Hi....

Here's what happened to me yesterday....
'02 Expedition w/120k miles (15k on a new engine).

Out of the blue, I stopped accelerating, lost most power. The "check engine" and "oil pressure/engine coolant" lights were on. It was taking forever to shift, a/c completely stopped working so I turned it off. I struggled to get home (about 2 miles) and actually made it. Read the owner's manual & checked the coolant....it's completely dry. Oil is fine. I'm guessing now that it's running in fail-safe mode.

My question...after I fill the coolant, what should I expect? There was no warning, no overheating before this, no puddle of leaked coolant in my driveway, no warning lights on in the dash.

I appreciate your input!!

 

Warped heads or blown head gaskets are the first problems that would arise from overheating an engine. A compression test might be in order to verify if all of the cylinders are okay.

 

Will it come out of fail-safe mode on its own?

 

That amount of engine coolant doesn't just disappear, I would not fill and crank expecting everything to be ok. If you didn't have any white smoke, then you'll need to see where you lost coolant from. I would expect to be possibly tearing the engine down all over again.

 

Update....the reservoir wasn't totally dry when I put the coolant in...very, very low, and almost completely gone, but not dry. I filled the coolant, started her up, and it ran fine. A/C worked immediately, lights were off, drove down the block and back & there were no problems.

But...the check engine light was on.

Any ideas on what's next??

 

You'll need to have codes pulled, Autozone, Oreilly's and those places will do it free. Post us the codes. It may also just need to have codes cleared.

 

Awesome...thanks for that!

 

What is NEXT: Check the coolant level daily. If you keep a constant eye on it you will have an idea if there is a big problem.

I would keep a gallon jug of 50/50 anti-freeze (or at least water) in the cargo area so you are prepared if you discover a low reservoir.