On Sunday, October 2nd, 2005, at about 5pm PST and 180,617.1 miles, my 1993 Ford Aerostar XL was laid to rest in a salvage yard, with 19 gallons of gas still in the tank and a paltry $50 in my hand.

The cause of death was a broken timing chain according to a local AAA repair shop.

I had left San Francisco Wednesday night and arrived Friday morning in Albuquerque, as planned. As the good folks in this forum suggested, the van drove fine after topping off the coolant and transmission fluid levels.

But about 9 miles outside of Barstow on the way back, I pulled onto the shoulder of the the road to use my phone. Having finished my call, I was pulling back onto the road and getting up to interstate speed. As I was nearing the 50mph mark, the van suddenly quit, with the dashboard showing what amounted to a stall out, which was obvious. I fought it onto the side of the road before I lost all steering assist, and just managed to coast over the white line.

Since my van has never stalled before, I sat for several seconds and waited, thinking that the mountain driving had overstressed it a bit. When I turned the key, it just turned over but didn't catch. Almost immiediately my mind made the connection between the mileage of the van and how long timing chains last before snapping. I never though the cain was in any danger of failing since I had my mechsnic back in FL do a full trip check on the van, and I was at that time confident in his abilities.

With a sick and queasy feeling in my gut, I called for a tow truck. After being towed into Barstow, the results came back within 20 minutes - My timing chain had snapped.

If I had a 2.3L 4-cyl, it would have been a relatively simple repair, and I would have been back on the road, since those engines are designed so that if a timing belt goes, the internal mechanicals don't get damaged.

Sadly, I was driving a 3.0L. Being an entirely different beast, it has the propensity to destroy internal parts if the timing chain fails at any significant engine RPM, as the mechanic explained. He asked me how fast I was going when it snapped, and when I said "About 50, and just about to upshift", he gave me this sorrowful look.

I had a few options:

1) Pay about $500 to have a new timing chain installed.

While this option would sove the immiediate problem, if there was internal engine damage, it still wouldn't run.

2) Pay about $1500 to have the engine torn down and the internals inspected, adding a new timing chain a the same time.

While this would be the preferable option (at least in my mind), I didn't have access to $1500 then, nor do I now that I am back home. Plus, the van only cost me $800 cash.

Still feeling that sick and queasy feeling, I booked a motel room and slept on it. In the morning, it was decided that my best option was to sell the van for scrap.

The scrap/salvage owner (Only one in the city) paid me $50, and in my opinion, made off like a bank heist.

I rented a vehicle to make it home, and as a small consolation, or maybe the Gods smiling on me, it was a Ford. An 'Escape' SUV, which summed up my thoughts quite nicely - I wanted nothing more than to escape Barstow, CA as soon as possible after feeling like I got worked over with no lube.

Any thoughts on this unfortunate demise, and perhaps, information on how i can prevent it in the future? Is there some way to check a timing chain without disassembling the engine?

Thanks.. And if anyone knows of a nice Aerostar for sale, please do let me know. I can come up with about $400 per month starting next month, and will be saving up for another Aerostar, as I was very pleased with the service it gave me.

 

Sorry about that, Klingon. At least you gave it a good try. As for another Aerostar, these vans are getting long on the tooth by now. The newest ones are 1997, a good 8, 9 years ago. Unless you are willing to buy a van for cheap and spend upward of a thousand dollars to fix it up, then drive it until it dies a natural death, I wouldn't advise another Aerostar.

I know I'm going to be flamed for this , but I'm just being realistic and practical here. On the other hand, I did recently buy another '95 Aerostar and rebuilt it entirely from the engine to the transmission, transfer case, front end, rear end, you name it! I ended up with a used van only in name, everything is new, and it costs less than $5000 total. For me, it's worth it, but you have to examine your own situation. I had plenty of room in my garage, Southern CA weather is perfect for fooling around the garage in comfort, and the van had to sit there for the entire 2 months I worked on it.

Good luck with whatever you decide on and best regards

 

may that little angel Aero rest in peace and let her last gasp out before the crusher does it's nasty thing.

not many low mileage Aero's around any more, shops don't want to work on them, charge ridiculously high prices to drive owners off especially awd models and not many shade tree mechanics left that want to tackle OBD controlled engines and trannys.

what you looking for, van hauling capacity? will a small Ranger PU work with high canopy? get '02 or newer 4L V6 with improved OHC engine and 5 sp manual if you can find one. these things last and get good mileage.

car--need high fuel mileage? get a low mileage Honda 3-5 years old with 4 cyl and 5 sp manual, most will outlast owners with proper service, easy to work on. lots of aftermarket parts now.
stay away from their phake automatic trannys.

 

I dunno about the phake auto trans that honda uses. I have had 6 in my family, those phunny, phake, bandless and planetless, gearboxes are as good as the rest of the phreakin' honder.

