Help Needed!!! Explorer Overheating???

[Explorer702]

My 2006 explorer sport trac seems to be overheating but its not at the same time! We had a pretty good rainstorm not to long ago i was driving and did not notice the dirt/mud had covered the edge of the road when i accidently drove right into it kicking up a lot of rocks. after that incident i started noticing that she was over heating and idling very high and makes a loud sound when in motion like its blowing air out of the engine. im not an expert with cars at all and have no clue what to do, was told that it might be a couple different things ie thermostat,heating core, but just need to get more opinions before i break the pocket book on something thats not wrong with it at all...

Thanks!

 

[manaen]

Check your radiator, make sure there is enough water in there. You could have a small hole in it caused by the rocks.

This could also be totally unrelated, your thermostat may be going bad.

 

[Explorer702]

THANK YOU =D i appreciate it, i did notice some rocks in the Resevoir i guess you can call it they were small so maybe that might need to be replaced, is there any way to patch holes far quick fix in the mean time or just need to get a new one ... i was told by many that it might be the thermostat so i might just get a new one and fix that as well....

 

[GreenMando]

I would have a radiator shop look at it, they usually will solder small leaks. Might be time to get it flushed out and pressure tested.

 

[Explorer702]

Thank you so much !! =] im not all that great with the mechanics of my Explorer or any car =]

 

[BigV]

It's hard to diagnose a problem when it is not in front of you. First thing to do is make sure you have enough coolant. If not fill it up let it run and see if you can find the leak. Usually when a thermostat goes bad it gets stuck open not closed so your car runs cool not hot. the cooling system is large it can be leaking at any point radiator hose heater core. But based on your description of hearing it blowing air out of the engine it probably has a leak. The sound you are hearing is the hot coolant shooting out. Another reason you can lose coolant is if the head gasket is bad it allows the coolant to leak into the combustion chamber. This will usually appear as white smoke from the tail pipe as the coolant is burned. Depending on how bad the leak is it may cause the vehicle to run rough. Now the bad news if it is the head gasket your screwed that ain't cheap to fix so I hope it isn't. These are just some suggestions for you or a mechanic to check hope it helps.