3Dee
Member
- Joined
- May 15, 2020
- Messages
- 19
- Reaction score
- 5
- City, State
- Guernsey
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1994 Ford Explorer XLT
Hi everyone, I wanted to take some time and write about Faith, my explorer, because the story is pretty funny looking back now.
I bought Faith in May from a friend who works at a junkyard. (Almost ended up with a 99 Nissan Pathfinder, but the front axle was irreparable) I paid $1000 up front and $350 in payments for a total $1350. I thought that I would have a very reliable, running car for college, of which started in August. It wasnt long before the issues started, though. My first issue was a high pitched whining from the back. I made a post here about it, and we had concluded it was the fuel pump.
But, before this was to be fixed, I made a trip 30 minutes out of town (Wyoming) with a friend to go visit other friends. As we pull into town, we start to see people waving at us, and I hear a scraping noise. When we arrive at the friends house, I can see that the entire muffler and back half of the exhaust had fallen off and was scraping on the ground. There was already a rust hole, but now the whole thing was unusable, a gaping hole left where it had been scraping on the road. Luckily, the friend I rode with had family in town and we were able to cut it off where it had broken.
Long story short, I bought a whole new exhaust system and my cousin fixed it free of charge (good to have motorheads in the family).
Now, back to the fuel pump. My dad and I drained the fuel and dropped the tank. After struggling with the portions of the process that required special tools that we did not yet have (ex. Fuel line tool) we got the pump out and replaced it with one I had bought off of ebay. Hooray, it's fixed!
Or so we thought.
After a few days, I was going to go to the post office. I started her up, and got on the road. As I approached the stop sign at the end of my street, it died completely. I went to start the explorer up, and it would act like it was going to start, but the moment I let go of the key, it would stop completely. I was heartbroken. College was about to start and my car broke down AGAIN. The tow truck driver for roadside assistance said it was "the easiest tow hes ever done". I began doing deep research, trying to figure out what the heck happened in those couple days. I came to a conclusion that the battery might need replaced, as it had trouble holding a charge. But even after replacing the battery, there was no starting. I listened hard, to see if anything sounded wrong, and lo and behold, the fuel pump wasnt coming on.
I wasnt exactly thrilled about it, but at least I knew what to fix. By the second time we emptied the tank and dropped it, I had bought the fuel line tool, and the process was much simpler as we had done it before. When the pump was pulled out of the tank, we saw the problem: one of the connectors to run the pump had slipped loose. Even though the pump still worked, we decided to buy a whole new fuel pump system, sending unit included.
With the brand new fuel pump installed, as well as the fuel filter, we put the tank back up and prayed as I turned the key. After a few minutes of trying, she sprung to life! Thank the Lord! My mother and I decided to name the explorer "Faith", because we had to put so much faith into trusting she would run.
Unfortunately, that was not the last of my issues.
I packed my things the next day and made the hour and 35 minute drive to my apartment. On the way, I began to notice that the vehicle was chugging slightly.
Luckily for me, I arrived at the apartment building. But the next day, (day of my classes of course) she was dead. Again.
My family and I finally gave up. We didn't know what to do anymore. The next option was to send it to a shop.
A few weeks of using my mom's Buick LeSabre and $426 later, Faith was ready for me. It had turned out she needed a new Power Control Module. Having this replaced, shes run ever since, and I couldnt be happier. I plan on painting the hood in my Auto Body Paint class, and taking good care of her for the rest of her life. She just recently hit 200k miles, and I'm hoping to see it through to 300k or 400k.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the story of my suffering, haha
I bought Faith in May from a friend who works at a junkyard. (Almost ended up with a 99 Nissan Pathfinder, but the front axle was irreparable) I paid $1000 up front and $350 in payments for a total $1350. I thought that I would have a very reliable, running car for college, of which started in August. It wasnt long before the issues started, though. My first issue was a high pitched whining from the back. I made a post here about it, and we had concluded it was the fuel pump.
But, before this was to be fixed, I made a trip 30 minutes out of town (Wyoming) with a friend to go visit other friends. As we pull into town, we start to see people waving at us, and I hear a scraping noise. When we arrive at the friends house, I can see that the entire muffler and back half of the exhaust had fallen off and was scraping on the ground. There was already a rust hole, but now the whole thing was unusable, a gaping hole left where it had been scraping on the road. Luckily, the friend I rode with had family in town and we were able to cut it off where it had broken.
Long story short, I bought a whole new exhaust system and my cousin fixed it free of charge (good to have motorheads in the family).
Now, back to the fuel pump. My dad and I drained the fuel and dropped the tank. After struggling with the portions of the process that required special tools that we did not yet have (ex. Fuel line tool) we got the pump out and replaced it with one I had bought off of ebay. Hooray, it's fixed!
Or so we thought.
After a few days, I was going to go to the post office. I started her up, and got on the road. As I approached the stop sign at the end of my street, it died completely. I went to start the explorer up, and it would act like it was going to start, but the moment I let go of the key, it would stop completely. I was heartbroken. College was about to start and my car broke down AGAIN. The tow truck driver for roadside assistance said it was "the easiest tow hes ever done". I began doing deep research, trying to figure out what the heck happened in those couple days. I came to a conclusion that the battery might need replaced, as it had trouble holding a charge. But even after replacing the battery, there was no starting. I listened hard, to see if anything sounded wrong, and lo and behold, the fuel pump wasnt coming on.
I wasnt exactly thrilled about it, but at least I knew what to fix. By the second time we emptied the tank and dropped it, I had bought the fuel line tool, and the process was much simpler as we had done it before. When the pump was pulled out of the tank, we saw the problem: one of the connectors to run the pump had slipped loose. Even though the pump still worked, we decided to buy a whole new fuel pump system, sending unit included.
With the brand new fuel pump installed, as well as the fuel filter, we put the tank back up and prayed as I turned the key. After a few minutes of trying, she sprung to life! Thank the Lord! My mother and I decided to name the explorer "Faith", because we had to put so much faith into trusting she would run.
Unfortunately, that was not the last of my issues.
I packed my things the next day and made the hour and 35 minute drive to my apartment. On the way, I began to notice that the vehicle was chugging slightly.
Luckily for me, I arrived at the apartment building. But the next day, (day of my classes of course) she was dead. Again.
My family and I finally gave up. We didn't know what to do anymore. The next option was to send it to a shop.
A few weeks of using my mom's Buick LeSabre and $426 later, Faith was ready for me. It had turned out she needed a new Power Control Module. Having this replaced, shes run ever since, and I couldnt be happier. I plan on painting the hood in my Auto Body Paint class, and taking good care of her for the rest of her life. She just recently hit 200k miles, and I'm hoping to see it through to 300k or 400k.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the story of my suffering, haha
