While this was not an expensive, nor technically challenging problem to fix, it wasn't immediately properly diagnosed. I knew the car was overheating after driving 5-10 miles (steam coming from under the hood). We let the car cool and then drove it home. We bought a new thermostat because we weren't getting any heat inside the car. Turns out the old one was rusty-looking and permanently stuck. This was my fault because I knew the radiator was leaking and we added plain water to the radiator every week for six months. Repair folks said we needed a new radiator and we bought one from them and installed it ourselves (good project for mechanically-inclined 19-year-old and his Dad). Had we bought it online, we could have saved ourselves $50. It still overheated and we weren't getting any heat from the heater inside the car. Next bought a new water pump (the old one had NOT been leaking) and discovered the impeller had detached from the original. We discovered three cracks in the engine fan and replaced that also (ordered online and saved $50). Put it all back together (with aid of "special" fan clutch tools available at our local parts store--refunded the price of those tools when returned) and everything seemed fine except STILL no heat inside the car from the heater. My son drove it the next day and said it was overheating again, but after letting it idle awhile, temperature returned to normal and SUDDENLY he had heat from the heater once again. Apparently there was something clogging the heater core and it let loose and is now circulating through the block. We drove it awhile and were satisfied the fix was good and sold the car. I believe it was the original water pump (front of the engine was uniformly dirty) and I'm actually impressed it lasted over 200K miles. Engine still ran strong and no problems with any of the electrical or transmission, or exhaust systems. Too bad Ford didn't continue its Ford Explorer quality into the early 2000's.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
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While this was not an expensive, nor technically challenging problem to fix, it wasn't immediately properly diagnosed. I knew the car was overheating after driving 5-10 miles (steam coming from under the hood). We let the car cool and then drove it home. We bought a new thermostat because we weren't getting any heat inside the car. Turns out the old one was rusty-looking and permanently stuck. This was my fault because I knew the radiator was leaking and we added plain water to the radiator every week for six months. Repair folks said we needed a new radiator and we bought one from them and installed it ourselves (good project for mechanically-inclined 19-year-old and his Dad). Had we bought it online, we could have saved ourselves $50. It still overheated and we weren't getting any heat from the heater inside the car. Next bought a new water pump (the old one had NOT been leaking) and discovered the impeller had detached from the original. We discovered three cracks in the engine fan and replaced that also (ordered online and saved $50). Put it all back together (with aid of "special" fan clutch tools available at our local parts store--refunded the price of those tools when returned) and everything seemed fine except STILL no heat inside the car from the heater. My son drove it the next day and said it was overheating again, but after letting it idle awhile, temperature returned to normal and SUDDENLY he had heat from the heater once again. Apparently there was something clogging the heater core and it let loose and is now circulating through the block. We drove it awhile and were satisfied the fix was good and sold the car. I believe it was the original water pump (front of the engine was uniformly dirty) and I'm actually impressed it lasted over 200K miles. Engine still ran strong and no problems with any of the electrical or transmission, or exhaust systems. Too bad Ford didn't continue its Ford Explorer quality into the early 2000's.
- Harry L., Federal Way, WA, US