Yesterday, I un-retired my Explorer, and a little bit of my brain is congratulating me for holding on to it, 'Just in Case', because both of our other cars went into the shop this week, and the faithful Explorer was the only vehicle left standing. I will tell the story, it's a little long, but you are free to skip it, of course, but it's a good mechanic's tale.
We are a three car, two person household. My wife's daily driver is a 2014 Chevy Cruze, and I replaced my Explorer as a daily driver with a 2002 Chevy Avalanche 1-1/2 years ago. My wife's Cruze picked up a misfire a few weeks ago, scanner said cylinder #4. We replaced all the usual suspects until it pointed to the coil pack, which on this car is one monolithic thing that mounts into the valve cover and has short boots to the four spark plugs. It's expensive, and there were other components possibly at fault, time was short, and we have to fix cars outside in the snow, so we put it in the shop. It's still there, they are waiting on a new coil pack, and something about a new connector... It's a good shop but they don't communicate well, as you will see next.
So, earlier this the week, the Avalanche also picks up a misfire. Scanner just says 'Random Misfire'. It's minor, it only comes up during cold idle. I thought I would go after plugs and wires after Christmas. We need it to drive to the next town for family Christmas, so early yesterday, I cleared the codes, and went to fill the fuel tank. Along the way, I get a low coolant message. Ok, I haven't topped that off in a year, I can live with that. I fill the tank with 26 gallons (big tank), put a gallon of antifreeze in it... and it won't crank. Now, my friends, what is the worst possible cause for this?
Yes, hydrolocked. Sudden coolant loss, milky dipstick, a misfire... So, the Avalanche is now at the same shop as our other car. The guy at the shop... LOL, he had it in his head that, I don't know, Christmas hope or something, he receives the Avalanche, bangs on the starter and then tries to start it, and it starts, of course, because the coolant in the cylinder has leaked down into the oil pan. He's telling me over the phone, it's only the starter! Then, while he's talking, someone shows him the milky overfull dipstick and he's like... I'll have to get back to you. That was mid-day yesterday just before they were closing for Christmas Eve.
My wife, in the meantime, has coordinated what could be called a modern Exodus, moving Christmas from the next town to our home mid-day Christmas Eve. And I'm just burning a little bit because obviously, it has not been a good day. Therapy time... time to work on something I know I can make work. So, I shovel off the snow from the Explorer, put in the battery... voila! Only problem, which I could have lived with, was the 4x4 selector switch was dead. So, I could either work on that, or go help with ladies with Christmas set-up. What do you think I did?
Fuses were fine, I did the shift motor bump stops a few years ago... huh. So, I dug around the threads here and decided to look at the shift module. I had envisioned getting it loose, finding the reset switch, all the stuff I had read. But, I didn't have the right socket combo to reach the far mounting nut. So, I decided to count my blessings, and reconnect it for some other day of diagnosis. Except that, whatever I did, perhaps just disconnecting the three connectors and reconnecting... now the 4x4 works too!
Test drive time! LOL, ok, you have to understand that the body of the explorer is mostly attached to the frame by gravity. I stopped driving it because it was so badly rusted structurally, beyond repair economically. Let me set the scene. Imagine Captain Kirk in a dilapidated starship, it's an emergency and he has to get to warp 3. It's shaking, all kinds of weird noises, but it gets there. The rusted U-joints loosened up, 4x4 shifted nicely, I even gave it a little run in low-range just to exercise the shift motor a little bit. It's a rough ride, the tires are wildly out of balance, and the back shocks are completely gone. But, we will get to work Thursday, we get the Cruze back Thursday, and who knows about the Avalanche.
My mother-in-law was here yesterday, she said "I don't know about all this new stuff, the old stuff always works". A big part of me wants to rehab the old Explorer, as a reward of some kind? Maybe new tires and shocks. I had pondered taking it to the junkyard a few years ago, but there's no way now. That 1994 explorer absolutely came through for us. Maybe I will learn some bodywork next summer and... who knows.
The End.
