i was on my way to the woman'* house when all of a sudden my serpetine belt broke. i could not pull over until about a minute and a half later. by that time the temp gauge was SPIKED and the car was sputtering like crazy, and the overflow bottle was full up... could i have really done some major damage???

which belt was it the */C and WP or the alt, power steering, crank, etc. Im guessing that is was the */C and WP belt since the temp gague went up

I'm not sure how major the damage may be but, at least the engine didn't get to th epoint where it turned off due to incredible heat! (is this called vapor lock or am i mistaken). After you pulled over i assume you let it cool off for a few hours (or days while you went and got the new belt) Anyway if you got it up and running with a new belt you are probably ok... anyone else?

mike diaz

very possible

Temp gauge spiked? To WHAT? Need to know what temp it reached. You may also have damaged something when that SC belt went whipping around. I lost my Accessory belt at Woodburn dragstrip, and it ripped out a connector for my RF wheelspeed sensor. Inspect carefully.

I always carry my old belts and a 15mm wrench for this very reason.

spiked to 280 for about 30 seconds. it was the accessory belt, and after initial inspection, didnt do any visual damage(it was dark). the car is sitting at the pontiac dealer now until tomorrow when they re-open. im prepared for another sleepless night...

I'm thinking it couldn't be the accessory belt. It has no effect on the WP. The WP is driven by the SC belt.

The only thing you lose with the accessory belt is PS and Alt.

wow that really sucks. I hope there'* no immediate damage

I did lose power steering and brakes. I checked the */c belt and it was nice and snug . I could peel the broken belt off of the alternator pully. Seemed like the tensioner locked up, because the location of teh shreaded part of the belt was right in the tensioner area. I may go and take a few pics in a bit.

we want pics