Warrof
Member
- Joined
- May 15, 2019
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- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1994 Explorer Limited
Hey guys and gals,
So my wife and I bought this 1994 Ford Explorer Limited back in April 2019, at the time we needed a bigger vehicle for our expanding family. It had been sitting for a while, but it had low miles and the v6 4.0. And my Mustang isn't a family vehicle neither was her Suzuki Samurai.
Within a month we had to replace the Water Pump, Thermostat, Radiator Cap, and a couple of the smaller hoses. Also flushed the system with the Prestone cleaning kit, lots of crud came out. Pretty sure the family that bought it off the lot in '94 never did any maintenance except for oil changes.
That fixed it for a while, ran quite cool for about a week. Then more stuff happened. Ended up replacing the Radiator and fan(was cracked). That fixed it for a while, again. Due to stupidity, my dad and I forgot to run the lower hose correctly, the belt rubbed a hole in it.
At this point I wanna shoot the blasted car, so my in-laws car-napped the Explorer and took it to the local mechanic (good guy, does good work). Considering my wife was due to have our first kid, I didn't really care about the car. Mechanic replaced all the hoses, heater core, and the valve that runs to the heater core. Been running really great since! 1 month and 3 weeks...
About 2-3 weeks ago the car started overheating while idling with the AC on... with my experience I knew that wasn't unusual so we started running without the AC unless we were on the road.
Last night, she really overheated bad. Boiled out everything in the reservoir, and a fair bit out of the radiator.
Just to summarize I've replaced, fixed or tested:
Water pump, radiator cap twice, thermostat, radiator, fan blades, all hoses and clamps, tested for combustibles in coolant(negative twice), flushed a few times, cleaned with Prestone Cleaning Kit, heater core, heater core line valve... I think that's everything.
Next I'm gonna replace the fan clutch(did not replace that) and see what kind of crud is in between the radiator and the AC evaporator (or whatever it's called).
Does anyone have any further advise?
Proabably gonna go through this guide as well.
How To: Doonze's Ultimate Radiator Flush!
So my wife and I bought this 1994 Ford Explorer Limited back in April 2019, at the time we needed a bigger vehicle for our expanding family. It had been sitting for a while, but it had low miles and the v6 4.0. And my Mustang isn't a family vehicle neither was her Suzuki Samurai.
Within a month we had to replace the Water Pump, Thermostat, Radiator Cap, and a couple of the smaller hoses. Also flushed the system with the Prestone cleaning kit, lots of crud came out. Pretty sure the family that bought it off the lot in '94 never did any maintenance except for oil changes.
That fixed it for a while, ran quite cool for about a week. Then more stuff happened. Ended up replacing the Radiator and fan(was cracked). That fixed it for a while, again. Due to stupidity, my dad and I forgot to run the lower hose correctly, the belt rubbed a hole in it.
At this point I wanna shoot the blasted car, so my in-laws car-napped the Explorer and took it to the local mechanic (good guy, does good work). Considering my wife was due to have our first kid, I didn't really care about the car. Mechanic replaced all the hoses, heater core, and the valve that runs to the heater core. Been running really great since! 1 month and 3 weeks...
About 2-3 weeks ago the car started overheating while idling with the AC on... with my experience I knew that wasn't unusual so we started running without the AC unless we were on the road.
Last night, she really overheated bad. Boiled out everything in the reservoir, and a fair bit out of the radiator.
Just to summarize I've replaced, fixed or tested:
Water pump, radiator cap twice, thermostat, radiator, fan blades, all hoses and clamps, tested for combustibles in coolant(negative twice), flushed a few times, cleaned with Prestone Cleaning Kit, heater core, heater core line valve... I think that's everything.
Next I'm gonna replace the fan clutch(did not replace that) and see what kind of crud is in between the radiator and the AC evaporator (or whatever it's called).
Does anyone have any further advise?
Proabably gonna go through this guide as well.
How To: Doonze's Ultimate Radiator Flush!