Help with overheating !! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Help with overheating !!

Afboy143

Explorer Addict
Joined
September 23, 2003
Messages
2,601
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City, State
Tampa,FL
Year, Model & Trim Level
1999 Ford Explorer Sport
Hey guys,
I am at work . I was driving my truck this morning and noticed it was idling really high, for example: I would be at a stop light and it would idle at 1500 RPMS. I would park and the rpms would shoot up to 2000 then back to 1500 and sit. After this, I noticed my engine temp going up. It will go up to just below H then back down to normal, then back up, then back down. I have my efan on constant to help it stay cool. The coolant level is also all the way up when I popped the radiator cap. What else could it be? Its weird because it only starts idling really high when the temp gets up but when I first start it up and drive for the first 5-10 mins its fine.
 



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Im having a problem with overheating as well. I tried to start a new thread, but it wouldnt let me, so I had to post in a semi relevant thread. Sorry.

I drove about twenty five miles to a bookstore, no problem, I was there for about two hours, car started up no problem, nothing. I then drove about halfway home and went in another store for about thirty minutes, drove across the parking lot, parked, went in another store for fifteen, twenty minutes, start home.

I get about five miles from home, Im stopped at a stop light, and my passenger noticed the truck was smoking heavily, I look at the temp gage, and its three quarters past cold, but not at hot, still, I pull in the gas station, turn the car off and open the hood, there was a lot of water under the hood, and it was hot, we sit for about forty five minutes, add antifreeze, and head directly for home, not even a quarter mile down the road, theres a red light, and we have to stop, we sit there for a few minutes, the truck starts smoking again. Not as heavily as before, but still. The temp gauge didnt go up, but the truck smoked all the way home.

When we stopped at the gas station it smelled very heavily of antifreeze. I tried smelling to see if the exhaust pipe smelled of antifreeze, but I couldnt tell because the whole area smelled like it.

I also remember thinking it smelled like fish or something, and that I smelled it at the last store I stopped at as we were leaving. I have no money to fix this and I cant live or make a living without my truck, because I have to get to the recruiters nearly everyday next week, no other way to get there, and my truck is grounded. I know that Im not getting rid of my truck, and that if I have to Ill wait until after I get out of basic and AIT training, and pay whatever it costs to fix it, but if I can fix it now, that would be great.
 






@Af - As JDraper says T stat is a common culprit, also fan clutch. With car off and cold rotate fan blade, it should move easily. With car off and engine hot, rotate fan blade it should be noticeably hader to rotate.
If replacing thermostat doesn't help, problem is more exotic.
Let us know how it works out.

@CD - unless the coolant in the engine compartment is condensate, you have a leak. Common points are the hoses, particularly the heater hose where it enters the engine behind the thermostat. If not obvious from inspection, prudent wiggling of hoses near connections may assist in locating the problem. Be careful, it is hot. Wear eye protection!
 






Would it help the diagnosis if I said the heat went out about two weeks prior to this? Neither the heat nor the ac would work...
 






Well I got to spend this whole weekend on this project. What was supposed to only be an hour job, turned out to be a 2 day job. I set out to change the water pump and t-stat. It was fairly easy to do since I did not have to remove the fan since I have an efan....2 easily accessed bolts off and the fan is gone. After I removed the pulley, it was 12 bolts to take the water pump off. Stupidly I removed the old pump and put the new one on without prepping the service which caused leaks, doh ! Also, the t-stat gasket they gave me at advance auto was too small. I bought the same gasket at 3 different stores...still a leak at the t-stat. I finally just used the old gasket and it works fine. I refilled the system with Water wetter +15% antifreeze and it runs nice and cool now ! No problems what so ever.

Lessons learned:
1) always clean and prep mating services ESS. when dealing with liquids
2) dont always trust that the part you are buying is right even though the package says it's for your application. Sometimes going with Ford ginuwine parts are a must
 






Would it help the diagnosis if I said the heat went out about two weeks prior to this? Neither the heat nor the ac would work...

Do you notice that your engine idles fairly high and feels like it always wants to go?
 






No actually, I noticed for the past few weeks that the engine wasnt as "on it" as it used to be, but I figured the cold weather was the problem, and that it needed a tune up. Id just put anitfreeze it it a few weeks before, and it took a whole gallon and probably wanted more. It also emptied the resivoir of the antifreeze in there as well.

The oil was fine, the transmission fluid was fine. The engine wasnt running hot, it wasnt idleing any higher than it had before, but the engine wasnt responding as readily as it had when Id kick it into high gear on the highway. It took longer to get up to speed than it had before, and I just signed it off as the cold weather. I figured the heating problem was a bad blower, but Id tried tapping on it to try to get it started, and Id checked all the fuses, no problems there either. So I wrote it off as a bad blower. Figured Id go buy another from the junkyard for twenty - thirty bucks and everything would be fine.

Then it crapped out, and Im still stuck with trying to figure it out. I cant really get outside to take a good look at it, because its so cold and the wind chill is so bad, plus I dont want to dismantle anything without really know what the problem is and without someone there that knows how to put it back together. I need to figure out if the radiator is bad or if I just blew a hose or what. Then my brother in law or my father, both more proficiant in mechanics than I can help out with it.
 






Hi guys, just wanted to let you know I figured out what the problem is. Turns out its fairly serious, gotta replace my radiator because the end cap (?) little plastic thingy is cracked and leaking fairly heavily when the engine is on. So Ive got to have it repaired or replaced... Wondering if I can do it myself. I know I can put a new one in the truck with my brother in law helping, but Im wondering if between the two of us we can fix that part of the radiator.
 






Hi guys, just wanted to let you know I figured out what the problem is. Turns out its fairly serious, gotta replace my radiator because the end cap (?) little plastic thingy is cracked and leaking fairly heavily when the engine is on. So Ive got to have it repaired or replaced... Wondering if I can do it myself. I know I can put a new one in the truck with my brother in law helping, but Im wondering if between the two of us we can fix that part of the radiator.

Nope..that's a replacement job, not a repair job. Putting a new radiator in is an easy job though...
 






Actually the radiators are made so that you(a shop) can replace the plastic end tanks and o-rings, but at about $140 for a brand new radiator its really not worth it. Putting a new radiator in is extremely easy, drain it, disconnect hoses and remove shroud, remove 2 bolts and lift out.
 






the engines are supposed to idle high when they start to overheat, it is programmed in the computer to do this in attempt to help cool the engine off, once you fix teh overheating issue the engine will run normally again.
 






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