Hey guys, need some advice about some issues with my '98

I also noticed earlier before this all happened that my battery light was on where it never has been before.

metallic scraping? have you made sure all the pulleys are spinning true, and is the belt in good condition?

and is the white smoke coming from the hood or exhaust? could maybe be a pulley seizing up, and youre smoking the belt up. does it smell like burnt rubber?

>>17681317
No, I haven't. I'm just hoping for some good advice like this. As for the sound yes, at first I thought it was something scraping on the road. It was loud. But there wasn't anything hanging down underneath the car.

>>17681326
I'm pretty positive it was out of the tail pipe. Her step dad asked if I smelled burnt rubber too. I didn't but I woke up half sick this morning (when it rains it pours) so I might not have been able to tell.

>>17681342
tell me about the steering, was the sound still there when the steering was normal?

>>17681342
the sudden loss of power steering and the battery light coming on lead me to believe it could be something with the front engine accesories like the pulley or even the power steering pump itself could seize. a pulley or pump seizing could cause the alternator not to spin up the charge the car needs so that may be why your battery light came on

File: ANGER.jpg (19KB, 460x269px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 460x269px

WHERED YOU GO IM TRYING TO HELP YOU

>>17681282
Sounds like your power steering pump is on its way out. Check the power steering fluid, and fill as needed.

>>17681351
it was still there even when the steering was ok

>>17681445
I KNOW IM HERE SORRY LOL

>>17681453
Could that explain the smoke out of the exhaust and the noise as well?

>>17681481
you gotta check out if everything is spinning properly and try to find out exactly where that noise is coming from. try to isolate the problem

>>17681503
the powersteering would have nothing to do with stuff coming out of the exhaust. so don't worry about that. try to smell what the exhaust smells like to see if it's burning oil or coolant

>>17681503
That would have nothing to do with the smoke, but it COULD be the source of the noise.

>>17681503
Maybe the pump is spewing oil onto a hot exhaust manifold and you think it's coming out the exhaust pipe.

>>17681519
One thing about coolant: I checked it at the gas station while I was there. I know its under pressure and all so I assumed what happened was normal. I took the cap slowly off of the reservoir tank and some coolant poured out each turn of the cap, it was very hot and steaming. Is that normal?

>>17681282
Does the car really burn a quart per week? Maybe you are overfilling the crankcase.

>>17681544
that is normal, but was it bubbling in the resevoir tank? it shouldn't be boiling

>>17681563
I'm going to go check the dipstick here soon. It definitely takes the whole quart every week and a half tho, it doesnt like overflow or anything, it drinks it right up.

>>17681571
I don't think it was bubbling.

>>17681580
and uh be careful of popping off radiator caps at full temp, that's how you get scarred for life looking like 2 face

>>17681504
This is what I'm going to do in the morning. Check all the belts and pulleys and such, make sure everything seems legit.

>>17681585
yeah I totally hid my face on the other side of the hood and turned it super super slow. lol

>>17681590
good luck with your car my friend look out for the obvious

Thanks for all your help guys, I'm going to look into all the stuff you guys mentioned. Hopefully I can nip whatever it is in the bud and keep cruising. I really like the car, I was just telling my girlfriend yesterday how dependable it was for how old it was etc.... Irony sucks...

Sounds like you had a pulley seize, which caused your entire accessory belt to slow down/stop. This means your power steering pump wasn't being driven, leading to loss of P/S, your water pump wasn't being driven, leading to overheating, which caused the white 'smoke' (actually steam from coolant leaking into the cylinders), and your alternator wasn't being driven which explains the battery light. Since the P/S was the first thing to go, it's probably what seized, check whether the P/S pump turns freely before moving on to other accessories. Best case scenario you only need a new idler pulley, worst case scenario you killed the engine by running it overheated and it needs a rebuild due to warped/cracked head/block.

>>17681684
Thank you! I hope its not the worst case, like I said it seemed to be driving just fine when I got it home and parked it.

Just to update in case anyone cares. So I checked the oil this morning, it was very low. I added 2 quarts and let it sit for a bit. I drove her around the block and presto! No smoke, no noise, no overheating. Im going to possibly add another quart as I know it takes 4 and I only put in 2 when it was very very low.

Only problem now is the origninal one, the steering wheel is still very tight. In a bit im going to go to autozone and get some fluid and hopefully that will loosen it up.

Thanks everyone for your cares, concerns, and advice.

-Your favorite SL2 owner.

OK another new update:

Sadly: not a good one like the last :(

I got some PS fluid and topped it off. Drove around the block but was still having the PS issue. As im going around the block I notice my coolant temp gauge is in the red.

I pulled over and let it cool down, checked the coolant level, topped it off as well.

went to drive the block back to my house and thats when things really got bad. First, I wasn't getting the right acceleration for the gear I was in, it was very bogged down. As Im noticing this, all my gauges start shaking violently back and forth, and then go down to nothing. Gas gauge, coolant temp, speedometer and tach, all not working.

Parked it and came upstairs. Luckily my boss ended up giving me the day off anyway but I have to be there tomorrow.

Any ideas? If I can't fix it for something like $250 im going to go put $500 down at a buy here pay here and get a more dependable car for $200 a month but that will really strap me financially so I'm hoping I can get this resolved.

Thanks again guys.

>>17684503

one extra weird thing, as I got back home and pulled into my parking spot, the steering was totally loose and normal for that final turn. O.o

What is going on with this car? Everything was fine and now it seems like quite a few unrelated issues happen all at once (though im sure they are probably connected) I hope I didn't really mess it up driving it yesterday when it was so low on oil.

>>17684503
>>17684511
They are all connected, they're all symptoms of things driven off of your accessory belt not functioning. We've all been telling you, check the fucking belt. You've probably fucked your engine because you keep driving the damn thing without a functioning water pump.

>>17684503
>I notice my coolant temp gauge is in the red.
F