Question
-------------------------------------------
The text above is a follow-up to ...
-----Question-----
Hi HT,
I had my water pumped replace, in which they stated that I need my timing belt, a balanced shaft belt and a serpentine belt replaced. I had to bring it back to them because it still seem to run bad, was told that they probably needed to re-time & adjust & tightened the belt, in which they did. The next day,the belt was still squeaking and the whole car died on me, the air bag light came on,heard a pop noise,interior lights started blinking, smelted some kind of electrical wiring smell. No power, I replaced the the fuse in the alt-box, car cranked up, but with no brake lights,signals, or hazards, and radio. Brought car to a electrical repair shop, they charged $200, got all the lights to work, not the radio-in which they said was the problem. Had the radio replaced,same day the battery again was boiling over, parked the car next morning would not start.
Please please help, as to what could be the problem. My guess is that something went wrong while getting the water pump-timing belt & etc. replaced. Thank You.
-----Answer-----
I'm not sure how many problems you have here. You indicate your car was *still* running bad after replacing the water pump and timing belt, etc. Did the shop diagnose what was causing the car to run poorly? Did retiming the timing belt cure the problem?
The pop noise, blinking lights, air bag lamp, and the other electrical problems sound like an overcharging alternator. If that's your problem, it's important that you not run the vehicle. Excessive system voltage can damage nearly every electronic or electrical component in your vehicle.
It's hard to tell about the belt squeak. It's possible the alternator belt is loose. In general, if you can flex the alternator belt at all with light pressure, the belt is too loose. The other belts don't need to be quite as tight. It's also possible that there's sufficient resistance in the alternator (because it's failing) that it's making the belt squeak.
As to the relationship between your problems and the timing belt/water pump work, the squeaking belt has a fair chance of being related (due to insufficient tightening). The alternator, on the other hand is unrelated. The voltage regulator is failing. It's part of the alternator, and electronic. There's zero that the repair facility could have done to make this problem happen with your alternator. In regard to the running poorly, I'll need more information. It's not clear whether this is still a problem, whether it occurred only after the timing belt replacement, or whether the shop was to fix a poor-running condition in the first place.
Thanks for the answer, I went and had the alternator repaired, you mentioned about the voltage regulator failing.Would that have something to do with the a 7.8 volt drain coming from the MPI fusible link-fuel injector systems that is staying powered up that a electrical repair shop says is now wrong. I am thinking that when I did drive it, before I knew about the alt.ovecharging, that some kind of damage was done to the e-components. Where can I find the fusible link for that, and is it a expensive repair to get fix. The electronic shop charged me 200. just to get the turn signal,brake lights and tail kights to work. Again I thank you for any info that you can provide.
AnswerIt's entirely possible that the alternator overcharging (caused by a faulty voltage regulator, which is part of the alternator) damaged another electrical component, which is the reason for the draw through the MPI fuse.
To determine whether the draw is normal, though, we need to measure the amount of current while the vehicle is off. Current is measured in Amperes (Amps), not Volts. Any draw measurement using Volts is meaningless because it does not quantify the amount of current being drawn. Is the shop checking the car qualified to do complicated electrical diagnoses?
If the draw through the MPI fusible link is excessive (which I'm not certain has yet been determined), then the issue is not with the fusible link itself but rather with one of the items powered by the fusible link. You should expect that you will need to pay a significant amount of labor to find any issue causing a draw and repairs may or may not be expensive depending on what the issue is.
If your car will not run, it's time to stop and do some basic checks. Does the check engine lamp come on when the key is turned to the "on" position? If not, you should expect that the Engine Control Module (ECM) is fried and that at the very least you'll need a new one. Last time I priced one for your year and model, it was about $900. If it appears you need a new ECM, price one and determine whether you still think it's worthwhile to continue investigating all the issues. If you need an ECM, you're likely to need just about every computer in the vehicle (air bag, transmission (if automatic), time and alarm control module).
