I had the 12 volt battery and two water pumps including the belt on my 2008 Toyota Prius less than a month ago. The other day the Red triange warning light come on along with check engine light. I drove it no more than 15 miles to the shop where the repairs were done. The owner told me that after examining it, he saw that there was no belt on the water pump he just replaced and the car had overheated and the motor is fried. He told me that he has no idea what could have happened to the belt. He said that there is no evidence that the belt broke or was damaged by something I picked up on the road, he said there should be shreds of the old belt, etc. He is perplexed on how this could have happened. Does anybody have any guesses on how something like this might occur?
One guess would be mechanic error, didn't tighten the belt tensioner. Or possibly no belt was ever put on. If you drive really short distances, you probably wouldn't know
Yep. You should have reached in and checked the tensioner before you brought it back it probably was never tightened. Probably never filled it back up with coolant either. Or he didn't use an oem belt. Catch any of those he's buying you a new motor. You install the belt. Put the car in inspection mode where the engine idles endlessly and let it run for 15 minutes. Shut it down let it cool and then check the belt tension as it will be much looser because the new belt is very stiff when new and has to break in and then check all the coolant levels especially the engine coolant via the rad inlet under the cover not the overflow tank. I bet if you take the 6 screws out of the black plastic rad cover take the cover off and open the rad cap the rad is really low on coolant too. I dont trust anyone working on my cars. i always check or diy whenever I can. But I always check. I check after every oil change the day after even if I do it myself. And I always look at the belt real quick when i check the oil on my prius. You lose the belt you will never know till the car is severely overheated till its too late and the engine is so overheated it throws a check engine light and head gasket usually blown by then. Very very bad system on this car no temp gauge on the dash.l One mistake on a $8 part can smoke your motor.
There was no coolant, the mechanic said that the motor sucked it all up and it went out the tailpipe. Does that sound reasonable?
I am so sorry this happened to you. I had a similar experience recently. I hope your mechanic compensates you but if not (mine refused to accept any responsibility) you can file a complaint with your state Bureau of Auto Repair. I had to complain to the State when some contractors screwed up repairs to my house and it really made all the difference.
