Just got off the phone with the service manager and he said it was the water pump! The water pump!
He said that for whatever reason, the water pump locked up and shreaded the belt into a million pieces. That's obviously why she overheated and it would also account for the noise I suppose.. but I've NEVER seen coolant look like that before. I swear it was oil. Even the tow truck driver thought so. I don't get it. I asked him if he was sure we were talking about the same car. Do you guys think this sounds right? Could the failure be in any way related to the 60k mile service they did about 2 weeks ago?
Anyway, he said they couldn't find any oil anywhere and there shouldn't be any other damage. So it's gonna cost me another $1200 for a new water pump installed (that includes a 10% discount apparently because I just spent $6k there). Whatever. I guess I should be pissed that I'm having to pour even more into this car but to tell you the truth, I'm relieved
I'm freakin' ecstatic actually. Thought I was gonna need a new engine.. I bet you've never seen anyone this happy to see their water pump fail and have to spend over a grand having it fixed! haha