Ken

 

19 gallons of gas and he paid you $50...yeah, he made out like a bandit. sold your 'star for the gas in her. man, am I sorry about that. been backed into some similar corners, when no other option is available, it just plain stinks that someone would take advantage in those situations. I know their business is to make money, but does it always have to be at the expense of someone already being kicked? ok, rant off.

a note about your mechanic...timing chains fail with no warning, as you well know. the only way to prevent this is inspection/replacement at a regular interval. unfortunately, the timing chain is a hard component to get at and isn't something that is routinely checked on a trip inspection.

 

May he burn in h*ll with all those 19 gal of gas

 

here's hoping! [raises a frosty mug of aerobeer(tm) in salute, to the fallen and to karma]

 

Oh yeah.. Just to add insult to injury... The Aero* was packed a bit more than half full of stuff moved from FL when this happened. I had to move everything into the (considerably smaller) Escape by myself.

If I didn't have this damned handicap of my legs (Cerebral Palsy), it wouldn't have been a problem.

Having been accustomed to being treated like a family friend at my mech's shop in FL, I asked one of the mech's at this shop for a hand. I figured it would take all of 20 minutes, and I was prepared to pay a fair amount for the help.

They did everything but laugh in my face - So I went out and moved it all myself, which took me nearly 2 hours, and left me feeling like I had been run over by a Mack truck.

Damn them to hell.


EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention - I did save a couple of momentos from the van - I photocopied the title before I handed it over, writing the mileage and cause of death along the top portion -- And I grabbed the ashtray, which is now sitting on my desk at home, lol.

 

This happens in Barstow you said? That explains it. CA is a different country. Really dog-eat-dog and lots of nasty people. It's sad for me to say it since I'm living here myself, but CA has more than her fair share of A** holes.

 

don't think geography has much to do with it. think the human race has more than it's fair share of a**holes, mostly related to money it seems, "lack of/making more/keeping mine". sorta sad when you get right down to it. I mean we all need it, and most of us know what it's like to be broke. sorry....ranting again.
glad to hear about the ashtray, Marlboro. sad to hear that a fellow human couldn't seem to find the time or compassion/good will to help you.

 

Yep, Barstow.

I'd hate to think that people could naturaully be so callous, but then.. I was born and raised in the south. I suppose I am used to a much more friendly atmosphere.

In a previous post in this thread, I said that my mech's shop back in FL treated me like a family friend. While the owner readliy said that part of that was due to the fact that I had spent nearly 1K in work on my vehicles there, I think it was more than that. Hell, when you know the guys there well enough to get invited into their home, meet their kids and girlfriend, get drunk, watch movies, have a karaoke competitions, etc.., I think that means you've gone beyond being just another customer.

I am seriously considering packing my stuff into another van (Just checked CraigsList and it lists 11 Aero's for 1K or under, hopefully in the next few months it'll have as good of a selection!) and heading back to FL. San Francisco has caused me nothing so far but massive amounts of physical pain since you have to walk *everywhere*. (If I walk 6 blocks or more in a day, my feet rebel and I'm forced to use a walker to get from the bed to the bathroom for the next 2 or 3 days. This is compounded by the fact that I live on the 3rd floor, and this building has no elevator..)

Copper - You mentioned that many shops don't like to work on Aero's and I can see why, as the engine compartments are cramped to say the least. In the past, somewhere on the 'Net, I saw a company selling a fiberglass replacement for the front end that basically made the Aero have a flip-up hood like a semi. This would make most of the pains of working on an Aero null and void, correct?

 

it would. seems that the engineers are NOT the ones doing the work on these vehicles. guess that goes without saying though. lol

 

Thanks, xuzme. For whatever it's worth, the gesture is appreciated. And in response to another post of yours - No, the engineers must not work on the vehicles they build. In fact, I think they purposefully avoid any contact with mechanics.. For fear that they'd get the snot beat out of them due to all the frustration the mechs deal with every day while working on those hellish designs, lol.

 

almost as if the engineers got together and started a pool on who could cram the most stuff into a limited space. seems to be the trend over the last 15-20 yrs. I remember working on an engine and actually seeing the ground from ABOVE the engine. I'm not that old either, so no over the hill jokes please.

 

glad to hear you made it home safe and in a Ford. how do those new Escapes drive, 4 cyl or the V6? mileage and performance?

will miss my Aero when her heart quits. she is the best hwy cruisin mile buster smooth as silk snow camping and haul a ton rig I will ever own.

want to get even, write a complaint letter to the consumer's affairs div. Calif. attorney generals office, cc a copy to the editor of the Barstow paper. won't get you any money but will give you the satisfaction of knowing you have ruined at least one day for the owner and some employees at an auto shop in Barstow. these edge of desert town auto businesses prey upon the weak and broken down automobile public, $700 radiator jobs, $500 water pumps, $3000 auto trannys that have overheated and boiled out the fluid.
lucky you weren't driving a rig that the bank still held $20k on in paper, the tranny and engine repair bill would have been at least $5k and the mechanics would have stole what gas you had in the tank.

or buy a case of really good beer, open it up, pee in each bottle, recap and ship to the Barstow auto body shop with note thanking them for "ALL" the help.