billybob Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Last Friday, my PAS pulley lost two bolts, and the fan belt slipped off and wrapped around the viscous cooling fan. I noticed that I immediately lost my power steering and the tach was at 0. The battery light came on and after a few moments the temperature shot into the red zone! I moved the heater controls to high heat and fan on high. and pulled over as soon as I could (was probably in the red for 2 min before I shut it down. This was my first experience with this type of failure - so I don't know how bad the overheating was. With a new belt on a new pulley with new bolts, started up and all seemed to be as normal. Questions: What would cause the PAS pulley bolts to come loose? Is this normal for a vibrating diesel engine (300tdi)? Should I be checking pulleys and their respective bolts periodically to prevent it from happening again? The engine didn't have the huge puffs of smoke like in the movies, but I fear possibly some damage may have been done. How best to determine? Watch coolant levels, look for leaks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gromit Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Hi, No, it's not normal for the PAS pulley to fall off I'd assume they hadn't been torqued up properly. Is there supposed to be loctite on the bolts on the 300? The temp went into the red because the water pump was no longer pumping. How hard was the engine working during the 2 minutes it was in the red? The 300tdi is a pretty hardy engine. I'd just replace the belt and see how it runs. Keep an eye out for headgasket signs - steam from the exhaust, bubbles / oil in the coolant, water in the oil etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPendrey Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Mine fell out a while back, but that's because I forgot to tighten them after changing the p-gasket . Anyway, since I lost two of the three I replaced them with normal bolts (the original were flange bolts, but I can't remember if they had grooving/ribs on them to stop them loosening). Anyway, I replaced them with normal bolts and split washers to be sure. All at 25nm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Badger Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Happened to me too, but I only had one bolt left on the pas pump (well half on), and then the other bolt way missing and the other bolt was lost, but so was the blob of metal that it should have been screwed into... Now my engine overheats a little, think it could be the head gasket though... I am getting bubbles of coolant coming out of my expansion cap now, I do get loss of power and a little puff of smoke on start up. What other signs are common? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 Hi, No, it's not normal for the PAS pulley to fall off I'd assume they hadn't been torqued up properly. Is there supposed to be loctite on the bolts on the 300? The temp went into the red because the water pump was no longer pumping. How hard was the engine working during the 2 minutes it was in the red? The 300tdi is a pretty hardy engine. I'd just replace the belt and see how it runs. Keep an eye out for headgasket signs - steam from the exhaust, bubbles / oil in the coolant, water in the oil etc. I also assumed that loctite would be used on the bolts for the pulley. As for driving while in the red - I engine wasn't working that hard, probably going about 35-40mph. So far it seems to be running about the same as it did before the incident. I'll be checking the oil at the next oil change to see if there is any coolant in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 Happened to me too, but I only had one bolt left on the pas pump (well half on), and then the other bolt way missing and the other bolt was lost, but so was the blob of metal that it should have been screwed into... Now my engine overheats a little, think it could be the head gasket though... I am getting bubbles of coolant coming out of my expansion cap now, I do get loss of power and a little puff of smoke on start up. What other signs are common? I'll be checking my expansion cap now too I didn't see any the day after, but didn't think to look there. I always thought a little puff of black soot was normal on start up, but maybe you're actually talking about real smoke? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Badger Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I was gonna change the coolant first to see if this changes anything, I know it's not the temp sensor so that's one off the list of possibilities... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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