Need help! belt broke, spedo not working.

[M3 Cereal]

Hi so im travelling home from alabama to maryland with my newly purchased car and everything was going great till i stopped for gas, i noticed half a mile down the rd the spedo was not working then i pulled into the home depot parking lot. now im in a hotel waiting till morning.

the problem

I pulled over and went into homedepot to borrow a adjustable wrench to unplug the battery, on the way back to the car i saw that there was a big spill of liquid on the ground and something was hanging down, the thing hanging was a V-Belt and it looked worn and had just cut and striped through, the other two belts apear to be new. but this one is not (Weird)
i think i found where the belt goes but i do not know if i can drive the car or not. the speedometer is not working and i assume its because of this.

i believe the leak was oil because i checked the dipstick and it was low where an hour before it was good. i put a little oil in and moved the car away from the puddle. i will go see in the morning.

so in the end im asking what belt is this, how hard is it to replace if i have the bently repair manual, can i drive 3 miles down the rd to the bimmer shop or should i have AAA tow me, lastly how much will the belt cost and how much will they charge. is the mysterious because of this or another reason

sorry if this is a noob question i just need to get a move on,
PLEASE HELP

[Robert]

Post some pictures.

[mr.vang]

what is the belt suppose to be pulling? if it is the alternator you can not drive it, the car will over heat since the belt spins the water pump. if it is just a/c or power steering belt you can still drive it. a broken belt wont cause the speedo to die. its something else..

[M3 Cereal]

thanks sadly i dont have my camera but i can explain where the belt attaches. it is the belt that is furthest to the drivers side, and connects to the front of a little fan, which i am pretty sure is the alternator. like i said before, its definitely a v-belt and i can see the one side the new belt goes on but im not sure where the other side connects to it.. i think it is the alternator, its no worries though i have AAA and the shop is down the rd a mile or two.

[ill4noreason]

The guy that sold you car was probably shady. how far did the car drive? is this m20,m42 or m/s50? If you have an oil leak better check level and find out where from. you could do serious damage. good luck. When you get back to baltimore if you need service or parts let me know...

[M3 Cereal]

the guy was pretty knowledglable and the car checked out, i think i asked him 250 questions =D cause i was so afraid of buying a car so far away. all the questions i asked seem to be true and nothing is wrong with the car. but now that this oil leek is a problem the alternator belt broke and the speedo went out i dont know. my seller is helping me and is concerned but theres not to much he can do hes 5 hours away.

[M3 Cereal]

By the way, i drove from dotha AL to atlanta which i think is near 400 miles.
the oil just started cause i had been checking it every gas fill
and the car has an m20

[M3 Cereal]

turns out it was the alternator belt, and i replaced some fuses and got everything working.
the oil gauge just went out of whack when the belt broke so no worries there, arrived on time in North carolina to stay the night. leaving in the morning to finish the trip home, thanks so much for your help guys.

spedo is still out but my cluster lights are all on because i swapped some fuses but i bought a hole box to replace the old ones so we will see what comes on thin the morning

[TimKninja]

Try slapping your dash.