2002 Protege LX Serpentine Belt

[xxbucknutxx]

Hi I've had my protege since I've had my liscence about a year and a half ago. I recently took it to a mechanic who is a family friend and hooked at my bearings and strut mounts. Bearings are loud but good shape. Top strut mount is noisy when turning to the right worn but ok shape. I've always had a noisy belt squeal but today it broke. I pulled off And limped it home. It wase leaking radiator fluid because it overheated from fan not being powered. I will need to replace all belts others are about to slip off. My question is did I damage my car severely by overheating it? Is my radiator shot? And by the way I love my protege and don't wanna lose her. She has 124,xxx miles I wanna see her go over 200,000. She's my baby. Any help or reassurance would be greatly appreciated

[irishkev90]

Radiator wouldn't be damaged as much as the engine. The radiator fan isn't controlled by a belt, it's electric. The water pump is controlled by a belt, and if that belt broke then the water/coolant wouldn't get pumped through the engine/radiator, which would cause overheating. As to how much damage has been done, depends on how long the engine was running after the belt broke. I'm not an expert, but I did want to clear up some info for you. Hope someone with more knowledge can chime in to help.

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[1Mazda323Fan]

I had the same thing happen to me. Actually, someone who may or may not be me didn't tighten the alternator tension bolt enough, so the belt loosened up and fell off on my way home. Anyway, your car overheated because the water pump wasn't being driven, and thus not pumping coolant anywhere (your fan should have been working still; it's electric). If you didn't run the car for more than a few minutes, it should be fine. If you drove for two hours, then it's probably time to source a new engine. Refill and properly bleed the cooling system, replace the belts and start the car. If nothing untoward seems to happen, I'd call it fixed and be done with it. You might want to run a compression test first and make sure the head gasket is still good before doing the belts, as they have to come off to replace that thing anyway.