EZ Lube is not a place you want to take your car too. (Long)

[kaos]

I had a little adventure with my car on Sunday. All week long I've been thinking about the cooling system and researching what I can do to keep things cooler. So I've been using the Predator to see what my running temps are like.

So on Sunday I was on the freeway and since it was going to be a fairly long trip I decided to throw on the predator. As soon as the predator booted up and I start data logging, it shows a temp of 220. WTF! I'm normally around 212 on the freeway. Then it goes to 222 another 10-20 seconds 224 HOLY Sheeet! I get off the freeway and by the time I parked it was over 230 degrees. The stock gauge moved about the width of the needle over to the right, but still pretty much normal. I pop the hood and fluid is coming out of the radiator cap and boiling over.

After about an hour and some help, I manage to fill up the fluid with regular drinking water and I learned about the crossover and getting air bubbles and such. I finally get the car working right where the stabalize correctly. I drive home and all if fine.

Here's my next mistake, I didn't have time to get in there and do a radiator flush to get all that regular water out and I'm not sure how long I should leave it in there for. So I take it to EZ Lube. I told the guys what happen and I also explain that they need to put fluid in the crossover tube.

At one point I see a car manual on my car because they were reading it. Apparantly not know what to do. I knew this was a bad thing from the momemt I talked to them. They are idiots and they were tryingto upsell me the orange fluid. I told them NO just put in the green stuff. They are telling my car calls for the orange stuff, I said no it doesn't. I figured all they have to do is flush my system and refill it. How hard can it be?

So they finish and I ask the guy if they put in 14 qts and he says yes, but you could tell he had no idea nor did he speak english all that good. Damn punk ass gangsters. He also says he didn't charge me for the extra fluid he put in. Well the car takes 14 so just fill it ass.

I have a bad feeling, so before I take off I put on the predator again and I live about 3-4 blocks away. Well the temps rised from 180 to 230 in that 2 minute drive!!!! WTF! I knew it.

I wait for it to cool and I chech the fluid, and the resorvoir is completely empty. Not a single drop and the crossover tube was empty as well. I go and buy some coolant and distelled water and guess how much I put in. Our capacity is 14 qts. I put in a gallon of water and 3/4 gallon. That's 7 qts of fluid they had left my car dry. I fill it and bleed it and all is well again.

Just imagine if I hadn't used the predator on both occasions. Shit could have really gone haywire. I also really hate those asses over there. I will never make that mistake again.

Thanks for letting me rant. I just still get so pissed off those guys for lying. If you don't know then ask me I would have shown you what to do.

 

[Speedylifsavr]

freakin idiots! I went to a local Jiffy Lube here and swore to never go back when the atttendant told me his dodge stratus could give me "A run for my money"..........and he was serious!

Absolutely clueless

 

[67bigblock]

F^(&$d up story
Cant trust anyone

 

[kaos]

Moral of the story. Always double check other's work or do it yourself if possible.

 

[lemosley01]

Originally posted by omslaw
Moral of the story. Always double check other's work or do it yourself if possible.

Absolutely - no one does that type of work on my car except me or a mechanic who has Cobra experience.

Glad you caught it before it screwed something up.

Do you know why it overheated the first time?

 

[kaos]

Originally posted by lemosley01


Glad you caught it before it screwed something up.

Do you know why it overheated the first time?

Tell me about it. I was real lucky.

Actually I don't know why. I would really like to know, because as it stands now I have my predator hooked up where ever I go because I'm gun shy. I even made a contraption to hold the thing on the steering wheel column. At least until my gauges get here.

It all started early last week when I noticed my reservoir was out of fluid. Totally dry. I'm not sure how that happened because since the 1.5 year ownership I've only had to put in fluid once. So I've been a little lax in checking it.

So I figure I would throw in a bottle of Redline Water Wetter to see if I could get the temps down a little. I figure it was worth a shot. I put it in on Tuesday or Wednesday and I monitor the temps and it still runs at the same temp. No biggie Redline is supposed to work better with mostly water anyway.

