First off, I'm a female.
, and I don't work on my own car anymore, but I used to drag race so I understand quite a bit about engines... So my question is this. This is my first post, so hoping I'm putting it in the right place....
I have a 1995 V8 4WD Ford Explorer that I've had for over 10 years. Its been a wonderful vehicle, never has given me much headache except for a VSS that had to be replaced a few years ago that was misdiagnosed as needing a new transmission (those pikers)....$25 part later, runs super again. Now, my vehicle has trouble maintaining an idle on restart after its warm. It starts up fine, just sounds like its trying to die...after about 15 seconds of holding the gas pedal down to rev the engine up slightly to get it over that rough spot, it runs fine again. NO other driving symptoms. No red lights, no overheating, no ticking.
Took it in to my mechanic for a well child checkup, and he said it has a SEVERE timing cover gasket leak! He said it was so bad he didn't even have to dye it. But he said it was coolant, not oil. ......Now. If this is true, I should have foam on my dipstick...which I don't. He wants $600 to replace it...but after reading this forum, once you tear into something with 211,000 miles on it, you can break loose a lot of crap that wasn't broken in the first place considering all the stuff you have to take off to get to the gasket.....and I am wondering if the expense would be worth it, since the vehicle is only worth about $1500 on the resale market anyway. The flip side though, is if I KNEW that he would not break anything else taking this apart, and I KNEW that he'd do a good job of seating the new gasket, and this would solve the problem, I'd do it in a second, because I love the vehicle, its paid for,..its comfy, pretty, looks almost brand new, and I have no urge to dump it. But then I read THIS:
"......as one who just had this very same problem on a 1997 Explorer, 4.0 SOHC V-6 the maddingly seemingly invisible leak, the no start after warmup, no Chk eng light etc., was eventually traced to one of the temp sending units (yep there are TWO of em, one for the gauge one for the computer) They are located on the Thermostat Housing/Water Outlet assy. and on an engine with 200,000 miles on it I can just about guarantee that the Thermostat Housing/Water Outlet assy will have to be changed because the brass inserts that the sending units screw into are either pressed or glued into the PLASTIC housing after won't let you have the darned things because the brass that the temp sending units are screwed into just go round and round in (this is also where the water is disappearing from) the plastic housing and if it does that, the housing will have to be replaced. This part can be bought in many configurations but A*a*on has this one (Dorman 902-204 Thermostat Housing/Water Outlet) that comes with the thermostat already installed. You probably should replace both sending units, but if your gauge is working and you only have hot start problems you can reuse gauge sending unit. BTW these 2 sending units are not interchangeable. Hope this helps someone with this problem because that 4.0 l' SOHC engine was used on alot of Ford models. "
Makes me wonder if my mechanic knows what he's talking about, since he didn't know about the VSS making the vehicle run like it needed a new tranny when it goes out. I found that out on my own, and replaced it on my own. What do you guys think? I'm gonna go get some of those black pellets and at least put that in for the time being. P.S. I have not noticed any leak, nor have I had to constantly add fluid to the system which leads me to believe the leak is not so HUGE as he says it is....and HE didn't see it three months ago when I took it in for the VSS problem that he didn't find. lol. I know what you are going to say - find another mechanic. And then I found this on another forum - this describes maybe the noise the car is making on the warm starts: " Ford XLT Explorer. My mechanic removed the oil filler cap to listen to the sound coming from the right side front of the motor. It sounded like the clicking of a diesel near where my power steering pump is located. This problem seems to be intermittent. It was not there on a cold start so I left and drove a short way; parked for about 15 minutes. Upon restart, there it was. It's his opinion that a timing chain nylon tensioner on the front is either worn or gone entirely causing the chain to slap the sides or the another chain that is near it. It takes special tools for this....." But I still want your opinion on what the chances are of a "fix" breaking more things than are fixed.....