Its been a long time since I've been here at PriusChat. I'm still driving this 2001 Prius as a "station car" to get about 4 miles each way between a metro station and my office. Currently at 370k(ish) miles. A couple of weeks ago, the overheating warning light came on. I checked the coolant, and found it to be a bit low, so added some distilled water. But the problem has reoccurred whenever I drive at highway speed for part of the 4 mile trip. If I stay on surface streets, the light never comes on. When I open the hood, it is not particularly warm in the engine compartment. Yesterday, when checking the coolant again, I noticed that there is no serpentine belt! Not surprising it broke since the belt was at least 270k miles old (I have never changed it since I bought it with 97k miles). So obviously, I will be replacing it tonight. The water pump turns freely, so I don't believe it seized and caused the belt to break. The AC hasn't been working for a while, which I believe to just be the result of a slow leak of R134 (I have "fixed" the AC before by just charging it, which then lasts for a year or so). Is there a simple test to make sure the AC compressor isn't seized, which would cause the new belt to break? I haven't yet crawled under the car to try to turn it by hand. Anything else I should be aware of before I just put a new belt on? Thanks,
Quickest way of checking the AC compressor is to turn it by hand. The pulley is two parts. The pulley which turns all the time and the inner part that has a clutch. Try turning the inner and see what happens. It's only a quick check and doesn't guarantee the pump is still good but a siezed pump will be obvious. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I finally installed the belt this morning (no, I haven't drove it since realizing the belt was gone). Brought a few tools and the belt and did it in the metro parking lot in about 20 minutes. I was able to do it from above while only causing minor injury to my forearms. I haven't tried the ac yet, but it turns freely when off.
