its raining really bad over here in socal, when i pulled into my garage i noticed a decently loud squeeling noise...maybe one of the belts got wet? so i open the hood and smoke is coming from the raditor...could this just be steam from the water hitting the hot radiator?

ideas?

 

Just to be safe, do you know what your water temp is? Were you sitting in the rain for a decent amount of time to overheat?

 

nope, no traffic or anything, i'm basically stock (downpipe, intake) so all i have is the stock water temp, but it read normal.

 

Could you decipher between if what you were seeing was smoke or steam? I think if it’s raining hard enough and water is getting onto the radiator, it could create steam. I know from personal experience after giving my car a good wash. If I spray down the oil coolers and fire up the car, the water will steam off. It seems as though this is a probable explanation for what happened in your instance.

 

wow... that was what was happening to me today too... i have a scoot vented hood and steam was coming up from the vents.... so if rain falls onto my block, it can crack it?? is that true?

 

No worries dude, I have a vented carbon fiber knight sport replica hood and I drove in the rain too. All you have to do is drive with plastic wrap over the passenger side where the intake is.

I drove into a flooded intersection a while back with a Greddy SMIC. When I removed it to check for oil, I found at least 12 ounces of water in it.
BTW, steam was a byproduct of rain.

 

i don't know if it was smoke or steam....what about the squeeling?

 

Most likely a wet belt, happens to my daily driver frequently in the rain. Was the engine compartment wet in some areas when you opened the hood? Also, any coolant loss since this occured? If your not seeing any coolant on the ground, underbody panel, or around the radiator. I would assume your radiator and hoses are in fine working order, and that it was just water evaporating. That must have been quite the torrential downpour.

On another note, it's rather difficult to get water in the bay to the point of the belts. There are a lot of other items get in the way beforehand. Do you have a vented hood?

 

bwahahahahaha that is the funniest **** i have read in a long time!

 

question for the original poster: do you have the belly-pan installed?

just wondering.

-b

 

 

Too bad that won't be on the carfax report .

 

Man, you guys really don't know what to do when it rains... hehe..

 

Unless you don't have a daily beater, park it!

 

 

it NEVER rains in SoCal, but when it does, it POURS. I have to start pakcing a paddle with me in the car.

 

damn

good thing i still have my stock hood

 

well, i turned her back on this morning, i'm guessing the radiator is fine because the smoke wasn't happeneing any more. Its not raining any more. The belt is still whining loud as hell. I'm not sure what to do. Its pretty tight so i don't think its slipping, any other ideas?

 

some armour all will do wonders if it is just the belt making noise. but it may also be a tensioner or any of the acc.. so it is not leaking any coolant?

 

no coolant leakage.

 

so would spraying a little wd-40, or some liquid wrench on the pulleys/belt be a bad idea?

 

Yes, because the solvents in both will attack the fibers and compounds in the belts. Try mad_7tist's suggestion using Armor-All; put a towel or rags over the driver's side fender, and wear eye protection, as the belts will spray some of the excess. And don't stick your hand or the bottle too close to the belts if you apply it while the engine's running, obviously....