Chat thread 2.0

[JohnDeere318]

What if 3+4 = 8 tho.....

[Natearador]

What if 3+4 = 8 tho.....

Grad pranks at our school today

[BigC92]

Lets talk about vehicles, our Expedition had a little A/C problem for a while now, the Expedition said i had enough, now at the beginning of this month, i was at the store getting ice cream, so my sister came out to put the stuff in, so i fired it up, heard a noise, thought it was the Expedition making old man noises, so i didn't back up a foot and went to turn the wheel, i noticed... We had no steering, and the light for the battery came on, and it was running really really smooth, it dont do that, so i parked it, looked under it, seen a string, popped the hood, the main drive belt shredded, so my cousin came to get us, got home, got a new belt, drove it home, and the alt was working perfectly fine, wait about a week ordered a remanufactured A/C pump, day or two, we took it to the shop, they put the pump on, so they flushed out the system, got new A/C lines and all that, but here's when im confused, my cousin took us there, we got the papers and all that, i hoped in, she fired right up, followed my cousin out of town, went to the gas station, filled up the tank, again she fired right up, went to walmart got a few things, again she fired right up, but dad had a Doctor appointment, he fired her up, the voltage regulator said the battery was dead, now tell me what the heck did they do to the charging system? They shouldn't have thought of touching the alternator, or any thing that deals with it, so my sister called the shop up, they said "um uhhhh we'll call you back... They never did, FYI, its a 1997 Ford Expedition XLT 5.4L Triton V8 4 speed 4x4, has just about 190k miles, id like your guys imput.

[Erica Von]

my husband says its the voltage regulator and its usually in the alternator.

[JohnDeere318]

This is why we do all of our vehicle work our selves, can't trust anybody.

But yeah mostly an alternator not charging and needs a new one. Do you have a voltage gauge on your clusters? If so, please tell us what the voltage gauge says. If under 13, it's not good, good alternators run about 14 volts.

[BigC92]

So meanwhile dad went out this morning with my sister, my sister found a wire that was hanging there, the idiots didn't hook up the dam hot wire to where the alternator would kick in, so she got a good fresh charging, lol.
@ JD318, we could have done it, but we would have to flush it out, but when they flushed it out, they found metal shavings in the lines, so we got new lines, condenser canister and all that, but like dad said, they shouldn't have to touch it, but they may have bumped it and didn't notice, but all in all guys, shes staying charged, and keeping us cool, thats all that matters. Well it does have the voltage gauge, but it goes from 8 to 18, but its above half which is normal, if its in the [ ], then its normal.

[BigC92]

my husband says its the voltage regulator and its usually in the alternator.

Thats what me and dad thought, see when we bought the Expedition, it needed a new alternator, went to grandmas, he changed it, but like i told JD318, it was a hot wire that goes into the firewall, but we have to replace a few idler pulleys, bc it has had this high pitch whine, but the reason why, my dad sprayed engine degreaser all over it, and it must have dried up the oil, but, she runs/drives fine.

[Erica Von]

Yes my hubby William says 14Volts on the charge and anything below 12Volts it should be replaced also how did metal shavings get into the AC lines unless someone put them there. or they are just saying that to create work for themselves a lot of shops are crooked as a dogs hind leg.... Meow...

[BigC92]

Yes my hubby William says 14Volts on the charge and anything below 12Volts it should be replaced also how did metal shavings get into the AC lines unless someone put them there. or they are just saying that to create work for themselves a lot of shops are crooked as a dogs hind leg.... Meow...

I honestly dont know, im not a mechanic, i just play one at home, but they had to flush the system twice, but they said the old pump was locked up. We would have done it our self, it wouldn't be hard to take the pump off, just take out the three bolts that secures it to the engine block, disconnect the wire that tells it to kick on, and get it out of there, but we didn't know how to flush the system out, and how much Freon to put in, we have enough troubles changing the rear coil packs, we change them every oh id say 4 or 5 years 5 years if were lucky. The thing i hate about the 5.4L is that theres no breathing room, you cant even fit a footlong sub in there, its extremely tight.

[Erica Von]

kind of reminds me of a car my dad bought called a Montero he bought it with a V8 only when he needed to change the spark plugs did he realize the whole engine needed to be pulled to do that. He sued the company that built it and got free life time spark plugs installed each time it needed it at no charge. Said it was a real hassle.
From a engineering stand point I will just bet sales probably asked the design team if it could take a v8 and they said yes it can but didn't' bother to mention about not being able to remove the spark plugs.....

