Fan belt mystery!

[rotorhead666]

the fanbelt broke on my way home tonight,all the warning lights came on...........BUT......the engine kept running as normal!As far as i can remember,the engine is supposed to cut out when the belt goes.Is that right?And why did it keep running happily(although obviously the temperature was rising much quicker than normal).Fortunately i had my spare belt in the back,and fitted that as a stop gap for now.

[Don Pamponi]

Do they cut out (intelligently) if overheating?  Never heard that before.

[MikeLMR]

nope an engine will run quite happily until it overheats with the fan belt removed.

[Don Pamponi]

Thought so.