95 420a gs

so 1000 miles ago my neighbor and i rebuilt my 420a, new timing belt, serpentine belt, new internals, head work, headgasket, all the goodies.

well as im leaving my house about 30 mins ago, i notice smoke coming from under the hood, passenger side. i pull my car in my garage to find smoke is just pouring out from the timing belt area.

my timing belt cover seems loose as in i can wiggle it back and forth (toward the engine and away from the engine) and when doing this, i can actually feel it rubbing against the timing belt. so to me that seems like a possibility of it rubbing against the cover somewhere, causing smoke?

so after that i attempt to get to the corner store, but that turns into a quick turnaround when i notice my battery light is on and i dont feel like being stranded. i get home, pull into my driveway, and turn it off. after a short wait, i turn the car back on for about 5 minutes and discover, no battery light on now. that leads me to think that its the alternator, smoking? do they smoke when theyre worn out?

the smell seems to be plastic. the car is not overheating either.

anyways tommorrow morning im gonna get under there and check it out better. its too dark now and im too lazy right now. i basically posted this so i could get some ideas of what too look for with the help of you guys. thanks.

Check your belts, plastic cover parts.

Does the smoke smell like burning oil? Melted plastic?

Buy yourself a shop light so you can work in the dark.

my battery light comes on sometimes to cuz my terminals come lose. I just retighten them and it goes off. Also one time the light came on while driving and i couldn't figure out why. But when i turned the car off and restarted. the light went off. I'd bet its the cover hittin the belt and smoking.

Maybe your cam seals are leakin bad or your HG so its leakin on the alternator or your belt is loose thats why the light is commin on.

damn does pulling the alternator ever suck! my friend and i couldnt get it to wiggle out of anywhere, top or bottom. we gave it a rest and are gonna get back to it after work tomorrow. ive done my research and are seeing that you pull the mount by the overflow and jack engine up, or remove wheel and it slides out down by the axle..but how?! we tried the mount but no luck. i guess ill remove the wheel tomorrow.

i just needed to vent out for a second. a buddy of ours stopped by and his favorite saying whenever he comes over and sees me with the hood up..."ahhh typical dsm scene"

Leave the wheel on the front suspension. The weight of the wheel causes the suspension to fully droop. When the car is in the air and supported with jackstands, unbolt the alternator. It comes out over the cv axle at an angle. Takes 20 minutes to swap out.

Takes me longer to get my car on jack stands.

new alternator is in. i just removed the 2 bolts for the bottom brace and that gave it plenty of room to come out.

advanced auto parts is full of idiots, theyre tester said it was unable to test my alternator, so i said fuck you im going to autozone now, and they said yeah go ahead they wont be able to test it either, and sure enough they were able too and discovered it was junk.

so out from the back comes a refurbished alternator. i say hey lets test that one before i leave....and its JUNK! The only other one in stock makes its way out and luckily it was good. im so happy i had it tested before leaving.

thanks for the help guys.

the dsm lives another week...

Well some people will tell you that you are crazy for buying an alternator from autozone. Like myself. I've had bad experiences with their stuff, luckily you had them test the new alternator before you left.

Good luck!

yeah. it works. and you cant beat a lifetime warranty.