Me, my new water pump, thermostat and serpentine belt are HOME!

[redwitch]

Thank you for all the advice and concern. Special thanks for the reference to Beckett! Been smiling about that all day.

G'night DU!

[hunter]

1. Hooray! Let me guess...

... the water pump seized and burned the belt. The thermostat was already dead or dying.

I have a love-hate relationship with cars.

I once replaced a head gasket in a K-Mart parking lot.

[redwitch]

2. That's about right.

And where were YOU today when I needed a car McGyver?

[hunter]

7. No, seriously, I'm bad luck.

Cars hate me.

Fortunately I had teenage children who were able to kill the cars that hated me the most.

Unfortunately they were hundreds of miles away when they did.

Among the worst phone calls of my life was the police finding our wrecked car, air bags deployed, my kid nowhere to be found for about six hours.

Turned out my kid was in the habit of lending the car to near anyone who asked, way to be popular! The classmates who crashed it were identified by their bruises, but the college and campus police were quite adamant, without directly saying so, that they wanted it to keep it an internal affair and nothing that would show up on campus crime statistics.

I sold the wreck for $600, no harm, no foul, but I had to drive there to clean up the mess in person.

[redwitch]

9. Wow! Must have been the longest six hours of your life!

Teenagers! I have raised two sons past that awkward/hellish age.

[Lochloosa]

3. Head gasket in a Kmart parking lot.

You sound like my Step-Father.
He rebuilt his first engine at the age of nine. Alone.

[Eleanors38]

12. If the belt hub of the waterpump is exposed, you can grab it in your hand...

(when cooled off and not running, of course) and try to wobble it in and out. If there is noticeable play (esp. accompanied by a muffled clonking and rattling when running), TIME TO REPLACE. Certainly, do this if you have a significant drip or pool of coolant under the engine's front below the WP area. Always wise to R &R the thermostat with a WP replacement. Refll with 50/50 antifreeze and coolant. I refill directly into the radiator, run the engine and add as coolant settles in the radiator. Be ready to cap quickly if it overflows. When coolant has filled the engine water jacklet and radiator to proper level, then add some coolant in the unpressurized coolant recovery container. Always follow the manufacturer's procedure if it differs from this one.

[mountain grammy]

4. I helped my husband install a serpentine belt..

we were stranded on the side of the mountain, snow flying. Ah, youth! Now, I'd call a tow truck.

[redwitch]

10. Until yesterday I didn't know there were such things.

Tow truck for sure!

[Eleanors38]

11. They are god sends to all of us who were/are mechanics...

Before: Multiple "v" belts (owing to their profile) turning multiple accessories, each with its own tension requirements and break-in characteristics, and often the accessories were not in alignment, and the belt(s) tracked off-angle with consequential short life spans.

After: Usually one (1) ribbed belt fitted over all accessories which are installed in alignment with no adjustment necessary: The tensioner is spring-loaded to keep tensions for all accessories within specs. Long life spans, few squeaks. Yay!

NOTE: When removing a used but still good serpentine belt, observe the direction of turn, and mark the belt with an arrow. Install to turn in the same way; otherwise, you may have an irritating creaking noise as the belt will turn the opposite way to which it was run-in.

[Greybnk48]

5. I'm glad you're safe.

When I left today you were waiting for roadside help!

[spanone]

6. K&R...

[backscatter712]

8. Yay, glad you're OK!