Please Help I almost crashed due to this!
 

Before I get flammed I searched and it doesn't appear to be the steering lock problem my Z is a 2010 and I was coming home from work when all of a sudden the emergency brake light on the dash and battery turned on and then my steering wheel turned super hard that I was struggling to turn almost causing me a fatal crash into oncoming traffic. The turns on and off and those lights on my dash are still on and my Volts Gauge is at a Constant 12. Please I could appreciate any help at this point.

You're saying the wheel turned without your input?

I just had to take my 10 to the dealership and they had to change out that auto lock system maybe it is related. The auto lock after the change sounds really different and there is a National recall on the mechanism so wont cost you anything.

No I was turning to into my neiborhood street but my then my steering wheel got hard to turn

Right now I'm on my way to oreillys to check my battery and see what's up

Ill take ur word for it what ill do is ill check the battery first then take it to the dealer first thing tomorrow morning

Have you looked under the hood? If the battery isn't charging and the steering got really heavy all of a sudden maybe you snapped the belt? Otherwise get the car in the air and take a look around.

Alright man thx sure will

right on hope it works out for you

Sounds like a snapped serpentine belt to me. Does your a/c blow warm air too?

That's what I'd put my money on. At least it's a cheap fix.

The only thing with the belt popping is at speed you should still have control over the steering. I dont know of a manufacture that would make a car totally dependant on a power steering pump to turn the car or cause it to pull to one side if it lost power as it would be a serious safety issue. Could it be coincidental that the battery tripped out or short within the electrical system while at the same time driving over a divot in the road or maybe bumping a curb causing your wheel to pull to one side?

Power steering
 

This is just a guess, as I'm no mechanic, but back in the day I would have suspected an alternator failure that manifested in the lights AND power steering issues. I'm sure one of the guys/girls on here knows if there could be a connection. Good luck.

I think it was the sudden switch from power to manual steering when the belt snapped in mid turn that he was talking about.

Heading back home to check the power steering belt and the serpentine belt battery is at 95% life so I got some work to do

So I get home, Pop the hood and VOILA! My serpentine belt was loose -.- I guess my Non res'd F.I cbe and T.p were too much for it haha jk jk well at least I know what the problem is but Phew! What a scare :O

Ummm guys....my belt didn't unsnao this pully came off the one on top of the crankshaft pulley. I tightened it back in and I'm putting the belt back as we speakhttps://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...50799136_o.jpg

The pulley itself came off? Weird.

:tup: make sense.

Dude you and me both my pops even told wtf did you do! Well we tighten it back and we managed to put the belt back on but our wrench feel down and now we have that problem on hand lmao will post back. . .

:tup:

I tighten the pulley back and snapped back the belt but nothing it made a horrible screeching sound and smoke starting coming out where the band was rubbing on that pulley. I'm just gonna take it to the dealer or.

A horrible day today blahh!

Sounds like the pulley isn't turning. Is the bearing in it seized? If it is, it's possible that it could have unscrewed itself.

Here's how the belts supposed to be installed

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-H...821_182218.jpg

@chuck: yes man thats exactly it! @Trips:the pulley that Untightened in the one on the top roght from #3 (crankshaft pulley)...this is more of a dealers problem yes?:yum: Becausr I haven't messed with those things nor tried installing a pulley kit.

It's a dealer problem if you're still under warranty. If not, I can't imagine that the pulley is too expensive. If you're DIYing it, go ahead and replace the belt too. It's a wear item, and you just took some life off of it.

Warranty is 100k miles correct?

Maybe if you bought an extended one. From memory, powertrain is 5 yrs/60k miles.

Oh ok then lets see what happens ill keep you guys posted, this is new to me as is the FIRST problem I ever encountered with my Z in the past 3 yrs lmao xD

Just giving an Update, so I took my car to my mechanic and well the bearings on my top right idle pulley and the one from the very top from the Crankshaft pulley gave out. I'm getting both em replaced tomorrow and I advise my Fellow Z members to check your pulleys if u hear a "Ticking" sound cuz that's what happened to mine I just ignored it thinking it was normal from the car.

Very strange for pulley to go out yet alone two of them. I've never seen two go out at the same time.

Dude you and me both lmao, well I took the parts today and ill get later on today at 5pm. I wanted to take ot the dealer but I got 65k miles already and well it looked like something easy to fix so just a heads up this car always has weird screw ups lol

You should have called the dealer and see if it could get covered. Sometimes dealers and manufactures make exceptions for this especially since you're only 5k over warranty.

This. He lost boost via no belt.

This might be overkill, but when I have replaced the serpentine belt on other cars, I always replace the idler pulleys, then replace the tensioner around 75K. While the belt tends to run in the $50 to $60 range, the pulleys are around $20 (prices might be different for our cars, I'll check and see). With the amount of work it takes to get to the serpentine belt, it would seem to me to make sense to replace the idler pulleys at the same time. :twocents:

Oh I did I didn't wanna have the same problem again lol the tensiober seem fine no worries to the slightest. But I did end up replacing the third idler pulley just to have all 3 idlers new and a new serpentine belt.