I wish I wasn't stupid sometimes . . .

Hi. . . this is my first post. I'm going to look around and stay here after I post it, I'm not the "come ask a question and leave" kind of person, but the question is my original reason for signing up here.

Two weeks ago, I was driving down the road and my driveshaft just fell right down. Needless to say I had to be towed home (thirty miles away). Wasn't fun.

Finally yesterday I get a new U-Joint, because that's what seems to have caused it. I put that in, and now it seems, or seemed, like all was well; however, all is not. I try to turn on my heat. . . and the heater fan does NOTHING. That didn't happen before. So then there's a film on my windows and I'm not sure if that's because of what's causing the heater problem or just because there's little ventillation and I'm a breathing animal. Oh, and my check engine light goes on seemingly random. . . and has for about a year at least.

Might help to mention years and stuff. . . it's a 1988 Ranger, 2.9, Auto, pushbutton 4x4 that doesn't work. I really don't care about fixing things unless they're going to cause it to be unreliable, which I'm pretty worried about at this point. . .

. . . Help please?

Sure sounds like a leaking heater core to me. Thats anti-freeze misting on your windshield. If it were me, I'd try to find a good one at a junk yard, but you might be better off going to a parts jobber (Autozone, Pep Boys, Murry's, places like that) Plan on a FULL day tearing apart the heater case, although I have an 87 and theres not Too much in the way there. If you can't, or don't want to do it yourself, plan on shelling out some big bucks to a dealer, or repair shop.

Sure sounds like a leaking heater core to me. Thats anti-freeze misting on your windshield. If it were me, I'd try to find a good one at a junk yard, but you might be better off going to a parts jobber (Autozone, Pep Boys, Murry's, places like that) Plan on a FULL day tearing apart the heater case, although I have an 87 and theres not Too much in the way there. If you can't, or don't want to do it yourself, plan on shelling out some big bucks to a dealer, or repair shop.

One more thing, your check engine light comes on because your supposed to check your emission controls (catylatic converter etc.) When it did it on my 87, I got in behind the dash, and took out the little circuit board that controled it. Same thing on my 97, only I just put a piece of tape over the light. I also think you can buy devices at the auto parts stores to shut them off yourself.

I really hope you're wrong on this . . . although it really does sound like you're right. But, does that explain the fan not working at all? Anyway, the reason I hope so much that you're wrong is that I replaced the heater core about a month ago, when it exploded.

I really hope you're wrong on this . . . although it really does sound like you're right. But, does that explain the fan not working at all? Anyway, the reason I hope so much that you're wrong is that I replaced the heater core about a month ago, when it exploded.

Yea, the film does sound like it's anti freeze. Any word on why it had exploded before? I've heard of them clogging, but never exploding.. You might have just have a leak somewhere...

Are you loosing any coolant?

The fan may take some thought, and an electrical diagram. It could be a dozen things, best way is to start checking voltages on the plug that hooks into the fan unit. It could have just gone bad.

The check engine like is crucial, do not elimate this. I've heard people telling me that not having a cat will throw a code, but that information has not been correct for me. I have a 1988 Ranger I converted to mass air flow with no cat and performance exhaust that doesn't throw any codes except for the fuel pump monitor which came on the 1990 MAF ECC and not the 1988 on KOEO testing. That doesn't even turn on the check engine light.

Really there isn't any way for the ECC to monitor your exhaust past the oxygen sensor. The oxygen sensor isn't even used until it reaches 600 degrees. The only thing that's monitored by the ECC in the exhaust system is the O2 sensor which helps the MAP sensor determine the air fuel mixture (Non-EGR Rangers of coarse).

Generally, a check engine light means that your ECC is seeing a problem, and it has a description of what's failing or out of range. It's neccessary to get the ECC scanned if you have a check engine light coming on. This can be accomplished with an analog volt meter and a couple aligator clips. I would scan it, I like my truck to run the best it possibly can. Most of the time I've seen the check engine light on these type of Rangers, the air and the fuel are not being mixed properly.

I'll keep all of that in mind while checking things out . . . thanks a lot for the help! ^_^

.....Really there isn't any way for the ECC to monitor your exhaust past the oxygen sensor. The oxygen sensor isn't even used until it reaches 600 degrees. The only thing that's monitored by the ECC in the exhaust system is the O2 sensor which helps the MAP sensor determine the air fuel mixture (Non-EGR Rangers of coarse).....

Very true. Gotta love OBDI or older vehicles (pre 1996). Anything 1996+ has OBDII which includes an oxygen sensor after (each) catalytic converter. Those buggers light up the CEL on any CAT problem :banghead: .
G/luck
Joel