Serpentine belt broke - after 6K miles?
 

Last night the belt on my 03 986 broke. I replaced it when I bought the car about 6 months and 6K miles ago. It has about 93K total miles on the vehicle.

Although I haven't opened it up yet, it has all the symptoms that the belt broke, I heard the noise coming from the back compartment while driving, the alternator light came on immediately, power steering went out, and the temp started rising due to no water pump.

Any ideas as to what would cause this?

Thanks!

When your belt snapped or ripped it slapped the pulleys, thats the noise you heard. It could be a factory defect belt, Its only 6 months old you can get a replacement under warranty just bring your receipt and belt. :)

I won't be making that warranty claim...the belt is sitting on Interstate 805 somewhere in San Diego! Could the belt breaking have been caused by something seizing, like the water pump? I'm hoping it is just the belt but if it is likely something more severe I'd like to brace for that impact. :)

Just check the operation and play of every pulley, roller on the engine to make sure nothing is broken.

You can remove the access panel cover behind both seat and check the pulleys if they wobble or seized that caused the belt to snapped or skip out of track, I recommend keep a spare belt. :)

+1 I carry a spare in the frunk.

Either a defective belt (rare) or something else is amiss (likely). Take a detailed look at everything that the belt touches and check alignment of the pulleys.

Double check the spring loaded tensioner pulley, make sure that the roller bearings are not siezed and the spring moves through its full arc - about 45 degrees IIRC.
I think its a 24mm socket thats required.

This happened to me as well, i changed the belt with a new OEM one and after a few K miles it snapped again. It turned out I had a faulty alternator clutch pulley which was putting on extra stress. I was lucky that the belt snapped and not the alternator! Check the clutch on all pulleys.