Okay, having some problems with my car again, but this time it's worse. I noticed less then a week ago my car starting making a high pitched squealing noise when I started it up, but it would stop once I got moving. This lasted for a few days, after a few days I noticed that the squealing would continue as I was driving down the road, but my car still seemed drivable so I wasn't too worried about it. My sister came into town on Friday night from Bakersfield, and her and I both noticed that the squealing sound seemed to be louder, and was a continuous noise from the time the car started, till I turned it off. I was gonna call around tomorrow to try and see if I could get thoughts as to what the problem might be, (since it seemed to be getting worse, and fast) but the problem caught up with me sooner then I anticipated. Today my sister left town, and she had to catch the bus which was only 10 min. away from my house. Right as we were about a block away from the area, my car died. I'm still not sure what caused this. I was able to get around the corner, wound up having to park in a red zone for about 2 hrs, (no cops ever came around). After I turned the corner, I noticed a large amount of grey smoke coming from under the hood, (was a pretty scarry sight). I turned off the car and let it cool down, meanwhile I was calling everyone I knew to see if I could get help. I still needed to get her to the bus, so I tried to start the car again at least 5 times with the gear in neutral. The car acted as if it didn't want to start, with the petal floored, it slowly cranked over,it would finally start, but the noise was very loud. I could get the car going in reverse, but trying to pull out into traffic turned out to not be an option at all, (the car would immediately die). I opened the hood at one point to see what was happening, and I noticed that when the car was on, one of the belts was turning on a small circular part it was around, with I think one bolt in the middle of it, but the grey smoke was coming from that area, (I immediately turned the car off, and haven't turned it on again since then, too afraid too). I dont have a Hanes Manual with me, or any metric sized tools, so its a bit hard to discribe everything in detail. I am not fully sure what to do or think at this point. As much as I dont like to admit it, I am not a mechanical person, so I dont know if this could be the cause of something else failing, or what the reason could be. I'm not sure what is going wrong with my car, how in-depth all this could get,or how costly. I'm not sure what to think at this point, so any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone in advance.

__________________
85 300D Turbo Diesel, Sedan. Federal Emissions. 283K.

what pully was it.. ive heard the alternator seizing and so the AC compressor

standing in front of the engine facing it.. the smoke. coming from the drivers side or passenger side...

From the sound of it the smallest pulley on the car that has 1 bolt in the middle of it would be the altenator. If that is the case and the smoke was from the altenator locking up then you will need to replace the altenator and the drive belts. Since you do not have your manual. If you open the hood and stand facing the car it will be on the left side down low. Hope this is it as this should not cuase any real damage to the engine. If it was on the right side as you face the vehicle it would be your power steering pump or A/C These are a bit more in depth. If it is in the middle then you are taking water pump and that could be bad since you kept driving it. It is hard to say without more detailed info but I hope this helps.

if he got it to crank slowly and turn over then it could be the alternator siezing.. since the battery had a lil life left in it then it was running off the battery while running and not the alternator...

Well, the AC stopped working a few years ago when my boyfriend and his friend took a trip down to the Mojave desert, so I'm not sure that would be related at all. As to which pully, umm.....I know that if your facing the car, you've got something like 3 circular spinning parts that have belts wrapped around them. The part that I noticed that had grey smoke with the belt was on the far left, (the circular part with the double belts). That is as best of a description as I can give for now. Hopefully it can get us somewhere. Thanks for the fast responce!

__________________
85 300D Turbo Diesel, Sedan. Federal Emissions. 283K.

passenger side?

Umm, left as in on the passenger side.

__________________
85 300D Turbo Diesel, Sedan. Federal Emissions. 283K.

far left would be the alternator

so it seized... easy fix.. install a new one and new belt, to correct tension and your good to go....

From what everyone is saying, it sounds like the alternator is going out, but I'm not sure how to tell that even if I were to look inside the "problem" area. As to shutting the AC system off, and then starting the car up, with the symptoms I described the first time around, I am actually too afraid to start the car up again with the fear that whatever the problem is, could get much worse with starting the car again. Thanks to everyone for rsponding so fast, keep the ideas and comments coming!

__________________
85 300D Turbo Diesel, Sedan. Federal Emissions. 283K.

if its the alternator going and you were running with it seized.. evident by the grey smoke coming from the area(the belt burning) then you would be running off the battery, which would drain it since the alternator wasnt putting power out...which means you would have had that hard time starting it.. since the battery was drained...

All of this makes some sense, (since I dont know as much as I could about this sorta thing). If this is the problem, doesanyone know of a good price for another alternator?

__________________
85 300D Turbo Diesel, Sedan. Federal Emissions. 283K.

cut the belt going to the alternator.
If your battery has enough juice left, it should start up and sound like normal.

Don't let it run for more than 20 seconds or so, cause that same belt turns the water pump, and you don't want to run without that spinning.

with the belt cut, try to turn the alternator by hand. most likely it won't turn. If it turns easily, try turning the water pump pulley, it should also spin. If not, you'll need a water pump.

__________________
'82 Euro MB 300 D Turbo Silver/Blue - Fixed
Adding W115 Intake and Intercooler

1986 Chevy Camaro Cp 400HP For Sale
Engineer
Tuscaloosa, AL

Well, by what everyone is saying, it seems to be the alternator. I'm about 90% sure that it isn't the water pump, (had a bad coolant leak about 2 months ago, replaced it, car hasn't overheated since then).

__________________
85 300D Turbo Diesel, Sedan. Federal Emissions. 283K.

IF it has 2 belts on it then those are the altenator belts you can look at the inside of the belts all the way around you will probably need a flashlight to see all of it but you can look for burned spots or flat spots on the belts. This will be a good indication. To check the altenator is very simple and only requires 2 wrenches typically a 17mm and a 13mm just loosen it up and see if it will spin freely. If it doesn't then that is your problem. Usually takes less than an hour to change no problem.

Well, I still needto buy a Hanes Manual at some point, not sure how late Kragen is open though, (dealing with my work schedule). It seems as though it could be an easy fix once I have the Hanes manual to look at, and to see where all these parts fit and where. Does aynone have any idea on how much an alternator costs? Thanks to everyone for their time. If anyone else feels the need to reply, please do.

__________________
85 300D Turbo Diesel, Sedan. Federal Emissions. 283K.