[DTWinters]

Per the attached pic, should I be able to see oil covered metal at the bottom when I look into where we pour oil? The car is a 2011 E93 with 91,885 miles. Is this normal?

Thanks!

-Trevor in Austin

Disclaimer: I'm paranoid right now because Wed I had driven roughly 7 miles at mostly highway speeds and noticed my AC had stopped working. A "Battery malfunction" red battery error light came on shortly thereafter. I had another 5 miles home and nothing else seemed wrong, so I kept driving. On a flyover I realized the power steering wasn't working. Having had an "Increased battery discharge" message regularly over the past 8 months, I drove half a mile to an Advance Auto to get the alternator checked figuring that was the problem. While dude was figuring out his tester, I realized the accessory belt was missing. And Advanced Auto was out of my belt (and they wanted $45). Drove half mile home. Battery completely died (won't hold a charge) on the way. Ordered belt off Amazon for $18.

And then I read the helpful thread about shredded belts and got very afraid. I spent yesterday replacing the battery and then taking the crankshaft pulley off and found some shredded belt under there and cleaned it up. Mr. Malvo looked at the pics I posted and shared that he thought the front seal was good and shared I would have decent leaking oil if the front seal had been penetrated/compromised. I put everything back together including a new belt and it started perfectly. I drove it around the neighborhood. There was some sporadic minor engine idling issues, dipping below 500 rpm and racing above 800 rpm before normalizing. This morning I drove a little farther and got a "Service Engine Soon" light. It did stall once while backing out of a parking spot. There were 4 codes but my reader only could read P0171 and P0174.

I'm already having to buy a new home AC unit this week. I'm hoping to avoid spending money needlessly on my car, but need confidence that I'm not trashing the engine. Thanks for your thoughts!

[oVeRdOsE.]

make sense you dont have powersteering, a/c and battery code when the belt fly away. All connected.

By removing the crank damper pulley and take a picture, you'll see if the engine sucked the belt, it's pretty obvious, the crank seal will be damaged.

Buy the 20$ aluminum guard on ali.
Check you water pump ground too, sometimes when the belt snap, it rips the pump ground bolt.

Belt can fly for few reason : oil on it, bad idler/tentioner pulley, old belt, damaged power steering pulley, jammed a/c compressor, jammed alternator clutch.

Find you issue,


For the oil, no, you can't visualize this through the oil cap, only by the car infotainment or if you dont have by the cluster monitor.
The picture is very normal, you should NOT see the cam submerged in oil. If you're not sure, drain the oil and pour new oil at the right volume for your engine. Cheap insurance.

[DTWinters]

Thanks for the quick reply, Overdose. Glad to hear this pic doesn't indicate an oil circulation issue.

Per the attached pics and not having an obvious leak, even as there was wrapped shredded belt it appears nothing made it through the seal. Please let me know if you feel otherwise.

I have reset the codes and will see if they fire again. With good fortune and no new drama, I will eventually have confidence in my car again!

[oVeRdOsE.]

look fine, if there's belt in the engine, this will be fine rubber parts, and should not block the pickup tube, but can block small pin holes like the chain tensionner. Keep your ears on chain rattle at cold starts.

Judging by the picture, seems like you have a good oil leak. Valve cover or oil filter housing. clean all this with break cleaner, then engine degreaser, change the leaky gaskets and put the new belt.

If you already put it, simply clean the belt and pulley after the repairs.

[DTWinters]

Thanks once more, Overdose.

I meant to share the oil leak was solved 3 weeks ago when I replaced the oil filter housing cap after I had a seeping leak over the past couple months that wouldn't go away no matter how much I torqued the cap with its seemingly good gasket in place. I guess the damage to the belt was already done. Wish I had thought to check the belt.

So after a day working on the car and beating up my arms and hands, hopefully I am good and life moves on. Fingers crossed.

Thanks to Mr. Malvo and Overdose for getting me through this challenging stretch with the only outlay so far being a new battery and new belt.

[DTWinters]

The drama continues. I drove the car 3 blocks, waited for a light, turned left and the car stalled as I accelerated away. Pulled over, put it into neutral and the car started right back up. Didn't have any issues the remaining 3 miles out. Parked for 1.5 hrs. No issues starting and driving home.

I checked and there are no error codes. Big sigh... I'm scared to drive this car on the highway right now.

Any thoughts on what is going on? I have a 23 year old Suburban I can drive, but it doesn't have AC and I'm in Austin, TX. And I'll be driving a friend tonight.

Thanks in advance for any and all input!

[Efthreeoh]

Sounds like the engine has a vacuum leak.

[fastboatster]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Sounds like the engine has a vacuum leak.

kind of makes sense, the front crank seal most likely got damaged after all these belt pieces got between the crank and the seal.
if I was OP, I'd pull the oil pan out anyway even if it didn't look like too many belt pieces got inside the engine

[M-technik-3]

I would also check to see if the vanos solenoids are leaking or the valve cover. That is a lot of oil in those photos. You need to determine where it's coming from.

Is the car new to you? I would fix the crank seal as well.