So let me tell you what’s been going on…

     Well, this Jeep pretty much became my daily while the Jetta sat.  I’m an outdoorsy guy and loved how I can take this Jeep through the woods.  Like legit just drive in the woods between trees lol. 

     Anyways, one day on the way home from work I felt her lose power on the highway and started to overheat.  I pulled over only to see the coolant pouring out of the bottom of my car.   Great right? I wait three hours for a tow truck and I get her towed home.  It’s dark by then, so I can’t look at it until the next day to see what was wrong.  The following day after work I break her open and low and behold, the radiator was split open.  Easy fix right?  I look online to see if anyone has one in stock locally (even though I knew the chances were small that someone would have a radiator for a 25 year old car).  Smyth Automotive has one at the store by me!  I order it and wait for the text saying they pulled it and had it ready.  This is a Friday evening so I’m expecting a text sometime Saturday morning…

     Saturday morning passes and it’s into the afternoon and I’m like “Damn what’s taking them so long”.  I check the order status and it says it’s still open and I’m like okay…. A few more hours pass and I’m like what’s up with this, click on the order details and it says it’s cancelled because the didn’t have the part, even though the order summary page still says it’s open.  Great…

     Okay, so I scramble to order another from O’Reileys a few towns over and they say they can have it by Saturday evening!  Nope. It’s Sunday afternoon before it comes in.  Doesn’t have a radiator cap or the adapters for my transmission cooler lines.  Just my luck…

    After stopping at 8 different stores I get all the adapters I need, get the radiator in and by this time it’s late Sunday night now.  I go to add coolant to the system and I see it pouring out the bottom of the car,  not as fast as before but still a considerable amount.  Mother fucker…

   So, the next day I take it all apart to see where it’s coming from.  Water pump was the culprit.  So I order one of those, get it in a few days later.  Get everything back together. Add coolant, It doesn’t leak.  Awesome!  Drive it to work the next day, and bam, she overhears on the way home.  After a few days of testing different theories I came to the conclusion it was the fan clutch that had gone bad.  Order and replace that.  It runs perfect.  By this time a month has gone by that this little bitch has been giving me issues.

    The very next day, I’m driving to work, and I’m like 10 minutes from work and I smell burning coolant and start to lose power again.  I pull over, pop the hood.  A hose clamp broke… 🤦‍♂️. Well I just happened to have one in my car!  I put it on, fill her with water, and go to crank er over.  She starts up and I hear a distinct metal TINK sound, she runs like shit for about 5 seconds and she dies… Really?!?!

    I have her towed home, AGAIN.  At this point I assume I blew the head gasket with the last overheat.  I order new head bolts and gasket.  A few days later those come in and I get to work.  I pull the head off the motor and what do I see?  A piston had a literal hole in it!  WTF. Okay, so this is how it’s going to be…. I order a new piston and rings and bearings.  Looks like imma learn how to rebuild a motor today.

     I became a YouTube mechanic because of this.  But I finally have her running now, after 2-2.5 months. I lost track. Lol