Dukespeed

iTrader: (1)

Well my wife was driving the GS3 and all of the sudden the check engine light, VSC and all the other lights came on. She drove it home probably 10 minutes from where it broke. What else do you think is damaged at this point. I opened the hood today, as I just got back in town from business, and there was coolant up on the underside of the hood dripping off of it To add insult to injury I just replace this belt about a month ago but I bought the O'rielly autoparts OEM replacement because Lexus was closed. big mistake. Oh well. Any guesses or comments on the extent of damage would be extremly helpful.

Stage3

iTrader: (3)

The belt was probably on too tight. It's hard to tell without seeing the belt and the point of failure. As to the damage... it's tough to say without looking at the engine bay directly. There are so many little things that could go with a smack from the serpentine, but chances are, the damage is cosmetic. The belt packs a wallop when under stress, but not enough of a punch to do MAJOR damage to internals or anything like that. My guess would be that one of the hoses got a swack and may have come off or busted. You might want to also check the resivoir tank and the back of the radiator for any damage. I think the lights that came on may be incidental from the shock of belt coming off, but to be on the safe side (after you get a new belt and some new coolant), you should get the codes checked out.

I hope it all works out for you...

BLK98GS3

Not too much to worry about because the accessory belt does not control any major internal parts. I would worry about the water pump, did the car overheat while she was driving it home? This could have caused the leak or coolant, through a hose or damage to the radiator. Good luck.

narfy

the water pump would stop turning if the belt broke or wasn't there...

so you prolly had a badly overheated engine... causing coolant to boil and the pressure to blow past the cap and into the reservoir and then overfilled the reservoir, and then blew everywhere under high pressure...

check and find out WHY the belt broke... often times, the tensioner pulley or something seizes and then shreds the belt... so since the belt's off, spin each item by hand and see if there is any grainyness or binding... if so, replace tha/those item(s) too...

replace the belt and the parts damaged directly from the failed belt... fill and bleed your coolant, and see if you have any more overheating issues...

have someone clear your DTC's...

Dukespeed

iTrader: (1)

Wow I feel much better after reading those. I kinda feel the coolant came from too much pressure under the cap as well. I may have had the belt on too tight? I will go through all of it this weekend and replace all things as necessary. I really appreciate the info and will update to close the loop on the info. Thanks

chuckb

the serp belt is self tensioning via the spring inside the tensioner pulley assembly. you can't over tighten it with the correct sized belt. if the belt was way too short and stretched on there maybe.

ten minutes of driving with no water pump may have hurt the motor, it depends how hard she drove it, how hot it got, and how lucky you are.

Dukespeed

iTrader: (1)

Yeah she said she heard boiling water noises and steam like smoke from under the hood.

If the motor is gone, its going to get interesting around here as far as what I am going to put back in I had a Prelude loose three teeth on the t-belt on a fresh H22A JDM swap and didn't bend a single valve, thats pure luck. I guess I will know this weekend. Thanks for the input.

h0t SaUc3

How many miles did you have on the GS? I need to change my belt but I'm waiting on funds to come in. I dont drive hard but to be on the safe side when did yours blow?

chuckb

you know it's only $30 and literally 5 minutes to install, right?

Dukespeed

iTrader: (1)

its a 98 with close to 160K. I really changed it when I noticed a little cracking on the teeth.
Look real close at it with a flash light. If something looks not right chances are they are not. I really believe that the tensioner pully had something to do with my 1 month old belt getting shredded off not the belt itslef, but do yourself a favor and get the piece of mind on the Lexus OEM belt. Yeah it takes like 10 minutes off and on.

Dukespeed

iTrader: (1)

Well went at it first thing this morning and thing started to become apparent as I was searching.

Narfy you hit the nail right on the head. The tensioner pully was totally seized up and the belt was shredded at that point. More of a mess than anything else. Little rubber pieces everywhere. So I got the new tensioner and belt FROM LEXUS added the coolant back into the system and things are seemingly back to normal. I also replaced the radiator cap as I saw some steam coming out of the bottom side. I kinda suspect the radiator took a good heating up, which may have damaged it, so I am keeping my eye on it but that's easy to fix as well. No overhaeting so, so far so good.

Thanks to all for the input. Its easy to see why so many of us depend on these boards. I am sure I saved hundreds if not thousands because of this place.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

You'll offset that cost with mods

Glad it was a simple fix and nothing more.

dpayne

At how many miles should one replace the Drive Belt on a GS-430 ? I hear from some Lexus Tech's they've never seen one break, unless of course something binds up and makes it break. The small cracks on the ribs are on most cars after a short time,but the original belts usually will go for 100K miles ++. Any suggestions on WHEN to replace ?

Thanks.

David

GWELEX

[QUOTE=dpayne;3571134]At how many miles should one replace the Drive Belt on a GS-430 ? I hear from some Lexus Tech's they've never seen one break, unless of course something binds up and makes it break. The small cracks on the ribs are on most cars after a short time,but the original belts usually will go for 100K miles ++. Any suggestions on WHEN to replace ?

Not to hijack this thread, but for peace of mind I replace mine every 50K. For $50 or less and 5 minutes of your time it's worth it.

raytseng

Guess this is one of the times where if you bought expensive synthetic motor oil to see if it really held up to protect your engine like you see in all the commercials.