I have a 2010 Toyota Venza 3.5 V6 AWD with 103k miles on it. Just bought it about a month ago, been a fantastic car. Yesterday while heading to our Thanksgiving destination it broke down with the family in it. While climbing a hill we heard the belt squealing just a little bit, couple seconds at a time. Then it went away. Next thing I know the master warning light came on and said the coolant was too hot, temp gauge was about 3/4 of the way up.. Immediately pulled over and shut it off. The belt was still on there, there was some coolant that got sprayed around a bit. Coolant hoses didn't appear to have any holes or cracks in them.
I had my wife start it up and it was making a rattling sound where the pulleys are. My guess is the water pump took a dump on us. Any other guesses out there? $154 tow bill so far. Should I take the belt off tonight and try moving the pulleys around to confirm? Thanks for the advice guys.
Sounds like the water pump....
Since the belt was there and you saw the coolant on that, the water pump definitely went bad.