I was driving to my parents' house for dinner tonight, and noticed that the belt squeal that I always get in the rain was gone... suddenly I realized that my power steering was gone too. Next, the ABS light, battery light and airbag light came on. I knew that my accessory belt wasn't being driven; seeing as I was only a couple miles from my parents' house, and it was cold and raining, I decided to see if I could limp the car there...
Well, I almost didn't make it. At the intersection about a mile from their house, the headlights started to dim and the dash lights went out. When the lights turned green, the windshield wipers stopped working. Obviously, my alternator was failing. As I was pulling into my parents' condo complex, the needles of every guage dropped. The engine cut out just as I was rolling into the garage.
Sure enough, the idle pulley had seized and failed. Thank god it wasn't anything serious - I had just put new tires on the car, and I really didn't like the idea of trying to make it through the winter with just a 951! The repair was quick, cheap and easy (the local autoparts store had the pulley in stock), but I couldn't believe the condition of the old pulley (pic doesn't do it justice - the interior ring is basically melted over by the surrounding plastic):
