Who's good with cars?/Let's diagnose Compy's car.

I've got a bit of a problem here with my Explorer.

Here's the issue:

• Vehicle overheats.
• Fluid (antifreeze and oil) levels are good.
• The car's heater produces no heat.
• I turn the heater on when the car overheats, but - as mentioned before - no heat comes out. It's just cold air. (And I'm not an idiot - the setting is on heat.) So during the overheating, I'm just blasting the ambient temperature of the outside.
• I was able to drive the car with no problems for about two months before the overheating. During the entire time, however, the heater still did not produce any heat.
• No evidence of radiator leakage.

So, what's the problem? I think I've removed the radiator as a possibility, but there are a multitude of possibilities still present. The lack of a heater is suspicious and makes me lean towards the possibility of it being a thermostat issue.

My diagnosis is that you should take your car to a mechanic.

Gurrl, I fix my cars.

Well, go on then, fix it.

Well, long story short I need to remove a certain thing I overfilled (by a metric fuckload), but because the screw is stripped on the plug, I have to wait for a special socket to come in the mail so I can remove it. In the meantime, I'm wondering what the actual problem is. It's going to a mechanic since I don't have the expertise at fixing the issue. Doesn't mean I can't figure out what it is before I take it.

I think it's a thermostat issue because of the heater issue. It could be a hose though.

This truck was my baby before it went out of commission three months ago. I've been driving my other truck, the Danger Ranger.

edited 27th Mar '13 4:15:30 AM by Completion

I had a look online for ya, as I said, and it seems that one of the problems could be the thermostat. Here's a guide that helps you to replace it yourself.

http://bengrosser.com/howto/fordthermostat/

It could be a good idea to replace the hoses as well.

Sounds like an air bubble in the radiator system (pop all your lids on the radiator and anti-freeze reservoir off, stir it up and try to get the bubble out) locking the anti-freeze/coolant out of the radiator and a bad thermostat.

Is the water pump working?