Thanks to our record breaking summer heatwave, the thermostat on the Jeep had failed in the permanently open position. While we were experiencing 100+ degree days, week after week, it wasn’t noticed because the engine would still come up to temperature. But now that the heat has backed off, my check engine light has been on, throwing a P1281 code (engine too cold for too long). I picked up a new thermostat and gasket a couple weeks ago and finally got time to do the replacement today. As I suspected, once I pulled the housing, the thermostat was locked open. After cleaning up the gasket residue and lining up the new gasket, I bolted everything back together and fired it up. There was one small leak, but a re-torque of the bolts solved it. The engine’s coming up to normal operating temperatures and hopefully the light will go out soon. I don’t have an OBD-II scanner yet, so I’ve got to wait until it goes through enough cycles.

Mike and I tore into the Jeep a little bit ago and got the thermostat replaced.  It’s been overheating and going through coolant for a while, but since I rarely drive it, I didn’t really worry too much.  But since the weather was nice and I had a willing and able assistant, it was time to get it fixed.  The old one was definitely stuck, considering it didn’t open in boiling water.  We had a little trouble getting the housing reattached, or more precisely keeping the gasket aligned while attaching it, but got through that.  It’s all buttoned up now, no leaks, and is holding temperature where it should.  After a short test drive things seemed good, no overheating or smelling coolant when we got back.  Time will tell if this fixes the problem, but I’m pretty confident it will.

While Jeff was working on the kitchen I was fixing some problems on the Jeep. My list of things to do was pretty simple. I had to replace the broken A/C selector knob, replace the turn signal/headlight/foglight switch that has been shorting out and leaving my foglights on and my battery dead, and seeing what’s wrong with my subwoofer. Here’s the post-mortem:

1. A/C selector knob – It took more work than I’d expected because the little metal bushing inside the knob was stuck on the selector shaft, but other than that it was no big deal.

2. The switch from hell – Take off the steering column shroud, undo both switches, disconnect the windshield wiper switch from the turn signal switch, unplug the electrical connection, and then reverse everything with the new one. It all went together nicely, but the new switch is even worse than the one I was replacing. The foglights stay on unless you push the switch in by hand (when it’s already in the off position). It will be going back. The original one is back in place.

3. Subwoofer – Blown and Chrysler wants way too much for a new one. It’s now disconnected until I decide what I want to do on the soundsystem front.

I got started again on that sheared off bolt after church.  My first attempt was to cut a notch in the end sticking out to try to use a screwdriver bit to get it out.  That was not to be the case as the tabs just kept shearing off whenever I twisted.  So I took the throttle body off and drilled in a little to get an easy-out in there.  It worked, to an extent, but all that would happen is I’d get a couple tenths of a millimeter at a time and eventually I couldn’t go any deeper, so I just drilled the rest of the bolt out and ran a self tapping metal screw in.  The new sensor’s in and working fine.  Now I’ve got to drive it enough for the ECU to reset the check engine light.

I’ve been having some issues with the Jeep not running right, all traced back to the throttle position sensor going bad, so I pulled it off today to replace it with the shiny new one I picked up yesterday.  Unfortunately, one of the two bolts had a different idea and sheared off, leaving about a 1/4″ nub sticking out of it’s hole in the throttle body.  I could not persuade it to move, so I’m going to take a break and tackle it later.  Thankfully I’ve got a second vehicle to get around on…

We got up, grabbed some breakfast, and got back over to BMRA for a morning of wheeling. We met up with one of our fellow Lone Star Jeep Club members for some trails. We re-did a few of the ones we did yesterday and also found a couple more we hadn’t done. We didn’t have many problems, just had to pick better lines for the lower ground-clearance JK. We headed out at around lunch time, stopping to find a geocache near by. After lunch we drove back home and relaxed for the evening.

We packed up the Jeep and hit the road for Gilmer for a couple days of off-road fun at Barnwell Mountain Recreational Area. We stayed on the easier trails, but after all the rain, some of the 2s are closer to 3s. Reese was a little worried about some of the off-camber situations and the hills, but by the end of the day he was laughing and asking for more!

Thanks to a great suggestion I went up to Tractor Supply in Denton and picked up a 4×6 trailer for a lot cheaper than Home Depot or Lowes had them for. I had to get an 8″ drop for the hitch due to the lift, but the trailer drove all the back home with nary a problem. Now I won’t have to bum pickup trucks from friends nearly as much!