The all hell breaks loose on Sunday. :shrug:

The only conclusion I can think of at the moment is when the reservoir went empty, I must have gotten an air pocket and it didn't rear it's ugly face until Sunday when I was on the freeway.

It was doing the same thing sunday until I learned how to burp the system properly. So that's why I figure it must have been an air pockey issue and not a water pump or thermostat issue. But I really don't know that much about our cooling system yet.

If I could find out why it happened I would be a little less gun shy. I hope it's not an on/ off thing that will just happen out of the blue. :shrug:

 

[motorCITY]

omslaw - good catch! Sounds like things coulda' gotta lot worse real quick.

 

[REX-RACER]

I had my tranny fluid changed at Jiffy Lube because they have the Synchromesh there. I told the guy to only put in 3 quarts because of the TSB and the 3.4 it calls for, but before I could even finish telling the manager this, the guy under the car is taking the drain plug out! In the end they overfilled the tranny and it was actually harder to shift than before. I ended up redoing it myself about two weeks later in my driveway.

Those clowns at Jiffy lube are just that. On the other hand I've always had good experiences w/ Valvoline instant oil change.

BTW, omslaw have you thought about switching your thermostat out to a 180 degree? I hear it's something a lot of people do when they get the hand held tunners.

 

[kaos]

LOL! Same thing happened to me with the tranny fluid. I took it to a respected mustang shop and I took 5qts of Redline fluid. I only bought the extra just in case one was spilled over on accident. Well I told the guy to put in 3.5 qts, this was before the recall, and I come back and he had put in all 5 qts. The owner told me it would be fine, and since I didn't know that much I said okay. Well the car shifted horribly and I ended up changing it myself and I just put in the stock stuff but only put in 3.5 qts and the car shifted great.

I could have sworn I read on here that we have a 180 degree thermostat. Is that just internet rumor?

 

[lemosley01]

32VHemijr confirmed they come with 180 degree t-stats. I don't have access to my Ford CD right now, so I can't confirm it based on that.

See the following:
http://www.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=557313&highlight=180*

Maybe your t-stat is sticking?

 

[kaos]

Okay I thought I read we have 180. Thanks.

I was wondering about that because the first time it overheated, I didn't know anything about bleeding the system. I just put in water in the crossover tube and then everything worked after that. Then after EZ lube I would put in fluid in the crossover tube and it would still overheat until I bleed the system. So who knows.

I should have listened to my cousin that morning. He says just go buy a thermostat, replace it and the flush the fluid. But nooooo, I have to do things the hard way.

 

[trplblacksnake]

I need to flush out my system what is the propper way to do that? does anyone have a link to a good how to.

 

[Quadcammer]

Im pretty sure our stock 99 thermostats are 192 degrees.

mine runs 194 to 198 on the autotap at all times.

never goes over 200.

 

[lemosley01]

Originally posted by quadcammer
Im pretty sure our stock 99 thermostats are 192 degrees.

mine runs 194 to 198 on the autotap at all times.

never goes over 200.

Ackk!

Maybe it's a 180 degree thermostat with an 18 degree variance (j/k)? Of course, with Ford you never can tell. :bash:

 

[kaos]

Originally posted by quadcammer
Im pretty sure our stock 99 thermostats are 192 degrees.

mine runs 194 to 198 on the autotap at all times.

never goes over 200.

Damn. Mine is never below 202. On the stock tune, it runs between 206-212 mostly. It will hit an occasion high of 216 and down to 202. With the predator tune it didn't get past 212 and stays mostly at 206-208. The high speed fan comes on at 206 and shuts off at 202. Since I barely hit 202, the high speed fan stays on the whole time I'm driving.

 

[kaos]

Originally posted by trplblacksnake
I need to flush out my system what is the propper way to do that? does anyone have a link to a good how to.

I don't. I used the help of a couple of friends. I will post that up in the next post.

Here's what I did to bleed the system which is the part that was screwing my up. You have to fill up the radiator and then close that cap and fill up through the crossover tube in front of the radiator. I did this with the car off. I did run it and I had the heater on full blast as well, this helps to open up the heater core too so the whole cooling system is open. I think I noticed at this point I was able to put in more fluid. I shut the car and made sure that the the crossover tube was completely filled. Don't quote me on anything here, I'm assuming I did things right because after a few days everything seems right and my reservoir is still full.

