2 Ex's Down in one day...GRRR!

[CreepingNet]

Pretty ****ty day it was Saturday. Mom had trouble getting her 02' Sport Trac started after work, then after driving on the interstate for awhile, the Tach started flipping out as she described. At idle it would idle really low and erraticly, after that, she would press the gas and it would jump up to 6000 RPM. She managed to make it to our favorite repair shop that morning and got loaned a Ford Taurus indefinatley (which also has a problem of squeaking in back when it goes over hard bumps, but it was nice to be loaned a car so neither one of us can't complain). So I had to go out and do chores because mom did not trust the Taurus, using my truck. And my truck acted normal most of the day.

Of course, the Sport Trac is an 02' model, has less than 100,000 miles on it (not sure of the approxamate figure since I don't drive that one much), and we have not had a single major problem with it up to this point.

I had been up since 11:00 pm the previous day dealing with some E-bay auctions, so I decided to take a nap. Because of this, mom decided to take my truck to work, and I agreed. Now around 11:00 pm Saturday night, I had got up and had this nasty feeling (that kind of mothering instinct, for some reason I have this with machines) that my truck might get destroyed or broken down somewhere. I wait and wait and wait, then around midnight mom calls and says that my 93' Ford Explorer Sport with over 200,000 miles on it had broken down on the interstate. She heard a faint "sweet sound" and then she noticed the gears were not engaged anymore. She thought it would be my rusty tailpipe about to come off, apparently not. This all happened while doing 70MPh with the cruise control enabled.

We went out to the truck at 1am on I-85, hazard lights still blinking, hanging about an inch off the sidelines of the interstate on an up-hill slope where it stopped, where I would get the horsefood and a valuable (collectable) computer out of the back (I had the truck partially packed up to move as I plan to move out of state soon). I pulled out my brand new flashlight/air-pump that runs off the cigarette lighter jack and had a look at the transmission. The drive shaft was still in tact, but I noticed the middle crossmember was awfully greasy, I rubbed my finger on it and noticed a reddish hue, and saw this around the sides of the Mazda 5-Speed manual transmission, so I thought to myself "A-ha, Transmission fluid". So I got up, got the stuff out of the truck, then I wiggled the shifter to find it was in neutral. The next step, I moved the shifter into first and second gear effortlessly without pressing in the clutch. My question is, what could it be, and how much is this going to cost. The one think I know is that truck is not supposed to shift into gear without the clutch being manipulated. Other than this little episode, the truck has never left either one of us stranded, had gone 10 years without a tune-up and still runs like brand new according to every mechanic ameteur and certified and non-mechanic we've talked to, and is getting close to the 300,000 mile mark.

So now my Ex is still sitting on the road waiting for a tow-truck to come this monday morning to take it to Grady's, and mom's is still in the shop, and we have this barely trustable 92' Taurus to drive (well, at least it's wheels). Needless to say, I'm pissed, I've been ready to move to Washington state for almost 6 months now (with mom, work, and life throwing major setbacks at every turn, all the while, my life in Alabama gets worse by the day), and now this happens! At least it was not while I was moving, that's thankful. But needless to say, it's been a rather ****ty Saturday.

Anyway, I just wanted some opinions on this since I'm not exactly a mechanic or too terribly knowledgable about automobiles in the internal workings (not in the details that many on this site possess). All comments will be much appreciated.

 

[therise21]

talk about a ****ty day. at least the taurus they gave you runs, but i would stay off that interstate with it. i dont know much about transmissions, but keep us posted.

 

[Mike N.]

with a mazda trans it might be a hyd. slave clynder, used to move the throw out brg.

I am not sure how yours is, but I had the same thing happen to my '90 f-150.

Mine was an internal slave....I have heard that some of them are external... the part is realitivle cheep put pulling the tranny to get to it was a hassell.

good luck

 

[metstalker]

dude alabama, im in auburn just 10 min away

 

[CreepingNet]

dude alabama, im in auburn just 10 min away

I'm in Opelika, though I've had plans to move to Seattle for almost a year now. Really a pain finding IT work down here.

Anyway, I have an update of both good news and bad news. The good news is that the Sport Trac is back out and running great. Luckily there was no work needed to be done, but they do want us to keep an eye on it. The suspected culprit was the ECR valve (if I have the acronym right, it's the one that returns exhaust to the engine to be reused). Luckily we were not even charged but......

This morning we got my truck towed in around 7:00. The shop gave us a call around 9:30 that the repair bill is going to be $1900, and that, according to my mom who's not too well versed in automotive technicalities, especially the transmission, everything that could have broken, has broken. The upside is we have never had a bad repair done on this truck before now (most ever spent was $500 for a new clutch in 97', while the rest has been the regular $23 oil change and maintennance). However, she's given them the go ahead to repair the truck as the rest of it (engine, rest of drive train, suspension, and most particularly the body) are in awesome condition. However, I'm now going to have to bum the Sport Trac for awhile, but at least it's not the Taurus with no E-brake and squeaky noise. I was there this afternoon to pick up the Trac and did not see it so I assume it's out back waiting for parts. So it looks like I'm not moving for awhile.