My car tonight
 

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...i/IMG0071A.jpg

Driving along a dual carriageway and the power steering seems to go completely - accompanied by a battery light on the left. Then get the ABS and ESP light on. Then all the lights flash up for the gearbox. Speedo, rev counter and climate control go off. Finally get a big exclamation mark in the Maxidot display thing, and the car dies completely (on the M69).

Turns out the belt thing from the alternator had come away completely, so the car was shutting everything down that used power.

Is this likely to have done any damage, and what is this likely to cost to be sorted? Looks fairly inaccessible down there. Not sure if the tensioner is at fault.

Had to have the car dropped off at Lion Garage (VAG specialist) so hopefully will know more tomorrow.

When we started the journey, there was a metal hoop thing under the car - I assumed I'd just gone over something, but was this off the car? Was similiar thickness to a coat hanger and it had a kink in it which I thought was to clip it on to a bin or something. Hopefully totally irrelevant, but I'll mention just in case this holds the engine together! :Confused::eek:

Not sure about FL shutting things down but PF cars do not shut anything down if alternator is not working and drive happily until battery is flat just showing battery warning.

As for the damage it depends on luck could be that nothing is damaged but could be that rollers, pulleys, covers, fans get damaged.

I dont know if its going to help, but when my battery went flat, I had similar warning lights, ABS, ESP, those systems seem to go a bit crazy on low voltage. Also the dash pannel was very dim and fading.

Also for replacing the auxiliary belt, I think its quite easy, I took mine off the crank pulley and the tensioner without removing anything (to check if a squak I had was the auxiliary belt or the timing belt).
I think, although dont quote me on this, that you can even manouver the new belt around the fan, I dont think you need to take the fan off either.

When you mentioned the metal hoop that rang a bell in my head.
Around 6 months ago I too found a metal hoop on my driveway, couldnt figure out how it got there but it never really occured to me it could be off the car. I still have that hoop, here is a picture. Did the hoop you saw look similar to this?
Can anyone solve this hoop mystery?

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...9&d=1333398500

Yes the hoop was like that, but it had snapped. Wonder if that's related then :Confused:

Thanks for the replies so far - not heard back from the garage yet. I just told them to fit it in when they could.

Difficult to work out the scale of that steel hoop. Is it small enough to be between the belt tensioner and its bracket?

Could be part of a fan shroud perhaps? Maybe ripped off when the belt exited?

Because these belts are so long you can be unlucky and find it takes out other things when it gets caught up after snapping. If it just gets fired off then shouldn't be a major problem to sort :)

Its 35cm diameter.
I cant find anything that looks like it on VagCat, at least not to do with the fans, or the gearbox or anything else round on the car that I can think of. Could be just a strange coincidence that we both found a similar hoop near our cars.
Maybe its just a bin liner hoop issued by the council and there are a lot of them around?
however the council bins around here are square so that wouldnt make sense

My first thought was that it was for a bin to keep the bin bag in. Bit weird if it isn't anything to do with the car though :Confused::eek:

Looks like it's from the back of a wheel trim from another car... is your engine under tray on?

Just wondering if you've managed to pick it up from the road somehow...

http://window-tint.co.uk/img/how-to-...el-trims-1.jpg

35cm would be about right for a 13 or 14 inch wheel.

MG

This ^^^^^ is what I think it is too +++

That looks like it. +++

No idea what the damage will be to fix the car yet - they've still not had time to look at it. My garage is very empty at the moment :-(

Update on the car - tensioner went so that's being replaced along with the alternator belt (if that's what it's called). Whilst the front is off, I've asked them to do the cambelt, water pump and thermostat.

Need to decide on doing the gearbox oil change as well. The above will be costing me over £1000 already (which was less than I thought to be honest), though can't bring myself to spend much more at the moment.. Car is now on 101k, and the gearbox oil was changed around 60,000 miles. I know the sensible thing is to get the gearbox oil changed, but not too sensible to spend close on £1500 on a car only worth £2000 (if that) :hammer: :eek3:

Collected the car yesterday.

Now has a new alternator belt and tensioner. Asked them to do the cambelt whilst the front was off the car, so cambelt, water pump and thermostat done too. Car never seemed to get up to temperature before, but now does, so the thermostat must have been on it's way.

Thanks for solving the mystery, also glad to know its not a part from my car. Someone's hub cap must have gone flying and the metal bit somehow made it onto my driveway. Also explains how Plankton found one on the motorway, it must be littered with them.