2005 Ford Explorer - story of my breakdown

[MistahYebba]

Hi there!
Everything was great.

Then this happened:
Drove to work for the 50th time this month.
Finished work.
Hopped in the truck after a long day.
Started it up just fine.

noticeably rough idle, huh, that's new!
popped it into reverse to back out of my spot,
definitely bumpy and rough,

had a 5 mile drive to make it home...

got to a red light and stalled out.
started it up which took two tries now, wtf, embarassing,

drove further up the road, got a red light, hit the brakes and OMG,
the brakes felt dead, it wasn't slowing the truck down at all,
jammed the e-brake and the regular brake real hard to get it to stop,
obviously it stalled out again,
I also heard a big release of air at this point,

this time it was harder to start up again, but I still had to make it home,
here I am bouncing all over the road trying not to stall out, and my brakes are not working, I am jamming the pedal down to barely slow down,

finally made it home and now it's parked,

and here I am,

it's not starting, it just keeps turning over trying to start, but nothing,
I did get it to start once but it was super duper bumpy and rough and stalled out after a bit,
short quick puffs of white smoke out the tailpipe...

a noticeable steady repeating pattern of a vacuum hissing sound...

I caught videos of it and here they are:





--------------

my thoughts:
vacuum leak
head gasket leak
transmission failure



---------------------------------



I need this truck on the road ASAP again!
Thanks so much for reading <3

 

[MistahYebba]

Hi there!
Everything was great.

Then this happened:
Drove to work for the 50th time this month.
Finished work.
Hopped in the truck after a long day.
Started it up just fine.

noticeably rough idle, huh, that's new!
popped it into reverse to back out of my spot,
definitely bumpy and rough,

had a 5 mile drive to make it home...

got to a red light and stalled out.
started it up which took two tries now, wtf, embarassing,

drove further up the road, got a red light, hit the brakes and OMG,
the brakes felt dead, it wasn't slowing the truck down at all,
jammed the e-brake and the regular brake real hard to get it to stop,
obviously it stalled out again,
I also heard a big release of air at this point,

this time it was harder to start up again, but I still had to make it home,
here I am bouncing all over the road trying not to stall out, and my brakes are not working, I am jamming the pedal down to barely slow down,

finally made it home and now it's parked,

and here I am,

it's not starting, it just keeps turning over trying to start, but nothing,
I did get it to start once but it was super duper bumpy and rough and stalled out after a bit,
short quick puffs of white smoke out the tailpipe...

a noticeable steady repeating pattern of a vacuum hissing sound...

I caught videos of it and here they are:





--------------

my thoughts:
vacuum leak
head gasket leak
transmission failure



---------------------------------



I need this truck on the road ASAP again!
Thanks so much for reading <3

Heres a video of it barely running before it stalled out. hear the vacuum?

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[MistahYebba]

New information to add:
I just had another session of trying to start it... in order to diagnose more...

and after about 10 failed attempts, now when I try to start it, it seems like the engine is seized or something. It doesn't quite get a chance to turn over, it gets rudely interrupted and stopped very quickly after turning the ignition.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

i dont think the trans can cause issues like these. is cookant milky/bubbly? head gasket could cause erratic idle and low vauum as such, and the white smoke... and cause it cant be compressed can cause issues like its abotu to seize. my advice is until you figure this out, dont take ti to work, if enough coolant ingests then it can cause issues like potential;ly throwing a rod- not funalthough this sounds like its got super low vacuum, cause that could explain the braking ussues. hows the oil? sometimes super worn engines can have low vacuum simply due to wear or valve lash,, or distributor. coudl also be a vacuum leak, such as from the intake gaskets. wonder if you spray something flammable like brakeleen or electronic cleaner if it will smooth out idle. mine leaked before from the intake gaskets, and the iac tube Y piece, nto sure if that was there on newer x's. could be something like retarded timing, ant CELs on?

 

[Mbrooks420]

Did it ever rattle on cold starts? I’d be afraid it’s jumped time.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Did it ever rattle on cold starts? I’d be afraid it’s jumped time.

but would jumping time cause the occasional stalling? or to my ubderstanding its usually a one and done jump and smack piston (or if youre lucky it wont) and just wont start up after that... i suppose it could have gradually jumped like one tooth at s time, vut aint that kind of unliekly? also timing may nit explain the white smoke (unless its just condensation)

 

[MistahYebba]

It did rattle on cold starts. Definitely. Fair amount of rattling. Timing chains were always a worry on this truck.
But would that cause a rough idle on my way home and then such a hissy vacuum leaking sound? and to loose all power brakes? And now can't get it to start up again due to vacuum causing it to instantly stall out? Sounds more like vacuum to me but does it sound fully like power brake booster? Im about to just throw a new booster at it.

 

[Stynx]

Check fluids make sure oil and coolant look normal. The brake thing screams vacuum leak to me.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Smoke test it. A huge vacuum leak should be pretty obvious.

 

[MistahYebba]

Smoke test it. A huge vacuum leak should be pretty obvious.

I can't get it to start up and stay on long enough to do any testing, any suggestions there? Also now I think trying to start it up kill the battery so now I need to jump it

 

[Fix4Dirt]

wonder if if its ingesting coolant, if you pull the plugs, any wetness inside/ sings of head gasket leak? can help to rule that out. hows the coolant? even a big big leak shoudl get to start up to some extent, even if it takes some throttle to do so, or a high idle

 

[Josh P]

Pull the spark plugs and get a small camera inside, sounds like timing is off on a bank.