Belt broke while driving - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

webdrfter · 07-07-2011, 12:18 AM

My 1997 Toyota Corolla CE's belt (i don't know if it's the timing belt or drivebelt, bur the smaller one) broke while i was driving. The coolant leaked underneath and the engine died down. Can it still be repaired? I wonder what's the extent of the damage?

it's an automatic transmission. 101,890 mileage.

Please help for some info.

***TrailDust*** · 07-07-2011, 02:28 AM

Hello, welcome to Toyota Nation!

I'll move your thread over to the Corolla forum so the members there can help you out, but you should also use that forum's search feature to locate past threads that may deal with broken timing belts, etc.

pdq · 07-07-2011, 11:23 AM

You need to replace the serpentine belt, top off the coolant, and you should be good to go. Unlikely any real damage from that.

What happened was your water pump was not running due to the belt not driving the pulley, so the coolant boiled over.

speedy25 · 07-07-2011, 12:30 PM

I'm gonna guess that it wasnt a simple belt breakage and the water pump failed. Make sure it spins EASILY before re-installing belts. You donr typically leak when a belt breaks.

BTW- Serpentine is the name for a single belt system.

-SP

webdrfter · 07-08-2011, 10:22 PM

Speedy25 says Serpentine belt refers to single belt system. My car has two belts... one had broken...

trife96 · 07-14-2011, 08:05 PM

yea, wait, this is misleading...first of all rule out the timing belt, and even if it was your timing belt, these engines are "non-interference" which means means the pistons will not touch the valves in the event that the belt breaks.

Now, if the water pump belt broke, which it sounds like it did, then this means potentially you could have ran the engine hot. So don't just assume its a simple fix yet. I suggest putting on a new belt, check to see that ALL the pulleys, except for the crank pulley of course, spin freely (because a seized pulley can easily cause the belt to break). Once you have checked that, and it's good, add coolant. I might go as far as saying pressure check the cooling system at this point to check for any more water leaks. If not, run it. Check to see if you notice any steam (sometimes confused by smoke) coming out the tail pipe. Check to see if you have any bubbling in the overflow tank. If you do....sorry bro, you may have a blown head gasket from it running hot.

But hopefully I'm wrong and like everyone else says it's probably fine...but jus wanted to make sure you know to check it out good in this case...Good Luck

trife96 · 07-14-2011, 10:03 PM

matter of fact, since you said that the engine died...I'm almost 100% sure you did damage to the motor. Lemme know what you find out. I actually have a 7AFE 1.8L with auto from my 97 Corolla for sale in case u need it.