[BigC92]

When the Expedition coil pack went out the first time, we were at walmart, so dad was looking around for the spark plugs, this was the first time it hit him, anyways he found the spark plug, took it out, it was perfectly fine, then he found out that the Expedition has coil packs, this is the first V8 ive ever drove and this is the V8 that was fuel injected for dad, walmart even let him barrow tools to replace it, we owned 2 cars, 3 trucks, 1 Van, and 3 Suv's all Ford, 2 Explores and upgraded to the Expedition, we had a poontoon boat my uncle would have to pull it, but with the 5.4L, we dont notice the boat behind us.

[JohnDeere318]

So have you guys changed the AC Compressor/lines/condenser everything before? I this same problem with my 98 Buick LeSabre, when I bought it, my dad was hearing sounds from the AC Compressor. He said it was metal shavings. It wanted to get that fixed quickly before anything happens. All we did was made the belt bypass it until we got a new AC compressor and everything was all good. The guy previously did not do that, but just had the AC recharged and that was it. $300 to replace that compressor... Had to do the same for my 98 Chevy truck since mine actually locked up... Another $300 back in 2014. But I assume they just start creating metal shavings themselves has they have been running a lot of years, don't quote me on that tho, would have to ask my dad about that.

@ JD318, we could have done it, but we would have to flush it out, but when they flushed it out, they found metal shavings in the lines, so we got new lines, condenser canister and all that, but like dad said, they shouldn't have to touch it, but they may have bumped it and didn't notice, but all in all guys, shes staying charged, and keeping us cool, thats all that matters. Well it does have the voltage gauge, but it goes from 8 to 18, but its above half which is normal, if its in the [ ], then its normal.

Well that's good that it is above normal, which is the 14 volts. That's good to know that is still in good shape. It's just like anything with a 20 year old vehicle. Soon my truck will turn 20 next year, your is already 20 since it's a 97.

I think in 99, after Chevy moved on to the new body style (cheaply made one), they started using coil-near-plug ignition (maybe related to the coil packs?) instead of the old distributor. My truck has a distributor. I asked my dad if the new LS motors' coil packs were better and he said they were better than distributors in my Vortec 5700. Some day I want to upgrade to the new LS motor, probably the Vortec 6000 if I have the money and time, to get those coil-near-plug ignition, better HP, better torque, etc.

kind of reminds me of a car my dad bought called a Montero he bought it with a V8 only when he needed to change the spark plugs did he realize the whole engine needed to be pulled to do that.

Seriously? That is a PITA! Why did that car company think that was a good idea to have to pull the engine out to be able to change the spark plugs. That company sure wasn't thinking.

[BigC92]

@JD318, no we never messed with the A/C compressor before, it was working fine until my dad sprayed the engine degreaser, we had to recharge it only once, it worked for a few days then it crapped out, the pulley itself, not the clutch that makes the A/C go, but the pulley was really free spinning, you could drop a feather and it would spin fast, the only thing major work me and dad done, dad replaced the alternator, we got new front brakes rotors and pads, and a brake line.

[Erica Von]

My dad told me because there was not enough clearance between the firewall and the spark plug to take them out and put new one in. you could not get a socket on the spark plug. I remember this well because it was very unusual. that the plug sat in a recess, so that is why the engine had to be taken out and put on a stand so you could take out the spark plugs and put new ones in. it was a design flaw was only suppose to take a 6 cylinder engine not a V8.

[fenixguy]

Seriously? That is a PITA! Why did that car company think that was a good idea to have to pull the engine out to be able to change the spark plugs. That company sure wasn't thinking.

That would be the notorious Ford 4.6/5.4 V8. If you try to do the plugs yourself, you'll usually wind up stripping the threads and have to have the heads machined. Thus, it's usually easier/cheaper to go ahead and pull the engine to change them. A friend of mine used to have a Mustang with a 4.6 and regularly he would blow spark plugs out of the head while driving. Overall they were/are a bulletproof engine other than the plug issue.

Ford is also infamous for having to remove the cab to do almost any engine work on their later model Super Duty trucks. You literally can't do anything to the engine other than change the oil without having to remove the cab from the truck.

I loved F-150s up until the 4.6/5.4 era (around '97) and the Powerstrokes until they quit using the 7.3 diesel. After that, not so much. I do love the Ecoboosts, but I don't think I'd want to own one.