Serpentine belt broke now car not heating up. Could I have caused some sort of damage?
Asked by Sarah Dec 03, 2015 at 01:19 AM about the 2000 Chevrolet Malibu
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I was driving when my serpentine belt broke
and continued at max a mile before pulling
over. My car had lost power steering, power
weakened, and was over heating. Now that
I've replaced the belt and tensioner and
topped off my coolent my car doesn t want
to heat up. It blows cool to warm air but not
as warm as usual. The indicator on my
dash shows the temp. Just a notch or two
above the bottom. It s a 2000 Malibu 6
cylinder. What could be causing this? Did I
do damage by continuing to drive after it
broke and started overheating
5 Answers
Unfortunately Sarah, you probably did, Do damage that is. The water pump not turning, not being driven by the belt is really not good. But I am stumped by the fact that it does not warm up, that confuses me, But I am easily confused. Hopefully somebody that knows GM products will chime in here, of which I am not. But generic car knowledge is that driving a mile with no belt can cause other problems as well, including electrical
Just thinking... oww... anyway if I was in your predicament I would change thermostat. Not expensive ... it may have gotten stuck open, meaning that the coolant runs through radiator too fast.
Yea I did just read that somewhere also. Thanks for it input. It is weird that it's not getting hot or even overheating again if I did damage to it.
Also if it was overheated to the point of boiling and coolant loss it may have trapped air in the cooling system which needs to be properly bled. This could affect the heater along with the thermostat being stuck open.
