I realized this was a really long post. See bold for important parts.
Just hoping to get some advice on my caddy. I don't know whether I need to buy a new alternator or not. So I started it up this morning and it started to screech and make a mild grinding noise. a few seconds later, the "charge" light illuminated on the dash. I had to get to work in a hurry so I took off. About a mile down the road I could smell smoke and suddenly the sound stopped and I lost power steering. I figured, oh crap the serpentine belt just snapped. When I got to work, I looked under the hood really quick and saw the shredded remains of my belt and hurried into work. When I got to the parking lot this evening, I popped the hood and manually cranked the alternator, which seemed to me that it turned ok, maybe a little rough? (I don't know, I've never turned an alternator by hand so I don't know what it's like at baseline). Anyway, I also noticed that there was some belt shavings? on the wheel of the alternator. So that was a long way of asking, is this a case of a bad alternator or a bad belt? My reasoning is that I started it up, alternator froze, which led the light and screeching sound as the belt tried to make the pulley spin (leaving the shavings). Eventually the belt snapped which killed the powersteering. I don't have a lot of cash, and I'm working away from home so my access to tools is fairly limited, so I was wondering a) do I need to replace the alternator; b) if so, how can I do so cheaply, (autozone, salvage yard, etc?), c) is this something I could tackle in the hotel parking lot?
Sorry for the long winded question. Thanks for your help in advance.
Just hoping to get some advice on my caddy. I don't know whether I need to buy a new alternator or not. So I started it up this morning and it started to screech and make a mild grinding noise. a few seconds later, the "charge" light illuminated on the dash. I had to get to work in a hurry so I took off. About a mile down the road I could smell smoke and suddenly the sound stopped and I lost power steering. I figured, oh crap the serpentine belt just snapped. When I got to work, I looked under the hood really quick and saw the shredded remains of my belt and hurried into work. When I got to the parking lot this evening, I popped the hood and manually cranked the alternator, which seemed to me that it turned ok, maybe a little rough? (I don't know, I've never turned an alternator by hand so I don't know what it's like at baseline). Anyway, I also noticed that there was some belt shavings? on the wheel of the alternator. So that was a long way of asking, is this a case of a bad alternator or a bad belt? My reasoning is that I started it up, alternator froze, which led the light and screeching sound as the belt tried to make the pulley spin (leaving the shavings). Eventually the belt snapped which killed the powersteering. I don't have a lot of cash, and I'm working away from home so my access to tools is fairly limited, so I was wondering a) do I need to replace the alternator; b) if so, how can I do so cheaply, (autozone, salvage yard, etc?), c) is this something I could tackle in the hotel parking lot?
Sorry for the long winded question. Thanks for your help in advance.
