My alternator belt flew off driving up to fayetteville from wilimington today, and the voltage immediately dropped, but there was agas station up ahead i wanted to make it to since it was getting dark. about a minute before i made it to the station, i hit zero volts and the motor started acting like it was out of gas, but it kept going. i asume this means its because the fuel pump cut off because it is electric and would require juice from the charging system. My question now is, could i have screwed up the engine internally by running it like i did?

 

no voltage means no spark either
chances are you will be fine

 

You'll be ok.

 

But would the fuel pump cut off at the exact same time as i would stop getting spark?

Also, how was the motor still running?

Also, when I finally did make it to the station, I put it in neutral and the motor dropped down to where it almost stalled repeatedly about 5 times, then I cut if off. I had to have hurt something, because now I am getting a check engine light. If autozone scanners would work, I could figure out what the problem is!

Or if anyone around the Fayetteville area would be so kind to let me use theirs, that would be great.

 

Heh, I've done that. Shouldn't be a big deal. Just make sure thatt if your belt shredded you don't have pieces of it jammed in your fan, waterpump, etc. You may want to go ahead and charge your battery on a trickle charger overnight as well.

Your SES light just means you threw a code. It's just the car's way of telling you something went horribly wrong at some point. Try to get a scanner to work on it and you should be good to go.

 

you'll be fine.

 

So if I was to run out of gas, and I kept my foot on the pedal even though the engine was already stumbling, it wouldn't hurt anything? Isn't that the same thing as running extremely lean? I thought running lean caused damage.

 

Just quit asking questions and get another belt you will not be running lean. Just make sure you clean the mess up from other belt, think of it this way its just like the chain coming of your bike but it does not throw any codes you will be ok... If your so worried about the code get another belt put it on at the gas station pull your fuse out, that should reset the computer, and start the car up no code your fine...

 

 

Quit being such a nancy and put a new belt on there

 

I did get another belt. I didn't even post this thread until the day after everything happened. This has very little to do with the actual belt.

It's just the fact that I think the fuel pump was cutting out because the battery voltage dropped so much and I'm already running lean int he first place.

If that's not how do you damage piston rings, valves, etc., then how do you damage them? I guess I've been around bad teachers all my life. It is very much a possibility.

I am basically asking someone to tell me WHY they think it was impossible for me to have damaged something.

 

Running lean at high load conditions is most likely to cause engine damage.

Running lean at low load/low engine speeds like what happened to you will almost never cause problems unless the motor is messed up already. When I had my tune done, I specifically asked them to lean it out at cruising speed.

 

Peoples cars die all the time because of running out of fuel and i've never heard of them having problems with damage except for a burnt out fuel pump. Just because a car runs lean for a few seconds doesn't mean you are going to damage anything. If you are running Nitrous or a supercharger and you run lean then yes you are going to cause some damage. If you thought it was such a bad idea why did you keep driving it.

 

I didn't think it was such a bad idea. it wasn't until I pressed the gas a little harder for a second and backed off that I realized the problem.

Why did it start revving up and down after I put it in neutral?

When you say "heavy working conditions", what exactly do you mean? I floored it once but I was only turned 2,000 rpm.

 

Think of it as when somebody has hard starting issues bc there is something messed up in there fuel system, like the fuel pump not working properly. I know from personal experience that I have had to floor my motor and let it start up. Just about all engine damage is done when the engine is under heavy load, like if someone is racing and spinning 6500 RPM's. The motor was revving up and down bc the fuel system didnt kick off before the ignition and it was probably struggling with what small power it had left. Trust me, you'll be fine.