I'm driving from Little Rock to Fort Walton Beach, FL dragging an empty trailer that I plan to fill with free furniture from the inlaws.

Gas mileage - exactly 11.6 mpg, not as bad as I expected.

So it's 8pm local, I've been driving for 11 hours, I'm about a mile from Pensacola on I-10 when the battery light comes on. Within 10 secs, my phone (which is monitoring my coolant temp) starts squawking that temps have broken 210, and as I make for the exit I watch the temps hit 270-280, the truck's temp gauge spikes and the light comes on.

Noting the lack of power steering, I pull off into a pretty shady gas station (although Pensacola is basically one big ghetto), yank the hood open and break the seal on the rad cap to let off the pressure. Obviously the problem is a thrown belt, so I look down and see the belt (which was a new Gates) was still there but had been thrown off the pulleys. I spin the tensioner, and it seems fine, so I burn myself testing the idler pulley to find it seized.

Great. 8pm and I need a part. Fortunately, I have friends in P-cola, so I call a buddy and he says he's coming right now, and I start calling parts shops. O'reillys across town has one. So I pull the pulley for comparison (only minor burns), manage to slowly release pressure until I can get the rad cap off, and when he gets there we roll. It's 830pm.

The parts shop didn't have the idler, they had the tensioner pulley which was labeled 'idler' in their system. So I give the guy the old idler, and he manages to find a very close match. Very glad I brought the old idler.

9pm - my buddy holds the flashlight while I put the idler on with a few pieces of paper between my hand and the still very hot tensioner. I slip the belt back on (thankfully it was still roughly in place), refill and almost forget to bleed the coolant. It lost about a gallon, which surprised me. Checked the oil, looks good.

I fire it up and everything seems ok. No overheating, no belt noise, no miss, no smoke from tailpipe.

I tell my buddy thanks a ton and get back on the road at 930 pm. I drive the last hour to Fort Walton feeling lucky things didn't go worse than they did.

BTW, the idler gave no indication it would fail. No noise, nothing. I'm thinking of replacing the tensioner pulley as well before I drive back.

 

good luck with the rest of your trip, has to get better

 

In March I drove from Little Rock to Ogden, Utah. About 1300 miles one way, and thankfully I had no trouble, the Disco didn't skip a beat the entire trip. Good luck and be safe on your way back to Little Rock!

 

dr. mordo,

Two days ago I bought the front end off a 2001 D2 SE from a guy parting it out in Mobile AL. Driveshaft failed and punctured the tranny. The rest of the truck was in pretty good shape, since you'll be passing right by it on your way home, it's there if you need any parts, it's only missing the front bumper now. I'll pm you his info.

 

Glad you are OK.
I got 17.4 MPG - but not hauling a trailer and going 63 MPH the whole way - 1200 miles
Boulder CO to Seattle WA.

Pulley situation is not good!
Too many idler pulleys in there as it is.

 

Glad you got it fixed without too much trouble. Hope there's not damage.
For future reference, if your alternator light comes on and your temp starts to rise it means your serpentine belt is gone and you have essentially no coolant flow. Pull over as soon as you safely can. Don't drive to the next exit. It doesn't take long to toast your engine.

 

Thanks for the advice/kind words/PMs.

You aren't kidding about throwing the s-belt - it overheated in seconds.

 

Thanks for the post. I have new bearings for both of my pulleys in my D2 on-board parts box that I have been meaning to replace as preventive maintenance after replacing failed water pump, and then tensioner and belt while I was in that area. I have been putting it off, figuring I would hear some noise and then know it was time to get it done. I will have to get moving and put that on my list for this week! Thanks for the wake-up call!

 

Well, I made it home.

Mileage dropped to 11 mpg, which still isn't that bad.

The power steering pump sprang a serious leak about halfway thru, and it was groaning very loudly when I turned the wheel, even when topped off. When I added more it just started dripping back out again and pooling on the ground. That said it was slow enough that it took a couple hours to get down to the low mark on the resevoir, so I just limped home with it.

Otherwise an uneventful drive.

 

At the temps. you reached, you may have caused some issues that have not shown up yet. At 285 the glue used to retain the liners should or can start failing. I would suggest you keep a real close eye on your scanner temps, I would also suggest you replace your coolant pressure cap and install a 180 degree soft spring t/stat to lower your operating temp.