Do this at your own risk:

To bleed here's what I did. Turn on the car and let it idle and get up to running temps. Make sure you turn on the heater full blast and have it come out the vents. Hot air should be coming out of it. Put on gloves if you have them and get a towel too. I put on saftey glasses for the hell of it. Start slowing unscrewing the bolt in the crossover tube, where you filled up before, keep the towel over it and make sure you have firm grip on it. So keep unscrewing until vapors start coming out and then watch for radiator fluid starts coming out. I was warned that it could be a little scary, but I barely had to unscrew the bolt halfway until steam came out and the some fluid. As soon as radiator fluid starts coming out, screw in the bolt ASAP. The main thing to remember is not to unscrew the bolt all the way out, because the pressure might shoot out the bolt if you are not careful. I had unscrewed the bolt enough times that I knew how much longer I had until it was out completely.

I had to do it a few times, since the first time I did it I did it while it wasn't hot enough and I ended up unscrewing the bolt completely out and no steam came out. So I started over and let the car get to a temp of at least 206 or until you reach normal operating temperature. This should remove all air pockets in your system.

 

[kaos]

Here are some instructions:

CAUTION: Some vehicle cooling systems are filled with Motorcraft Premium Engine Coolant VC-4-A (in Oregon VC-5, in Canada CXC-10) or equivalent meeting Ford specification ESE-M97B44-A (green color). Others are filled with Motorcraft Premium Gold Engine Coolant VC-7-A (in Oregon VC-7-B) or equivalent meeting Ford specification WSS-M97B51-A1 (yellow color). Always fill the cooling system with the same coolant that is present in the system. Do not mix coolant types.

1. Check all hose clamps for correct tightness. Make sure the radiator drain**** is closed.
2. Place the heater temperature selector in maximum heat position.
3. Remove the pressure cap from the cooling system reservoir and the fill plug from the engine crossover tube.
4. CAUTION: Do not fill the cooling system through the reservoir only. Coolant will not enter the engine. Only the reservoir and the radiator will be filled and engine overheating will occur.
5. Add coolant into the fill neck on the engine crossover tube until coolant reaches the top of the fill neck on the cooling system reservoir.
6. Install the cooling system pressure cap on the reservoir.
7. Continue to fill the cooling system at the engine crossover fill neck until full.
8. Install the engine crossover tube fill plug.
9. CAUTION: If the engine temperature gauge does not move, coolant level is low in the engine and must be filled. Stop the engine, allow to cool, and fill the cooling system as outlined.
10. Run the engine until the thermostat opens (coolant flowing through the radiator lower hose becomes hot).
Stop the engine and allow to cool.
11. Add coolant to the engine crossover tube fill neck until the cooling system is full.
12. Install the fill plug.
13. Repeat the fill procedure if necessary.

Bleeding
1. Select the maximum heater temperature and blower motor speed settings. Position the control to discharge air at A/C vents in instrument panel (04320).
2. Start the engine and allow to idle. While engine is idling, feel for hot air at A/C vents.
3. CAUTION: If the air discharge remains cool and the engine coolant temperature gauge does not move, the engine coolant level is low and must be filled. Stop the engine, allow the engine to cool and fill cooling system.
Start the engine and allow it to idle until normal operating temperature is reached. Hot air should discharge from A/C vents. The engine coolant temperature gauge should maintain a stabilized reading in the middle of the NORMAL range. The upper radiator hose (8260) should feel hot to the touch.
4. Shut the engine off and allow the engine to cool.
5. Check the engine for coolant leaks.
6. Check the engine coolant level in the degas bottle/coolant expansion tank and fill as necessary.

 

[Quadcammer]

ah.

I have the fans kick on at 180

 

[trplblacksnake]

man you rock thats a very well written article. We should add that to the 99/01 faq.

 

[kaos]

Originally posted by trplblacksnake
man you rock thats a very well written article. We should add that to the 99/01 faq.

That's a dead giveaway that I didn't write it. :lol: