Friday, April 10, 2009 - 01:14 pm, by: Michael White(Zeph312)
Good friday, not a mechanic open anywhere, driving home, car starts to rattle and shake, warning lights come on, power drops considerably. Limped home, translated the jap warnings, one say catalitic converter failure, other one says alternator not charging battery, plus there is huge grinding noise and vibrations coming from car(when not in gear). Can anyone shed light on what has happened? and how much it is gonna cost me? of all the days this could of happened it just had to be today! Help me please!
Saturday, April 11, 2009 - 06:42 pm, by: Harry Lemmens(Wombat)
Probably, as posted above, its steering pump failure (leaking). The pump can groan when there is not enough fluid... If you search other posts, you will also find that when the power steering pump fails, it fills the alternator with transmission fluid. This ruins the alternator pretty rapidly!
When the alternator fails, you get the cat overheat light coming up.
I have also noticed that when the alternator is dead, the suspension no longer pumps up!