Greetings, well, I was on my way home just getting off the freeway when my car just shut off and then the battery light came on, but I have a new battery. When I was driving it kind of felt like it was pulling a bit a couple miles before this happened. No leakage, no smoke, nothing. The only odd thing thats happened lately is the fuel gauge needle has been going up and down on its own, and not just on hill. I took it to the shop (pep boys) and he said it needs a new timing belt. So then asked if there is anything else wrong and he said it could be many things but he said that he wont know until the timing belt is changed. So intstead of pep boys, I just had it towed home and I had a look. The timing belt looks like its on there pretty good. To be honest I dont think the mechanic actually "looked" a the timing belt or even removed the valve cover.

Ugggh...so my question is, could it possibly be a false diagnostic??? Since the fuel gauge was acting funny I thought it may have something to do with the fuel pump and/or filter. Im thinking either that or the distributor cap or alternator. Please help!!!

 

It is my experience that the majority of people who work at places like Pep Boys, Advanced, AZ, Napa etc....are completly retarded.

I'd take it to a REAL shop if you're not confident enough to diagnose it yourself. Is the belt still attached to the ALternator?

 

did it start right back up after it died? i asume it did if ya got it to pepboys... so id dout its the timing belt cause if that snaps it jakes up your motor/head......
if it started back up its gotta be something else like maybe some shorting wires along your gas tank pump/and sensor... MAYBE

ya put in any screws in the body at anytime? if so the screw coulda gone into a wire loom shorting out some wires..... or if youve ran over anything maybe it fliped up and caught some wires...
could be the fuel pump also going bad or shorting out which is melting into the other wires causing the gauge to go nuts... BUT so many things it could be.... hard to guess......
take it to a good shop....... and by good shop i dont always mean the stealership some are good... and some well same people that can work at pepboys.LOL

 

Yeah I kind of had a bad feeling about pep boys to begin with. It looks like both the timing belt and the belt for the alternator are still there. I actually had it towed to pep boys because it was less than a mile away from where I broke down, what luck eh? I mean, it probably needs a new timing belt anyway, but I seriously doubt thats what made it break down. Well, anywho my friend said theres another shop down the street that may be a better choice so I think Ill go with that. On a side about pep boys, I took another car there a while back to get it smogged and it didnt pass. So I tried a test only place, and it passed...quite odd.