We're approaching a pretty significant mile marker amongst the %1 crowd... %1(=eldest child) will soon join the proud yet impatient ranks of student permit drivers. The program of choice will have her attending seven two-hour sessions with a driving instructor, and 20 hours of logged road time with %1%2 (her parents). The latter part has been a concern; %1(=Mrs.) would sooner separate an appendage from her body than to allow %1(=eldest) road time in her new Camry, and I can't have her wrestling with the no-longer-power-steering in my van. But there is another...
We bought this SUV at the peak of the genre's popularity; the end of the go-go 90s when money was still having fun and the hip 30-somethings with young children would choose death over the dreaded minivan. But a funny thing happened along the way... the thing never really broke! It once had its engine mount bolts snap and its entire drivetrain rested atop the front axle, yet it served faithfully through hundreds of miles of playdates and Little Gym lessons before we could get it to a friend-of-an-in-law mechanic to set it right. And I'll say it right now; the Ford FI 5.0L V8, with no rebuild, still has a husky sewing-machine note to it- a fantastic powerplant. Good rubber, nice sunroof, decent (if dated) equipment list... so why does it sit?
The dreaded Texas Vehicle Inspection process will not pass a vehicle when this happy notice dazzles the instrument panel. Worse yet, it was found to be an EGR problem. In the past I have happily driven older cars for years without this technological scourge; it's basically an automotive appendix which you'll never need until it fails in annoyingly expensive fashion.
Of the first two parts I replaced, only one actually needed to be; the EGR exhaust hard line had cracked and corroded nearly in two, and made for a noisy chugging sound. It just made sense that replacing it would take care of the problem... or would it?
The EGR valve was probably good, but a family friend who owns a garage said that it was cheap enough to include in the replacement list, along with a good cleaning of the intake duct on the engine's throttle body. His experience was that the aforementioned process usually fixed this type of problem; did it?
Which led to the day's bloggable activity. I had reached the end of the line as far as possible EGR parts were concerned, the car was over a year past valid inspection, and %1(=eldest) needs something easy and durable to practice her right-hand turns and parallel parking. RockAuto listed out the remaining parts and provided the identifying picture for the EGR backpressure transducer- it was up to me to find it under the hood!
Once I found and removed it, I quickly deduced that there may be an issue here:
The two feedback inlets were a powdery mashup of aluminum oxide- 16 years' worth of environmental moisture had reduced this electronic whatsit to a driveling fool, throwing 0403 codes on every diagnostics check.
On went the new and improved non-corrosive plastic-encased replacement, and after a good 45 minutes of test operation I saw this:
So now the Mountaineer stands an excellent chance of passing inspection with flying colors.
Now... does anyone think I really NEED to fix this vehicle's air conditioning?
We bought this SUV at the peak of the genre's popularity; the end of the go-go 90s when money was still having fun and the hip 30-somethings with young children would choose death over the dreaded minivan. But a funny thing happened along the way... the thing never really broke! It once had its engine mount bolts snap and its entire drivetrain rested atop the front axle, yet it served faithfully through hundreds of miles of playdates and Little Gym lessons before we could get it to a friend-of-an-in-law mechanic to set it right. And I'll say it right now; the Ford FI 5.0L V8, with no rebuild, still has a husky sewing-machine note to it- a fantastic powerplant. Good rubber, nice sunroof, decent (if dated) equipment list... so why does it sit?
Of the first two parts I replaced, only one actually needed to be; the EGR exhaust hard line had cracked and corroded nearly in two, and made for a noisy chugging sound. It just made sense that replacing it would take care of the problem... or would it?
The EGR valve was probably good, but a family friend who owns a garage said that it was cheap enough to include in the replacement list, along with a good cleaning of the intake duct on the engine's throttle body. His experience was that the aforementioned process usually fixed this type of problem; did it?
Once I found and removed it, I quickly deduced that there may be an issue here:
The two feedback inlets were a powdery mashup of aluminum oxide- 16 years' worth of environmental moisture had reduced this electronic whatsit to a driveling fool, throwing 0403 codes on every diagnostics check.
On went the new and improved non-corrosive plastic-encased replacement, and after a good 45 minutes of test operation I saw this:
So now the Mountaineer stands an excellent chance of passing inspection with flying colors.
Now... does anyone think I really NEED to fix this vehicle's air conditioning?
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