My 2003 Mazda Protege was sitting in the airport parking lot for 10 days while I was out of town (immediately after getting a state inspection done).

Got back from my trip in the middle of the night and tried to start it, I heard loud screeching, accompanied by a faint smell and some light smoke. It started the second time with no issue. I drove it a couple miles before it got really hot and then parked it and woke my wife to pick me up. The next morning I went back and found the belt that drives the alternator and water pump was broken. I pulled it out and drove 1/2 a mile to the nearest repair shop. I bought a new alternator (the old one had seized) and a new belt and they installed them. When they started it back up, the same thing apparently happened (I wasn't there, so I don't know if it sounded exactly the same, but I think they said it tore up the belt again).

I would appreciate any advice on what might be wrong. Someone told me that the tone rings might be damaged/shredded. Does this sound right? I don't know anything about that.


Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!!!

 

There is one tone ring at the crank shaft pulley and it should not get in contact with the belt.
What I can imagine is that one of the pulleys is sitting crooked and has a bad bearing.
Hard to tell without looking at it with my own eyes.

 

Thanks, tanprotege!

After browsing the forum, I was hoping you would respond as you seem to be very active and knowledgable... Many thanks! It was the mechanic who put in the alternator who told me the problem was the tone ring. I'm thinking he was just making things up, so I will probably take it elsewhere. Should I be able to reach in and turn the pulleys with my hand?

I'm wondering now if it might be the water pump bearing, since its now a new alternator.

 

If you take the belt off you can turn the pulleys. The tension adjuster is behind the alternator. The lower alternator bolt is easier to get to from below (all based on the '98 protege) The water pump should be easy to turn, the alternator may have resistance by the magnets. In order to move the crank pulley you need to take out the spark plugs and use a breaker bar on the crank shaft pulley bolt.

Thanks for the kudos. I started answering questions after I couldn't get an answer for one of my own questions. I learned a lot just doing that. Yet there is still room for improvement.

 

Wanted to post the resolution to this problem. I have a friend who works at that repair shop and he confirmed that the alternator had frozen. He also said that the "teeth" of the tone ring were indeed out of place. I popped the hood and verified that the water pump and new alternator pulleys seemed to be fine (aligned with the driving pulley and easily movable). The new belt that had been put on was chewed up on one edge, so I had them try to fix the tone ring. They bent the teeth back into place, put a new belt on, and the problem went away. The repair shop said this is extremely rare, but I thought I would post it anyway in case anyone else has thiss issue and is wondering like I was. Thanks again for the helpful advice, tanprotege!

 

Thanks for the feedback, packjed1!
There are two ways I can imagine a bent tone ring may occur and in both cases it involves a repairman's error:
1. Using pry bars to remove the crank pulley.
2. mounting the belt off the grooves so it runs on the tone ring.

I am glad you are on the road again.