my mazda 3 2004 was just given back to me after I got the fuel pump completely replaced and I spent 1k on it and now I have this problem when I was driving it somebody pointed at the bottom of my car and then I drove for quite a bit more than finally stopped and saw I was leaking coolant all over the place and it was coming straight from my coolant tank and I noticed that the belt that connects to my power steering and my water pump as well as my alternator was hanging off the bottom of my car please can somebody help me
You need it towed to a shop to see why the belt came off and see if you damaged the engine by continuing to drive it while overheating, If you are lucky, you might just need a new belt and tensioner and refill the coolant.
In case you are wondering, this has nothing to do with your fuel pump.
2 Likes
alright so there shouldn’t be a leak in coolant right because I just filled the coolant tank up with water but it leaked a few drops than stopped and you said towed so it wouldn’t be wise to drive it to a shop
and I hope I don’t cause more problems by filling the coolant tank with water
If you poured cold water into a very hot engine you could have cracked the block or head but if that happened you should have heard a loud snap (ask me how I know).
How far away is the shop? One mile sure, 10 miles no.
lmao no I poured the water in the tank a couple of hours after turning off the car but I’m courious how do you know ? 
and its like 2 miles away.
actually not too long ago I had to get my coolant pipes replaced and I drove the car to the shop to do that and the whole way going there I had to keep pouring water into the coolant tank every few feet thankfully I didn’t fry no pistons or damage the head gasket
As soon as the belt came off, warning light on the dash should have come on. So one issue is why the belt came off and how you could drive it without the power steering. Could the water pump have seized up, thus throwing the belt off? If the water pump seized, then that could be why the coolant was being lost. I think a shop needs to sort it out but can’t see how you’re going to drive it with the belt off.
the car steers without power steering because I was driving for a good time without it and I parked my car with it off and as to why my coolant leaked I will talk to my mechanic tomorrow morning and see what he thinks and my engine check light did come on and also my belt was past due its time and I had noticed that the belt had cracks in it but I neglected it
ok I think I know why my coolant spilled all out onto the floor… its because it had overheated because my water pump was inactive when my belt came off causing the coolant to just sit in the system and not get transferred to my radiator. so when my coolant overheated it had to get out somehow so a hole opened somewhere on the coolant tank to let the overheated coolant out I might be wrong but from the research I did I think that’s it. And I just read that the serpentine belts in cars should last up to 65000 miles up to 100000 and I just broke the 100000 mark in my car and I don’t think that belt was ever changed.
It is most likely that when the belt came off, the pressure rise in the coolant system was so great that the coolant tank split or cracked and this is where the coolant leak was coming from.
I would not risk overheating the engine and would have it towed.
Yosemite
My first car, a 9 year old Plymouth that I bought for $20 …was in need or replacement because of rust ( I could not keep the dog in the car, he would just go out under the doors) . I had already purchased the next car and hat stopped at my mother-in- laws house on the way to the junkyard. My cad was overheating and the battery was dying. I stuck a garden hose in the rad, turned on the water and heard a loud snap and oil and antifreeze we pouring all over their driveway.
My mother-in-law looked at my car and said, “Where is your fanbelt?”
Needless to say, I knew nothing about cars then.
well thankfully I didn’t pour that gallon of water that I had into the tank immediately after I stopped the car because when I finally stopped it, the car was steaming and sizzling hopefully I did no damage to the motor but I just talked to my mechanic and he told me that when he had it he noticed that one of my engine mounts need to be replaced too and I have no idea what that is but it sounds expensive
There is a good chance you damaged the engine, to the point where it needs major repairs, or a new engine.
You should never ignore warning lights and gages, specially the ones that indicate overheating.
Looking back at the OP’s post some of the terms they use make me think they need to have someone with a basic understanding of vehicles go with them and listen to the mechanic.
Coolant tank ( means overflow reservoir ?) Coolant pipes ( radiator and/or heater hoses ?)
Motor mounts keep the engine properly mounted and not terribly expensive.
If you have severe engine damage as Bill suspects it may not be worth the repair cost and only you can make that call.
I was curious about the fuel pump being “completely replaced” I don’t recall ever partially replacing one.
what do you mean… I had to get my fuel pump replaced because my fuel pump wasn’t transferring fuel to start the combustion process to ignite the engine and me being dumb and not knowing then what the problem was kept on cranking the ignition key until I shorted my brand new battery lol. which led to me towing it to a shop
and thanks everybody for your comments just got home from work good thing theres a lotta trains here in new York or my ass would be outta of a job… and hope you don’t judge me for my lack of grammar and punctuation… lol I really don’t care for it. also I’m only 18 and have a lot to learn so anything you guys are saying are a great help
$1,000 for a fuel pump seems high and makes me wonder if other work was performed during the same visit, possibly under the hood.
well heres the thing . there are two types of fuel pumps for my model of my car, so the other fuel pump was about $160 and that was the first one I saw and I was thinking oh this isn’t going to cost me much but then I found out that fuel pump is for the model of my car just a different type… one that doesn’t have the California emission certificate which my lovely car has. so since my car is the one that has the California emission and not the federal emission a fuel pump now costs me about $500 and since you have to take the fuel tank down and out to replace the fuel pump in my car the labor is not going to be cheap lol and actually it was the whole fuel pump assembly that’s another reason why