WTF is up with my car? (Long)

[Nvidia]

Had a couple problems pop up in the last couple days that really makes me wonder if someone's messing with my car.

I'll do this in timeline form, haha.

Three days ago - I brought her up to about 4,200 RPMS going down a hill, and watched as my gas gauge takes itself from half a tank and pins itself to passed the "full" mark. Doesn't go back down until I shut the car off.

Two days ago - I'm slowing down to a stop in first gear and at about 15 MPH my car just dies on me. Not rough or anything, but dies like it would if I stalled it - no power steering, blah blah.

Yesterday - As I'm trying to floor it from a stop, my clutch slips. BAD. Like a 10 second slip kind of bad, lmao. I smelled like burned clutch for the rest of the night. Also, my gas gauge seems unresponsive once I go past the quarter-to-empty mark.

Also, the two buttons in the glove box for the hatch and the gas cap. They seem to have "re-wired" themselves. Since I've had it, the gas cap button has always worked, and the hatch button never worked. Now for some reason, they're switched, and the gas cap won't pop open, but the hatch pops open fine.

Today - Car feels great until I get home. As I'm turning my wheels, they feel like they're "struggling" to make the turn. After I park it, I look at my gauges and nearly **** myself as I look first at my fuel gauge (had just come back from filling it up) and I can't even see the damn needle it's so far pushed to the full side, and then look at my engine temp., which is pinned to the wall on hot. I immediately shut it off, and pop the hood. Before I open it though, I put my hand on the hood and it's definitely warmer than it usually is.

So, WTF? I was just getting ready to do my whole exhaust on the car, but if it's really screwed, and not just mechanical failure of the gauges and whatever the hell else is wrong, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Anyone have any similar experiences, or possibly know if these random incidents are somehow related? Thanks for the help.

- Tom

 

[Look Its Aaron]

Sounds to me like your belt is a problem. That would make for the hot temps, and the non power steering. Dude honestly have you even looked under your hood?

 

[Nvidia]

Dude honestly have you even looked under your hood?

Erm... quite a few times.

Look, I might ask some stupid questions because I'm not a master technician or anything, but it's not like I sit here thinking up stuff that doesn't exist to quiz you guys.

I'm just explaining what happened, and hoping that someone could give me some information about it. My apologies if that above statement wasn't a dig at me, but I fail to see how these random incidents I have no control over have anything to do with how many times I've looked under my own hood. If you need to know though, I'm under the hood almost daily looking for signs of wear, since the guy before me didn't take very good care of this car.

These cars fail, and this is the 5.0 section of StangNet, in the tech area, where people who don't have an answer for their questions come for some advice. Am I in the wrong place? BTW, thank you for your advice - the belt does make a lot of sense, and even though I checked it about a week ago, I will be sure to check it again.

Once again, sorry for going off on ya if you were just asking a question, but when I read that statement, all I saw was, "stop asking for help noob, figure it out yourself."

 

[Look Its Aaron]

Ok you seem to know your way around your car a lil bit. I was refering to looking under the hood after you said the hood felt hot, the water went hot, AND you lost your power steering. I wasn't saying have you looked under your hood meaning to take a crack at you.

It was a valid question, so have you looked at your belt yet? is it loose? gone? still there?

 

[HISSIN50]

With the fuel gauge, the sender could be sticky, but some of these gas gauges suffer from hysteresis pretty bad.

Pull the trouble codes. Jrichker in here has links with how to do so at home with a paperclip.

You can ohm out the two buttons in teh glove box. Weather can make a difference. I know on my vert, I have to push the gas door button pretty hard sometimes for the switch to close all the way (for it to work).

IN case you didnt know, there is a cable in the trunk that you can use to pop the gas door if you need to.

You can help yourself by getting some decent gauges. I forgot to check the year of of your car but the early (for sure) aero foxes had IVRs. Also a bad ground can make gauges read funny (heat exacerbates resistance in wiring).

And if your idle was low when you were turning the wheels, that does not necessarily indicate an issue. 5.0's dont have idle compensation for PS load, so if the idle was low to start with, it will probably not get better once you load the system by turning the wheels while stationary or near stationary.

Random thoughts. Good luck Tom.

 

[Nvidia]

Ok you seem to know your way around your car a lil bit. I was refering to looking under the hood after you said the hood felt hot, the water went hot, AND you lost your power steering. I wasn't saying have you looked under your hood meaning to take a crack at you.

It was a valid question, so have you looked at your belt yet? is it loose? gone? still there?

Alright dude, sorry for the misunderstanding. Just haven't had the best day so far.

I went ahead and looked at the belt, it looks a little bit discolored in some areas, like a really light brown in some areas. But it's still on there.

Thank you too HISSIN for your suggestions. I'll go check some of those out.

Thanks guys.