Adventures in Car Repair - Part I Lost Count

 So, a week or two ago, The Queen gets a message from her dad, Opa, that his Jeep broke down. A brief digression if I may. Opa is closing in on 82, and his driving skills are bad enough to scare combat veterans. I flat out refuse to ride with him. He’s the only person who has ever made me car sick. We won’t let him drive anywhere with M&M. Period. We’ve been trying to talk him into hanging up the keys, but his narcissistic pride won’t hear of it. “God will protect me.” It ain’t you we are worried about you stubborn twit. 

He backed into a tree recently. A tree that had been growing in that same spot for the last half century at least. When asked how he backed into a tree (after he tried to gaslight us about the damage), he said “I didn’t see it.” When we pointed out he lives on a property where tiny humans roam around and that his failure to pay attention could result in harm to one of his great grandchildren, he got quiet (which is his way of refusing to discuss it further because he knows he’s wrong but can’t admit it). 

In recent years, I have backed away from being his mechanic because I don’t have the time for it and I really get pissed off when he ignores every bit of sound advice I give him about taking care of his car. That said, when The Queen got the text, I offered TO HER to go check it out for her piece of mind because she bears the brunt of his insanity if he is without transportation. 

My brother in law and his oldest son made a game attempt at diagnosing the problem, but their guesses didn’t mesh up with the symptoms described. To whit:

Sitting on the side of the road at my nephew’s house idling (in 100 degree Texas heat which I have told him NOT to do) when all of a sudden there was a loud pop and water and steam spewed out the front. 

BIL and nephew guessed water pump as they claimed there was still coolant in the radiator. I was dubious. So, we packed up the truck and drove the 45 minutes to an hour over there to see for our own selves. 

I took my time and went over inch of the cooling system. No leaks apparent in the hoses. That’s good. The AC condenser had radiator coolant all over it which was odd but consistent with “water and steam” coming out the front as the condenser is mounted directly in front of the radiator. The coolant reservoir tank did indeed show that it was “full”; however, taking the cap off the radiator showed that not to be the case and the hoses were not full either. Hmmmm….something is definitely amiss. The thermostat didn’t show any leaks at the hose connection or gasket. There was no sign of coolant leaking from the water pump weep hole. So, I was dubious of the diagnosis of a bad water pump. Since nothing was super obvious, we decided to swap out the old, worn out radiator cap for a new one, add some coolant and try to see if we could figure out where the leak was. 

Snerk. 

I started pouring coolant in to the radiator filler neck only to hear it pouring out.

Astute observers might call this a clue. 

This is a view of the drivers side of the radiator as viewed from the drivers side fender. Front of the vehicle is to the left. The area circled in yellow is the radiator side tank. It’s made of plastic. For those who payed attention in class, plastic becomes brittle with heat. Texas heat plus engine heat = brittle plastic radiator side tanks. This radiator is 7 years old. I know this because I’m the one who put it in 7 years ago. 

Once removed from the vehicle, we can see the problem much more clearly:

That 10” or so long crack in the side tank does NOT aid in cooling. Quite the opposite in fact. 

The Jeep has a new radiator installed which will last until Opa finally gives up the keys or wrecks the car (please, Dear Lord, do not allow him to take anyone with him). Unfortunately, I have to go back out there to finish the repairs because the transmission cooler lines refused to let go their death grip on the radiator fittings and kinda got destroyed in the process. So, a new set of lines was ordered and delivered this week. 

The things I do to keep my wife sane….