pwirch

The truck ran fine in all the 7* weather we've been having these past few days and then this morning it's 3*. I'm wondering if the truck will start so I hit the remote start which watching from the window and sure enough it fires up. But here's the problem. When we got in after letting it idle for about 10 minutes, the Check Gauges light was on, the battery gauge wasn't reading anything, the enginge temp was up to about 200* but no heat would come out of the vents, the vents wouldn't change from one position to the other, the power steering didn't work, it felt like manual steering which was a bear, the brakes barely worked, I had to mash them just to get it to slow down in the driveway. Ahhhh!!! I got it over to the local auto shop and they are going to get it in and heat the whole thing up, check out my steering fluid, brake fluid, test the batteries and hope that it fixes the ventilation system. What a pain in the donkey!! Oh yeah .. all this was afer I realized too that I forgot to plug the house end of the plug back into the wall last night after unplugging it to work in the garage so the block heater wasn't plugged in.

Do you think this could all just be from the cold. It's 3* but with the wind chill (the lake is in our back yard) it's -21* F according to our electronic weather thing.

Totallyrad

Almost sounds like you lost your serpentine belt???

pwirch

Do you suppose it could have frozen and snapped? Something else that happened which would make me think it's not that is I shut the truck down, went in the house and called up the shop before bringing it down. When I went back out and started it back up the battery gauge went back up to 13 but then as soon as I started going down the road and picking up speed, it dropped back to 8 and the Check Gauge light came back on. I really hope it's nothing major, I just got the truck on Monday.

belgianmagic

What happens alot... small animals (chipmunks ,mice,cats... clime up in the motor for warmth...you turn the key they get caught up in the belt and it breaks...I have a farm and have had it happen 2 times...

pwirch

Well being on the lake we certainly have a lot of mice. Our puppy catches more of them in the house than the cat does.

Hopefully they'll will notice that right away if it's the problem. The truck did come up from Texas so I wonder if the fluids that were in there just couldn't handle these cold cold temperatues. Last couple days it's been 7* but has only felt like 0* but this morning it said feels like -21*.

Totallyrad

The belt may have only partially failed or possibly the tensioner and like belgianmagic said, count your cats.

pwirch

Another thing I noticed is that when I stepped on it in neutral, it would rev up and hang up there for a moment before slowly coming back down to idle. Could that also be caused by the belt?

Totallyrad

Most likely once you locate the source of the electrical issues, everything else will fall in line and check out. That's the one big drawback to remote starters, if there's a problem, you don't know about it until you get in the truck and it might be too late by then.

Totallyrad

Electrical again most likely.

Fisherguy

We're assuming you opened the hood and checked the belt .. ?

pwirch

No I didn't think to check the belt. I figured the fluids must have frozen. I called the shop and took it right down there and dropped it off with them. I had to get to work and it was 3* with a wicked wind blowing off the lake. Just walking out to the truck from the house turned everything numb.

Totallyrad

We've got our fingers crossed for ya.

pwirch

Thanks .. I appreciate it. I guess if something goes then there's always room to upgrade.

If the power steering pump went then I could put in one to better handle a hydraulic winch. If the batteries went, dual Optimas sound nice. If the brakes went, well, that sucks because they really stopped the truck on a dime. So much for "we're having a nice mild winter" up here in Buffalo/Fort Erie.

pwirch

Here's a couple questions to help me understand something ..

1. Does the power steering pump act as a multifunction pump to help the brake booster and vacuum pump because why else would I have no brakes if the serp belt went out unless the power steering does affect that.

2. If there is no coolant flowing will that prevent heat from coming through the vents.

The more symptoms I come up with and the more research I'm doing is making it seem more and more like the belt is broken or just was slipping on all the accessories ... Power steering not working, brakes not working if they are in fact controlled by the power steering, no heat from the vent and the engine getting warm really quick from no coolant running, no battery charging from no alternator turning. All that but the motor running just fine (for the length of time I had it running).

Festus

If your water pump wasn't turning - no heat. If your alternator wasn't turning - no charge on guage. If your power steering pump wasn't turning -no assited steering. I'm not sure about the brake part.

Sounds like the belt to me.

And the shop will likely charge you 8 hrs. labor to find this problem, 1 hr. for installation, and the cost of the belt of course.

Well, hopefully not.