My Car Died ><

[WoodenSunshine]

Not a great night for me.

Thankfully, it died only about a half mile from my house. Bad part, with my torn meniscus, it felt like ten miles. It was weird though, because I just seem to lose speed and then, I seemed to lose my power steering. I don't think it's from low fuel. Foo.

Any thoughts?

[Squeaksmyalias]

I think you might have lost or it's about to go either you serpentine belt or a timing belt. That's the only things I could think of for that to happen. Ideally your battery went cause that is much much cheaper to fix, but that would normally just effect the power steering and your car would have turned off. Call a mechanic and get it looked at either way, I should also note I am in no way a mechanic, I just spend way too often in garages, so I could be really wrong.
Good luck with the car.

[terakhan]

Count your blessings on the distance that you had, and hope the repairs aren't huge. When my Isuzu Rodeo suicided, it was a total loss and several hundred miles from home.

[wolfie]

Not a great night for me.

Thankfully, it died only about a half mile from my house. Bad part, with my torn meniscus, it felt like ten miles. It was weird though, because I just seem to lose speed and then, I seemed to lose my power steering. I don't think it's from low fuel. Foo.

Any thoughts?

I think you might have lost or it's about to go either you serpentine belt or a timing belt.

Looking for a few more symptoms: was the "losing speed" a gradual loss of power, or coasting down after the engine suddenly stopped making power? Any noises accompanying the loss of power? Any dashboard lights coming on?

If the engine cut out with an automatic, the torque converter would let the engine itself stop (there goes your power steering, alternator and oil pressure lights would come on) while the car was still coasting (with a manual, the car would be driving the engine, so you'd still have power steering as you coasted down).

Failed serpentine belt would lose power steering immediately (some cars - others it's on a separate belt), then after a while you'd overheat (water pump not running) - this would almost certainly happen long before the engine stopped due to battery running down and no power to ECM and spark plugs (alternator not running). Failed timing belt is serious bad news - unless you've got a car from before the mid-80s with a free-running engine (valve and piston travel doesn't overlap in space - the '78 Horizon was this way), there would probably have been some sort of "sick" noise from the engine when the pistons hit the valves.

A failed battery probably wouldn't cause a car to die on the highway, since you'd still be getting voltage from the alternator (personal experience - '93 Excel).

[pitmonkey]

Fuel pump and/or filter.