Car people - '94 Saturn's steering suddenly very hard

I have a '94 Saturn SL. This afternoon while coming home from work, I was making a right turn into my apartment's parking lot and the steering wheel suddenly felt stiff, like it was next to impossible to turn it. Luckily my parking spot just involved me completing the right turn so I was able to make it safely to the spot. I tested the car again once I'd stopped and the steering wheel it very difficult to turn: when I do I can see the front tires turning slightly but it's like they don't want to move at all. I tried starting the car up and backing out to see if I could turn while moving, but it was the same and I couldn't turn it then either. I've checked the power steering fluid and it's at full. What do you think the problem could be?

I noticed the battery light came out right before the steering went heavy; does that have anything to do with it or just a coincidence? From what I've been able to look up, it sounds like it's either a belt that's snapped or a bad power steering pump.

Thanks,
m19

 

I had that happen to me once.. belt got warped and popped right off. Same symptoms and happend to me making a turn as well.

 

That would make sense, we'd had trouble with the serpentine a while back but thought it'd been fixed. Would you be able to clue me in as to where the serpentine belt would be? I checked under the hood and saw two belts over on the left, but as far as I could tell they were both in one piece.

m19

 

Ok, based on the feedback I went back out and checked the serpentine belt (what I thought was the 2 belts) and it's most definitely in one piece but loose-- when I wiggled it it fell off the assembly. And yep, it was most definitely around all the "wheel" parts, for a lack of a better term. Just very, very loose.

A little more research and it looks like the tensioner probably failed? Apparently on a '94 Saturn that's an automatic tensioner so it's not something I can fix myself; looks like I need to get the mechanic to fix it. Any disagreements there?

m19

 

And belts aren't that expensive. If that one's been on for an indeterminate number of years, have him put a new belt on while he's at it. They stretch, and after a while the rubber hardens and the inner gripping surface gets shiny and they'll be prone to slippage. Great time to freshen up the belt itself.

 

Morgan, these guys are all over this thing, however if the belt "fell off the assembly," it's more than just stretched. The tensioner may have failed or another pulley could have broken. If you're unsure about what you're doing take it to a garage, have them show you what failed, and if you can, hang around for the repair. Most serp. belt replacements are .4 to.8 of an hour plus whatever caused the failure.

 

Oops! Out of my league here! I do good just to find my keys!

 

Yessir! I'd mentioned up in my last post that indeed, I thought it was probably a bad tensioner which it turns out was the case. A quick overnight visit to the mechanic and the car is fixed up and ready to go again.

Thanks for the very helpful advice, everyone.

m19

 

glad you got your issue resolved.

 

I swear this thread was written in English, but I felt like I was reading Russian.