I've heard squealing belts for a few weeks now, but it wasn't too bad so I didn't do anything. Then I was driving along and the squealing got real bad all of the sudden. Then a few minutes later I notice my car overheating (temp gauge at 3/4), so I pull over. The car had lost all its engine coolant, and some was getting on the belts. I'm pretty sure I wasn't driving it overheated for long since I was paying close attention to the temp once the squealing got bad.

I let it cool down, and did 4 short (3 miles or so) hops to get the car home. Each time I filled the coolant, got going, and stopped when it heated up past normal, and let it cool down. No other problems noticed until I had to go up a hill on the last hop - all of the sudden I'm not getting much power and the car's sputtering, but I can get up the car in a lower gear at slower speed. I coasted downhill most of the rest of the way to the repair shop, but had to turn it on a couple more times for a few seconds to get up hill crests-it was sputtering each time I did that.

The repair shop says the water pump's seals went bad and were leaking. Water pump needs to be replace, which means the whole timing belt has to be replaced (annoying, since I had replaced it 25000 miles ago). They're not sure if there's engine damage since the damaged water pump makes it hard to hear anything else going on.

I declined the repair, and tried driving it home, but as soon as I got it going it was sputtering a LOT, had very little power, and I could only get it about 200 feet before I stalled it. It's hard to start, and I have to give it gas to start it and keep going. I can't get the RPM's above 1500. My next try to start it failed and it doesn't start at all.

Another mechanic who was passing by (who hadn't worked on the car but had heard what was going on with it) suggested that maybe the leaking coolant caused the timing belt to skip.

Here's my question - I live in a city now and don't need the car, so I'm going to sell it no matter what. I can maybe get $2000 if it's working (it's in "fair" condition) or maybe...I dunno, $200-300 at the junk yard if it's not?) The timing belt/water pump replacement would be $450.

Do you think the engine problems are caused by a slipped timing belt, and thus there's no engine damage? Or do you think the timing belt has slipped enough to cause valve damage? Or something else completely (I don't think overheating by itself did any damage - it never got above 3/4 on the temp gauge, and I wasn't driving above normal temps for very long at all).

I've done a little research on what to listen for, and as far as I could tell while the engine was running I didn't hear any metallic clicking or banging. just sputtering

If it's looking like more than a timing belt/water pump replacement, then I'll just get it towed to the junk yard.

Thanks

 

The lack of power and the hard starts after a water pump break and overheating is signal of blown head gasket.

 

Some of these cars also have a crank sensor below the water pump, so if this sensor got fouled with coolant it might make the car run poorly. Did it throw any check engine light?
In any event it is very foolish to drive one of these cars that has overheated and has problems under the timing cover.
Also, whoever did the timing belt job 25k ago could be responsible.

 

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion without testing.