First, some pertinent details: truck is a 2000 Tacoma, 2.7L, 4wd. Engine is pretty much all stock. 153,000 miles on truck and engine, never had any problems with it. Also, I had all my belts replaced last September because the original ones were finally looking a little cracked and frayed.
I was driving up a pass a couple nights ago in a snowstorm. In fourth gear, 60 mph or so, and I was fully loaded down (moving a truck-load of stuff from western to eastern MT). Suddenly I heard a loud screeching noise from the engine compartment followed closely by the smell of burning rubber.
The engine never skipped a beat, but I pulled over after about 30 seconds and took a look around in the engine compartment with my headlamp. Remains of a belt were found still smoking. It was a belt that was attached to a pump-looking thing (see picture below; now you know why I put this in the Newbie Tech section...) that I immediately assumed was a water pump that had seized up, because of the context of the situation.
I figured I'd have to limp the rest of the 150 or so miles a few miles at a time, letting it cool down every so often. But to my surprise, the temperature sender never showed a temp above 186 degrees--which is normal in my experience. So I drove normally the rest of the way.
Now that I've poked around a bit online and looked at some diagrams of water pumps, I'm thinking my initial diagnosis was incorrect. It's looking more like an A/C compressor. But why would this fail when I wasn't even using it? Was it just a bad (or incorrectly tightened) belt that happened to fail just then? If it is the A/C compressor, is this a good indication that I'll need a new one?
Take a look and let me know what you think. Thanks in advance.
I was driving up a pass a couple nights ago in a snowstorm. In fourth gear, 60 mph or so, and I was fully loaded down (moving a truck-load of stuff from western to eastern MT). Suddenly I heard a loud screeching noise from the engine compartment followed closely by the smell of burning rubber.
The engine never skipped a beat, but I pulled over after about 30 seconds and took a look around in the engine compartment with my headlamp. Remains of a belt were found still smoking. It was a belt that was attached to a pump-looking thing (see picture below; now you know why I put this in the Newbie Tech section...) that I immediately assumed was a water pump that had seized up, because of the context of the situation.
I figured I'd have to limp the rest of the 150 or so miles a few miles at a time, letting it cool down every so often. But to my surprise, the temperature sender never showed a temp above 186 degrees--which is normal in my experience. So I drove normally the rest of the way.
Now that I've poked around a bit online and looked at some diagrams of water pumps, I'm thinking my initial diagnosis was incorrect. It's looking more like an A/C compressor. But why would this fail when I wasn't even using it? Was it just a bad (or incorrectly tightened) belt that happened to fail just then? If it is the A/C compressor, is this a good indication that I'll need a new one?
Take a look and let me know what you think. Thanks in advance.