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Hey guys so I got a 94 mx3 gs. 5 speed. I hit a snow drift because well... i live in canada. Anyways afterwards my power steering and heat stopped working. Im afraid to drive the car cause I don't want it overheat and well its cold.

I took a look when I got home and I'm pretty sure I lost a belt connected to the power steering pulley and whatever else it goes too.

Im not a car savy guy but I really need my car back asap and do not want to take it to a shop, I have a mechanic friend that can fix it but I need to know what parts to get.

I also live out in the boonies so I can't drive the car into the closest city as its far away.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Your PS/Waterpump belt came off proly or is loose and slipping. Those two systems run on the same belt, make sure you dont drive your car too far as it will overheat as your waterpump will not be turning. Make sure the pulley is intact as well, it is possible it fell off. It is accessible on the rear passenger side of the motor, underneath the powersteering pump

You can see the pulley on the bottom left of this pic. Looks like he bypassed the PS pump but you get the idea:

Do you know which pulley I loosen to get it on?

Yea that black pulley on the bottom left. Your pulley will be silver probably. To loosen it you need a 17mm open end and you need to loosen the nut on the front of the pulley. However, do not take it off, just loosen it abit. Then you will see a threaded shaft that sticks down abit from the pulley, you will want to use a 10mm socket and turn that either left or right to raise or lower the pulley to make tension on the belt.

In the pic you can see the small shaft I am talking about at the bottom of the picture below the pulley

Is that the 4 cyl engine? Cause I got the 1.8L k8 and i went and took a look at it and it doesn't look the same.

Its a v6 and it might look different cause that one doesnt have the powersteering or timing cover on.

Just follow my instructions.

When you say you have no heat, does your car get up to running temp?

Oh for the love of God, just have a mechanic check to see if you've got a belt missing. {Dan face palms himself.}

Man I'm not going to pay like $65 for a tow to a shop thats going to be like yep, its broken in a matter of 3 seconds, oh then charge me another $55 just for me to pop the hood for them.... Then say oh we can't do anything until the new year cause we're packed, then charge me double for the belt, triple for labour... cause well yeah, its a autos shop, instead of me trying to figure it out which I have already, I paid $20 for the belt and about 25 mins of my time and the cars back.

Instead of face palm, should punch yourself.

Just my $.02

dewyn wrote:
Instead of face palm, should punch yourself.

Just my $.02

Haha awesome.

So you were able to fix it with the steps I gave you?

dewyn wrote:Man I'm not going to pay like $65 for a tow to a shop thats going to be like yep, its broken in a matter of 3 seconds, oh then charge me another $55 just for me to pop the hood for them.... Then say oh we can't do anything until the new year cause we're packed, then charge me double for the belt, triple for labour... cause well yeah, its a autos shop, instead of me trying to figure it out which I have already, I paid $20 for the belt and about 25 mins of my time and the cars back.

Instead of face palm, should punch yourself.

1) You said you're not car savy
2) You couldn't tell forsure if you lost a belt or not
3) You can't distinguish an I4 to a V6

It wasn't looking to confident that you could diagnose, never mind repair your car. That's why Daninski recommeded to take it to a shop rather than trying to guess your way through the repair.

Glad you got it running, but he was just concerned about you getting it right and working. You didn't leave much for confidence in your abilities.

I'm going to help him out tomorrow, he lives like an hour north of me.. I actually sold him this car.

Ryan wrote:I'm going to help him out tomorrow, he lives like an hour north of me.. I actually sold him this car.

Sounds like he's putting it to good use.

yeah, lol, its seen a lot

The tensioner bracket actually broke right where the tensioner bolt threads through. I just replace the bracket, but he's still having heat issues. I think that car burned a bit of coolant, so I'm getting him to check that first.