Big Problem!! - Possible HGF

[K10]

Got a call from a frined of mine yesterday, his GFs mx5's alternator light had come on and she continued to drive it home.

The alternator belt had been chewed, so was no longer charging, unfortunately, the water pump is driven off the same belt, so that was out of action for about 15-20 miles of driving.

I took a look today and it looks like we need at the least:
Rad cap (seal is gone)
2 x heater hoses (both burst)
Thermostat
New belt

My real question though is what are the chances of the car surviving 20 miles of driving without toasting the head gasket? Is there any hope? Would convection be enough to keep the coolant moving?

[Pete JB]

Take your radiator cap off when the car is cold, start the car up & look for bubbles coming up through the radiator, if you see the bubbles it's a fairly good indicator that the gasket's gone.

[K10]

Good tip, unfortunetely I have stripped the thing and new belts, thermostat, hoses etc should be here tomorrow, will reassemble and see...

Hopefully she's OK, I'd be very impressed though if it can drive for that long with no water pump and survive.

[Steve]

Wow!

[leamyj]

No image there Steve

[K10]

Another problem, just looked at it again, it ate another belt, stopped a lot earlier this time so no burst hoses etc. Very weird, can anyone tell me is there a mitsubishi sign at the back of the original 1.6 alternator? Wondering if there could be a spurious item in there, the belt doesn't seem to fit exactly into the pulley. Maybe I'm imagining it, but it's the only thing I can think of.

The water pump runs free, all I can think of is that one of the pulleys is wrong and the friction is heating the belt up, causing it to let go and then get eaten.

[Geese]

ALt is a Mitsubishi on my mk1

[K10]

Cheers for the quick reply, guess it's not that - hoping it's something simple, will keep an eye on the belt tension over the next few days, hopefully will stay put this time...

[Geese]

Ate another belt in a few weeks? WOwsers

Check the pulleys are in line. Get a ruler and make sure the belt isn't twisting..
Check the screws on the water pump are tight and the ones on the cam pulley are tight. Also see if there's any roughness in teh pulleys.

Or you managed to get the 1 in million dodgey belt.