sure if it was coming from underneath the car or from the front grill. There was also some bad burning smell with the smoke. Then I restarted it and pulled it back to park.

Now when i was ready to pull out my car, it started fine, but the steering wheel does not turn. My dash is dark when the car is cold, but one of the light that appears on the dash is red battery light. I'm not sure what other warning lights may be on. The car can move forward and in reverse, but it does not turn

Any idea why this is happening? I will probably have to call a towing truck and get it to the mechanic to check it out.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

sounds like a cross between mass electrical failure and a bad PS rack/pump

Matsui

I got the pump issue fixed @ ~130k miles. Do you think maybe there is a steering belt that broke?

Matsui

Ok, I opened the hood and saw that the serpentine belt broke. I replace the original one after 230k miles. Something must have gone wrong that caused it to break....I wonder what.

I'll be taking it to the mechanic soon. Let's see what he thinks went wrong.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

the belts arent made to last that many miles. something you should have had replaced over 100k miles ago...

Matsui

Yeah, I replaced the belt recently so it was almost good as new.

The mechanic said that the fan mount/bearing has to be replaced because it jammed up and caused the belt to break. The part itself is $320 from lexus.

Lexushead

The serpentine belt on my car is original according to all the previous owner's record and it still looks good. The car is currently at 255K miles. Should I replace it? What's the worst thing can happen if it breaks?

Matsui

Usuallly you will see cracks on the underneath side of the belt with after such a long period of performance. The belt goes through and turns a lot of pulleys in the engine including the fan and as I found out recently, the powersteering. It would be better to replace it than to run into a situation of breaking it. It took me about 45 minutes to replace it (i'm very new to this stuff, so it took longer than average. some can do it in less than 10 minutes).

Caoboy

iTrader: (2)

yeah i changed mine when i replaced my alternator. the belt is only a few bucks, you should change it if you see cracking on the teeth or worn edges. better to spend a little to save a lot!