In a Pickle .... GOOD ADVICE NEEDED !!!

[jkennedy65]

Good Afternoon,

I am the owner of a 2006 Ford Explorer XLT and need some good advice and past experiences on repairs. Seven years ago I purchased this SUV at an "off-lease" dealer in Florida. Currently, it has 112,000 miles and we have enjoyed NO car payment for over two years.

Right now the vehicle is in need of the following repairs:

* Front and rear breaks
* Right rear wheel bearing

In the last few months the car has had 4 new tires, new battery, belt tensioner, new starter and a tune up. The tune up was quite costly at around $800.00. the parts installed during the tune up were a new... fuel filter, air filter, spark plug wire set, spark plugs, ignition coil and pcv valve.

The main questions I have are.... what is the opinion on the cost of the tune up? (keep in mind some of the labor charge was trying to get the back hatch door open that was smashed and stuck to get to the left blinker to change)

and secondly, during the tune up the repair facility noted "the mass air flow wiring harness was exposed on the five wire connector and touching one another. this may have caused damage to the pcm"

I spoke to the mechanic and he said this may have damaged the car's computer, and if that is the case, we should not hang on to the car. The mechanic has a very good reputation.

Because of this, the engine light still remains on, and after the tune up the "wrench" icon is illluminated also.

I can really use some good advice on all of the above.

Many thanks and regards,
Janice

 

[pzy3339]

have you repaired the wires and tried to clear the engine codes?

If they cannot be cleared and the codes stored are inaccurate then it may be a costly repair or time to say bye-bye. That said, any dealership will rape you on their estimate to buy it, and a smart individual will be skeptical when buying. Going to lose some value of the car selling it that way. But you may have no better options, so its hard to say what is the best bet.

How does it run?

Many engine codes and diagnostic sensors on the car, including on the engine, have no control over the engine management system. They are just there to monitor and point fingers at issues within adjacent systems.

 

[polizi212]

the repair facility noted "the mass air flow wiring harness was exposed on the five wire connector and touching one another. this may have caused damage to the pcm"

Really, and just how would those wire get exposed? there is nothing tugging on those all the time!

 

[Flag Gibby]

Janice - As far as the cost of the tune up goes, that seems about right considering all the materials used and the amount of labor it took to perform. Based on your description, I am thinking that you have the V6 engine and since the vehicle starts and runs the PCM is fine. The MAF has very little power running to it and all that needed/needs to happen is to reseat the wires in the connector correctly and put clear silicone on the connector with a little electrical tape to keep it together while the silicone cures. As far as the DTCs go (warning lights on the dash), they are most likely due to the bad wheel bearing that you say you have, but the best way to find out for sure is to have the codes pulled at Autozone or some other store that will do it for you for free.
Regarding the amount of repairs done to the vehicle recently and the ones that still need to be done, they are typical for a Explorer with 8 years and 112K miles on it.

 

[jkennedy65]

pzy3339,
With the tune up, they replaced the wires and tried to clear the engine codes, but they still appear. The car is still not running well after the tune up. It hesitates, almost like a backfire, but better than it was before the tune up. Thank you for the info.

Polizi212,
I have no idea how the wires got exposed. I have had very reliable mechanics over the years and never noticed it when I opened the hood. Thank you.

Flag Gibby,
Yes, it is a V6 engine. The MAF wiring harness and wires were all replaced and it looks like a silicone type substance on top of the new harness. I will try Autozone for the codes.. I could use anything "free" right now. When first starting the car there is a little smoke coming from the exhaust and it does smell. It eventually goes away. I also noticed the gas mileage has been bad. My mechanic quoted me around $700 for repacement of the rear wheel bearing and hub (parts and labor). Does that sound about right ? Thanks very much for the advice.

 

[Explorer_PL]

700 is too high for rear bearing.

The bearing itself cost about $70 from AutoZone, or $ 110 from a dealer.
It is a labor consuming job, they need to unbolt the knuckle, put it on the press and remove the old one and press in the new one.

The first time I did it was at a shop, and it cost me $ 400.

