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Well I guess it had to happen at some point, but seriously!!!
It would appear that the pulley to the power steering pump sometimes fails to stay correctly secured to the drive of the pump.....
So there I was blasting up the M1 with SWMBO when curiously the 'charge' and 'battery' light flicker on the dash... Then illuminate continuously....
That's strange, I tell SWMBO, it's not done that before. We are approaching a set of roadworks (construction zone) and I decide that it might be best not to pass through, so start to pull over from the fast lane... Oh... No power steering now.... Great. Oh and wait a minute, where's the flipping air con - starting to get a little hot in the ManGo....
Grappling with the (very heavy!) steering wheel, manage to pull over to the hard shoulder and then realise that the temperature gauge is back at zero (what the heck?!?!?)
Then the steam starts to pour out from under the left side of the bonnet (hood). Carp! :surprise::frown2:
Get SWMBO to safety and then go back and lift the bonnet and have a look around. Figured that if I had lost charge, air con, power steering and cooked the engine, must be a problem with the auxiliary belt (serpentine belt) so expected to see a shredded belt at the bottom of the radiator. There it was, but it was in perfect condition - so real signs of damage and most certainly not broken.
Start to poke about around the alternator, water pump and tensioner pulley's, before finding that the steering pulley was rocking badly on the shaft. Nuts.
So there we have it - cooked Hemi and failed trip to buy a new car.
Got it recovered from the motorway to some services before being recovered from the services to my home. Tomorrow, it has to be recovered from my drive to a dealer to have an (as yet) undetermined amount of cash thrown at her to fix this mess. Not sure how well these engines do being cooked, but hoping that the head gaskets and heads are still OK... Have to wait and see....
Adventure in pictures below. .....
Only 40,000 miles on the clock, but think that this is probably more a 'time' issue, as corrosion seems to be the culprit for the failure of the splined area between the pump shaft and pulley - so 11-12 years and it pretty much fell off.
Oh well - everybody safe and ManGo on the drive. Will fins out the total cost of this little failure and will report back...
Got to get a service, front brake pads, new serpentine belt and then see if coolant system pressure check and maybe cylinder pressure checks carried out to see if there is any internal engine problem. Good job I have a very understanding bank manager!
Peace!
(hope you're all well!)
Arf >
It would appear that the pulley to the power steering pump sometimes fails to stay correctly secured to the drive of the pump.....

So there I was blasting up the M1 with SWMBO when curiously the 'charge' and 'battery' light flicker on the dash... Then illuminate continuously....
That's strange, I tell SWMBO, it's not done that before. We are approaching a set of roadworks (construction zone) and I decide that it might be best not to pass through, so start to pull over from the fast lane... Oh... No power steering now.... Great. Oh and wait a minute, where's the flipping air con - starting to get a little hot in the ManGo....
Grappling with the (very heavy!) steering wheel, manage to pull over to the hard shoulder and then realise that the temperature gauge is back at zero (what the heck?!?!?)
Then the steam starts to pour out from under the left side of the bonnet (hood). Carp! :surprise::frown2:
Get SWMBO to safety and then go back and lift the bonnet and have a look around. Figured that if I had lost charge, air con, power steering and cooked the engine, must be a problem with the auxiliary belt (serpentine belt) so expected to see a shredded belt at the bottom of the radiator. There it was, but it was in perfect condition - so real signs of damage and most certainly not broken.
Start to poke about around the alternator, water pump and tensioner pulley's, before finding that the steering pulley was rocking badly on the shaft. Nuts.
So there we have it - cooked Hemi and failed trip to buy a new car.
Got it recovered from the motorway to some services before being recovered from the services to my home. Tomorrow, it has to be recovered from my drive to a dealer to have an (as yet) undetermined amount of cash thrown at her to fix this mess. Not sure how well these engines do being cooked, but hoping that the head gaskets and heads are still OK... Have to wait and see....
Adventure in pictures below. .....






Only 40,000 miles on the clock, but think that this is probably more a 'time' issue, as corrosion seems to be the culprit for the failure of the splined area between the pump shaft and pulley - so 11-12 years and it pretty much fell off.
Oh well - everybody safe and ManGo on the drive. Will fins out the total cost of this little failure and will report back...
Got to get a service, front brake pads, new serpentine belt and then see if coolant system pressure check and maybe cylinder pressure checks carried out to see if there is any internal engine problem. Good job I have a very understanding bank manager!
Peace!
(hope you're all well!)
Arf >