I am writing this hoping someone can help me. I was driving and when I shifted from neutral to first from a stop all of a sudden there was a loud "thud" and the car stalled, like I might have misshifted or something. Then I started it up and drove, and noticed smoke coming out from under the hood. I pulled over and popped the hood. It looked like it was coming from where the hose goes to the radiator, most of it close to the right headlight. I thought maybe my clutch at first, but the car drove ok so thats not the issue. It seems maybe a coolant hose cracked or a coolant seal might have cracked leading to the radiator. I noticed my voltage gauge was lower than usual below 12V (normally reads 14V)so a friend told me it could be a belt that could have burned or something, it was a smell like burnt rubber, and I thought it was the oil, but I changed it 3 days ago and poured 10W30 for a 94 nonturbo SL. at 103,500 miles it is burning a little. Please let me know what you guys think but there are my suggestions.

1. A hose or line from the coolant or radiator area might have snapped,cracked and leaking or a seal melted or something...
2. The coolant must be flushed and maybe something with it bc the tank is like brownish-muddy and should be blue, maybe oil is getting into the area where it should not... a seal might be letting in oil somewhere where the oil or water go to cool the engine.
3. Not the timing belt, but the main belt, or accessory belt might have weakened itself bc of overheating and snapped or something, that is why the belt is not spinning at the rpm its supposed to,making the voltahe gauge read lower.
What I know is there is smoke coming from the front area near the headlights/radiator area/volate reading lower than usual, Please let me know what you think. I dont want to get jipped by a mechanic but I am taking my car to the shop tomorrow.

 

It could have been one of the uhm.... whats the name.... the things that spin? bearings? probably one of those got stuck, maybe the one for the alternator, that would explain its lack of charge and the loud toud, the sound it made when the lil ball broke or something.... anyways, dont believe me 100% im only posting this cuz that same thing happened to me on my previous car, and after that i realized one of the pulleys (there ya go thats the word) was not moving at all

 

Is your oil low?
Are you losing coolant?
Are there any other fluids running low?
There are no belts on the passenger side of the engine, when you said "right side" did you mean right as you are looking at the engine, or right as you are sitting in the car?

 

Well, right side I meant when I got out of the car and was in front of the hood. So yeah, it would be left side from the drivers point of view. I pulled the car out to change cars today, no smoke but that same goddamn smell still there, like burnt rubber or something, I'm thinking now its a belt that overheated,snapped or something, or a coolant/radiator line,hose,or clamp. There is one line I noticed on the bottom of my car it looked like a plastic tube clear see-through in color, like the size of a straw,but made of hard plastic, i think maybe that line got off, wasnt tight enough and then the coolant didnt go through properly, its located on the lower right side of the stock headers when looking in front of hood, or you can say its right underneath the radiator bc i think its going to the radiator, but the other end is just an open tube like a straw pointing, and its twisted, looks like no liquid could get thru nemore, im pretty sure that is it, or... it can be a belt that might have gotten off and melted. Bc maybe that coolant line or the belt could have slipped off and landed on the stock headers, heated and melted a little, that caused the smoke. But idk, why lower voltage readiing, thats nothing to do with coolant, I will check the oil level, pretty sure thats not it, I just changed it 4 days ago at mitsu dealer. I want to thank the above 2 ppl for their post and help, please reply to this and let me know asap. My mechanic is not working today, guess I wont drive it today.

 

Now, at night I came back from work, voltage is low, (car wont even unlock with the remote power door lock) and the alarm is beeping rapidly (which I know for a fact means low voltage bc I had the same problem when I had to replace my battery and ckeck engine connections, so I disconnected the neg battery termninal for the night. I'm not sure now if it is the coolant or radiator hoses or anything to do with that. Now, I'm suspecting belts and pulleys, but they looked fine and all were spinning, maybe there was one I didnt see.Neways what I'm worried about is getting the car to the mechanic in the first place...Please help out and let me know what you can. All I know is coolant I replaced maybe like a year ago and oil change was 4 days ago. Mitsu dealer said I would need a tune up b4 the winter. So I will order spark plugs and wires, and I already have fuel filter and pcv valve. any other maintenance requirements are needed for a non turbo 94 3000Gt i should know about? thanks

 

Im sorry... i do not know that much about the 3kgt, however, id recommend you running a test on the uhm.... whats the name.... ALTERNATOR! yeah.... test it to make sure if its working right, cuz im pretty sure if it was an issue with one of the coolant lines you would already be overheating by now

 

Sounds like you smoked a belt. If you aren't low on any fluids, I'd say you don't have any leaks. Considering the problems you are now having, it sounds like your alternator bearing are either locked up, or in the process of locking up. You'll need to jack up the driver side of the car, take off the wheel, remove the plastic cladding, remove the alternator belt and see what is causing the problem. It could be the alternator, AC, idler pulley, or tensioner pulley. They should all spin freely and easily.

As far as maintenance goes, change the parts you have already bought and check all the belts, radiator hoses, heater hoses. How many miles are on your ride?

PCV valves either work, or they don't work. They don't normally need changed until they go bad. Since you already have one, you just as well change it out.

 

I have got the car back. The problem was the alternator went so I got it rebuilt and a seal behind the alternator had to be replaced. It cost me with labor 300.00. Thank you guys for helping me out with this issue.