Any car experts here?

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Sounds like a belt problem or the device that takes up the slack in the belts. My brother was a mechanic.

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It should not catch fire but you could lose power steering or generator while driving.

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No big deal. It's either your water pump or a small bird stuck in your fan housing.


GRANNY.

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last thing you need is your timing belt to go, seriously. You may have been fortunate and its some other belt like the fan or the alternator, but timing belt indirectly controls when your valves open and close, imagine the crunching if it all went random.

Originally posted by caissad4
It should not catch fire but you could lose power steering or generator while driving.

Losing power steering while underway could instantly require a great deal of strength to steer the car into a turn. Get to a stop as soon as safely possible.

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a small amount of preparation is in order...

1) camera and tripod
2) small incendiary or explosive devices
3) a cliff, or at minimum, a very steep hill
4) a youtube channel

okie dokie, yer all set...

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If it is an overhead cam engine it may indeed have a timing belt, if that breaks while you're driving, you could do serious damage to the engine such as bent valves, destroyed pistons, metal chunks in the combustion chamber. Of course if you don't start it, that won't happen. Hard to tell without first checking the visible exterior belts that run the power steering, alternator etc. The timing belt is under a cover on the front of the engine, and requires dis-assembly unless there are view covers on it. 😕 Better safe than destroying the engine. 🙂 Get the thing towed. 😉

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Replacing the cam belt is a fairly expensive job but if it needs it or actually if you have not had it replaced in say 60000 miles then it is a must preventative.

I'm no mechanic, but I don't think the cam belt slips, screeches or smells, I think it just wears out and snaps causing the pistons to smash into the overhead valves (the belt keeps the piston movement and value movement in time). If you can small burning, hear screeching when you accelerate then it is likely the fan belt, but don't listen to me over a mechanic you trust as don't get my hands dirty with this sort of thing!

Some people let their cars go to shlt because servicing seems expensive, if you like e car and want to keep it, you will probably do well to get this stuff sorted in one go.

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Where are Tom and Ray when you need them?