I know we have a section for this stuff but it never gets viewed in there.
Tuesday morning I hopped in my truck to go to work and it still gets a little chilly in the morning here ( i think it was around 50 degrees). So I wait till I see the temp guage start moving up and turn the **** over to heat and the position switch to panel and the fan speed to 2 (medium low). AHHH ice cold air, turn back off and wait till temp is all the way to full operating temp. Turn back on and still ice cold air. Now I'm pissed and worried. Now 10 miles later I stop for a drink and mainly to check things out. I know nothing is major as truck never overheated or ran funny.
So I pull dipstick nothing on it, antifreeze is right above cold fill line on expansion tank. Top hose is hot, heat hoses are hot, I should have warm air. Figure well gotta get to work so I drive on.
Get to work, and do paperwork for 30-45 minutes opening up. Tell coworker how every time something acts up on the drive to work I can let it set and go back and it all works. Go back out, warm it up and Presto hot air. Like nothing ever happened. Has worked fine past two days. Only thing I noticed while at work was some white condensation type smoke. Watched as others started theirs cars and seen it there to. Mine seemed worse than theirs due to the fact my exhaust pipes extend into the tip about 2-3 inches and probably collect lots of mositure. Which I would have thought most of should have been gone by the 25 mintue drive to work.
I'm guessing the blend mixture door was stuck in the cold air position from the day before. After sitting awhile any reserve vacuum bleeded off and freed the stuck door.
Crusie control did the same thing once before. Quit one morning worked for few more days or weeks and then quit until I replaced the speed descent control sensor on the end on the master cylinder.

No real problems as of yet (knock on wood), just wanted to share my interesting story with you guys.

 

Well I don't guess it could of been a vacuum problem as the temperature blend door is electrically operated to provide a continunious variety of settings. The position selector is vauum operated but in my case it was working fine.
According to the Ford book and my best guess it was either a electrical failure ( short or bad connection), a stuck thermostat, or blocked heater core. These are the only conditions I can think of that could "self-repair" their self back into working order. I know nothing really fixes itself, so one of these conitions till exist. Maybe I can hit two of the three with a t-stat change and system flush.

 

KY-

I think you truck might be alive. Owners have reported that their trucks have talked to them. I don't doubt that yours fixed itself. Don't you notice after you wash your truck the thing just seesm to drive better?

Anyway, glad to hear that everything worked out fine.

-MF

 

Really !!! So that's where those voices I have been hearing are coming from, glad I'm not alone.... Hey wait a minute I shouldn't be saying this out loud..... Um uh, um those people that are hearing things are either certified nuts or forgot the radio was on.


Yes it drives much better when it's clean. The only thing I can see about people who keep a dirty mud covered truck is that they have a extra coating to resist scracthes.

 

Mine has done some funny things like that as well. For a while every time I climbed a hill the a/c would switch over and blow through the defrost vents. It did that for a month or two, then never did it again. On another occaision, it would make a loud POP/Clunk noise 5 seconds after startup. This went on for at least three months, then stopped and hasn't done it since. Sounded like a small hammer hitting the floor pan, lol. Once, for about a month, there was this quiet howling noise coming the engine compartment, until the truck warmed up. It hasn't done that in a long time. Sometimes it rides great, and drives straight as an arrow. Other times it feels sloppy and uncontrollable. It seems to have a mind of it's own, but I still wouldn't trade it for anything,,,,98

The ride and driving part doesn't depend on how clean it is though, lol.

 

98,
That problem you had with the air conditioning switching over to the defrost on the hill is from a leaking vacuum line between the battery and the firewall on the passengers side. I don't know why it fixed itself but I bet if you fool with the vacuum lines over there, you will find one leaking. Mine did the same thing and was fixed with a new vacuum line. When you loose vacuum (small leak in the vacuum line and less vacuum while climbing the hill) to the switch that directs the air inside the cab, it returns to the default position which is in the defrost mode.

Your truck may have healed itself but just in case, check the vacuum lines.

 

Is there anything you all thin kI should check out. It's been almost a week and no sign of any other problems. I could run some propane over the vacuum lines but the heater problem couldn't be vacuum as the temp blend door is electrically operated. I plan to change t-stat and anti-freeze with a flush ASAP. It's been about 3 yrs and 64K since it's last change.