New member w/ a broken truck

[ORTrailSurvivor]

Hi all. I drove my 91 Explorer from Oregon to Chicago through the Rockies in November towing all of our belongings in a 73 Volvo wagon. It's just me, my daughter & our dog. It was an amazing and harrowing trip. We've been staying with friends and living out of our Explorer like a giant suitcase & driving it all over since we've been here. We're finally about to get our own apartment & it died. It would've been a little easier to deal with if it would've died at our new place next week, but it died on a street along the way. I pushed it into a legal spot on the side of the road and then push it from one side of the street to the other through traffic twice a week due to street cleaning.
My daughter is going to be ten in June & almost every dime I have has gone to taking care of her and getting this apartment (so mechanics are out of the question right now). I decided to surf the web and see if I could find anything to help me fix it, which led me here.

I'm hitting the message board archives in just a minute (so don't think I'm just posting my issue here & forgetting about it). I just figured my story would be incomplete if I didn't mention what actually happened to our truck:

Nope. Just read that I'm not suppose to post that here. Well wish me luck.

 

[fixxxer]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!. Can you give us any details about it "dying"? will it crank but not run or will it not turn over at all?

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

welcome aboard and sux bout ur explorer dying on the street

 

[Tbars4]

...Welcome here and we will be more than glad to help you...

 

[91exploreron37]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[ORTrailSurvivor]

Hi & thanks for the welcome!

I posted the details on another thread http://www.explorerforum.com/forums//showthread.php?t=216518
but I'll gladly repeat it here (in case the link doesn't work):
The transmission started to have problems getting into drive a day or two before it died. It was acting like it was out of gas (but I thought it still had some/ enough not to die before a gas station). I kept restarting it while we were driving in hopes that I could make it to the next station, but it didn't. I heard a noise like a seal going & saw some smoke just before the end. I popped the hood & the power steering fluid cap was half off & fluid splattered on the engine (what I'm guessing the smoke was from). The power steering fluid was also the color of burnt oil.
It's been sitting for about two weeks now & the battery needs a charge now, but when it happened:
It didn't need oil or trans fluid.
It wasn't overheating.
It was obvious that pressure built up in the power steering fluid shot the cap half off & spurted out.
There was no lingering noticeable smell except a mild burnt smell, but the engine didn't seize (I turned it over for a second the next day, then immediately turned it off as not to make things worse).

I have a Chiltons guide & some tools, but I'm pretty much at a loss why the power steering fluid would act that way & why it would stop the engine in any case.

in response to:
I'm thinking your power steering is a seperate problem, but I am more concerned on how your vehicle stopped running

I wouldn't think that the power steering would be related at all if it weren't for the fact that it started to die followed a moment later by hearing the the sound of a seal give way followed by smoke followed by it dying (all in the span of two or three minutes) & then upon popping the hood seeing the cap half off the power steering fluid and the wet splatter of it all over the area & its burnt oil color. I don't get how they could be related or why or how it could happen like that, but there's no denying that it would be some coincidence if two completely unrelated things happened that dramatically at the same time resulting in brief puffs of smoke and a dead vehicle.

I fully expected to have it have something to do with the transmission, but that just isn't what I saw when I popped the hood. Could one cause the other? Can a loss of power steering tell the computer to stop the engine? Can a problem with the power steering pump effect the transmission or vice-versa? Could any of that cause a build up of pressure where you pour the fluid in to the extent it pops the cap & fluid shoots out?

I don't really think any of that seems rational - but I can't say that I have a rational clue as to what's wrong either.

Oh & there's no leaks or puddles.

 

[Dopler174]

Welcome to Explorer Forum! You have the coolest G-rated username I've seen in a long time.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Check the fuel pump relay, and the PCM relay. As for the P/S cap, turning the wheel with the engine off will cause the cap to shoot off sometimes if the tabs are slightly bent out of shape. Pressure within the pump with the engine off will do this.