help 5l overheated on the side of the road

[rkalb]

Hey guys my explorer has been running cold for some time and all of the sudden it overheated and now im on the side of the freeway and ideas?

 

[marblenez560]

Sounds like the thermostat...stuck open will make it run cold, stuck closed will make it overheat. You can take it out to get home, but your truck will never warm up, needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Could also be that you lost your coolant...basics first.

Mike

 

[rkalb]

Thanks for the reply I found it was the thermostat right away and found LOTS of rust in the system which seems to be the main cause. I was able to roll it to a gas station and i flushed the system and removed the thermostat and got it home i have a new thermostat waiting but first i need to fully bleed the system. And as far as it running cold i found the real issue. The thermostat seems like it was actually working fine before but the real issue was the fan. I found my fan had a crack making it wobble ALOT keeping the fan clutch fully engadged.

Thanks for the help
-Ryan

 

[rabbit91]

theres a sticky about checking your fan blades, some have pulled off metals fans from explorers at JY to use

 

[drbenz]

Looks like rockauto has an OE blade for $46.

 

[ambrosiaB]

Wow i didn't realize the fan wobbling could cause problems!!! How easy is it to replace?

 

[Alona123]

nice post,,,,,,,,,,,,