The next 2 times, I did it myself, got the new bearing, took the knuckle to a shop, they replace the bearing for $ 50 and I put it back together. Not the most friendly job, but doable.

But $ 700 is definitely too high.

PS: I reused the hubs every time, but a new hub adds maybe $ 50

 

[polizi212]

How was the Explorer running prior to the tune up?

 

[pzy3339]

smell like sulfur??? rotten eggs?

that could indicate clogged catalytic converter. Which means the exhaust cant get out the tail pipe very easy and it will rob power like crazy.

 

[pzy3339]

your engine can run without your MAF. It fine tunes the fuel mix but the engines computer can manage without it pretty well actually. If those wires had been crossed for a long time giving the engine either no signal or a signal indicating lots of airflow it will compensate with adding fuel. When the MAF sensor is not connected it should default to a rich mixture it knows it can run on and wont damage the engine. It will also add fuel if its reading a high airflow or high air density.

In either case, running rich for a prolonged period of time will mean it has been dumping unburnt fuel into the exhaust system for a long time. The catalytic converter is supposed to burn excess fuel, which normally is minimal, as well as do a few chemical changes to the exhaust gases to have the exhaust be less toxic to us and the environment.

If its been burning a lot of excess fuel in the exhaust it will be more likely to "plug up" the tini holes in it. The more important part of that is heat! The cats are made to operate within a certain temperature range.

The cat does get pretty darn hot operating normally though. Hot enough that the unburnt fuel in the exhaust will literally ignite upon contact with the core of the cat. If it has to deal with the added heat from that combustion for a long period of time it will produce far more heat than it can dissipate and thus will reach temperatures beyond its design and it will literally melt itself closed.

If you have a melted or clogged cat it will cause a considerable loss in engine performance.

 

[Flag Gibby]

your engine can run without your MAF. It fine tunes the fuel mix but the engines computer can manage without it pretty well actually.

I disagree, when I forgot to reconnect the MAF on my vehicle after cleaning it... it wouldn't start that way at all (I believe that it has to do with the electronic throttle on the vehicles). Personally, I suspect that the technician that did the air filter/tune up got too aggressive with the airbox and exposed the wires. My next step, from the way you are describing things, would be to clean the MAF and the throttle body to see if that helps with the off idle response issue since they probably have never been cleaned and engine oil vapor dumps into the intake all the time from the PCV (this can be done with an $8 can of CRC MAF cleaner). Then again, the codes may tell us everything we need to know.
As far as the $700 quote for the rear bearing... like ExplorerPL said, it is very high for one side even if it was a dealership doing the work with all OEM parts. If for some reason they meant it was for both rear bearings then it is a good price, I always like to replace bearings in pairs since if one failed then the other is most likely not very far behind especially in your case when they have over 100K miles on them anyway.

 

[pzy3339]

I disagree, when I forgot to reconnect the MAF on my vehicle after cleaning it... it wouldn't start that way at all (I believe that it has to do with the electronic throttle on the vehicles).

Never in my life have I seen any vehicle that cannot at least run without the MAF. I've driven my explorer without it and it was not even that big of a deal. It was sluggish and slow to respond, but I drove it on the highway to work!

The electronic throttle changes very little about the engine as a whole, its main purpose is to tie into the transmission better. Old throttle bodies had a position sensor on them that told the transmission when to shift based on how much throttle was applied, now the computer reads how much "throttle" you are asking for and will respond with what it thinks is the best mix of opening the throttle and changing gears to achieve the acceleration you want.

 

[Flag Gibby]

Could be the fact that I am at over 7000ft elevation, not sure, but I know that it would not start with it disconnected (of course I didn't set there and let the engine continuously crank over and stopped after maybe three seconds of it not firing up). I am also running an aftermarket tune (not sure if I had the tune in use yet when this happened) so it could have been related to that too. Bottom line... the default/emergency parameters that it falls back on when the MAF is not sending a signal just didn't work in my case.

I agree with you regarding the OP, being that she is in Florida the default/limp mode parameters should allow the vehicle to run without the MAF working properly and I believe the system should give a DTC of P0102 or P0103.