Oil gauge jumping, stalled out, now wont start

[Justin312]

To give you some history. I have an explorer 2001 with 168k miles. I noticed O/D light flashing everytime I drove longer than 10 minutes or so.
Then out of nowhere about 4 months after i first noticed the o/d light, I started it up and heard a bunch of noise in the engine so I parked it and during parking it, i realized I had lost reverse completely. I kept driving it because i couldnt afford to have it looked at. Then I noticed I couldnt drive more than 30 mph without rpms going up to 6, and even then struggled to get up to 40-50 mph. I realized i must had lost 4th and 5th gear as well maybe.
Then about 2 weeks after i first lost reverse and other gears, I was driving going about 40 mph and the oil gauge started bouncing up and down dropping to L and then check guage light would come on along with check engine light, then it bounce back to normal and go away . after about 5 minutes of thia happening it dropped to L and stalled out, lost acceleration but lights and battery was fine. I tried to start it back up and it wont start. I tried again the next day and nothing. Its currently parked in someones yard nice enough to let me park it there about wouldnt get towed. But he's giving me about another week and i got to move it. Id like any advice to possibly get it started even if just temporarily to be able to drive it some where safe, until i can get extra money to work on it. And any advice for more permanent fix but budget friendly. Thanks

 

[Deleted member 352605]

Hi Justin. Sorry for the late reply. I hope you haven't sold your explorer yet... regarding the od light and losing reverse, i think it might be a torque converter. Also when u couldn't get above 30, that means the truck is in limp mode, which means that its going into a conservative mode because there is a serious underlying issue and it is avoiding it getting catastrophically worse. About the gauge, either its a bad gauge or you suddenly had an oil leak and lost oil pressure (or a bad oil pump) When it gets to low, you should not be there, nothing is being lubricated and there might have been some minor damage but not sure, also bringing it up to 6k could've caused more damage..,. if it was loss of oil pressure, it makes sense that the lights and everything would be fine, and it makes sense if it wont start because without oil pressure, the engine probably wouldn't start because there is a serious issue. I would advise to see what the codesare...

BAD NEWS THO

I think between revving it and losing oil pressure, the engine could've been starved of oil and locked up... inthat case, u need a new engine (and a new tranny if ur inthat far)... or have it checked out to see if maybe the car was preventing further damage and shut off... but i thinkit locked up... it would be cheaper to get a reman or used engine and tranny rather than fussing with ur old one.. i will attach some links to engines and trannys 4 urs... assuming its a sohc 5spd

 

[Deleted member 352605]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-...0001&campid=5574912417&icep_item=263747945788

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-...0001&campid=5574912417&icep_item=223869075227

 

[Floridacatfan2020]

I would do a compression check first - the loss of reverse could be a broken reverse ring