I have a 1999 Expedition (EB) that died on me as I approached a traffic light yesterday. I am desperate for advice. We have just spent $2,500 replacing the air suspension bags and pumps about a month ago (although the garage had to do it twice because of the Ford parts!) About 10 days ago my battery "died". My neighbour jumped started it for me and hubby "meant" to get a new one. The following day we couldn't even jump it. The AAA guy came out and said that it was just our secondary alarm system, pushed a little button under the dash, and voila! Hubby, again, meant to get a new battery. For the past 3-4 days OCCASIONALLY, maybe once a day, the oil light lit up for a few seconds. Hubby, again, meant to get a new battery and put some oil in. This brings me to yesterday. Had the car towed after waiting 1.5 hours at the traffic light waiting for AAA with two kind constables helping to entertain a 1 year old and 3 year old. The same garage called me later to say that they had put the car up and drained the oil. (This is where the dizzy mare part comes in!) They said that there was less that half a ? of which my car should have 7? and he believed the engine seized because there was no oil. I told him about the OCCASIONAL light that came up and couldn't believe that if it was that low that the light would not have stayed on. Anyway, asked him if he had checked the battery and the secondary alarm system. He kind of said "duh, what". I explained what the tow guy had done to which he later called me back and said they had put a new battery in and pushed the button and it was "engaging" but that the engine was not turning over. He said the put a "crank" on the engine and could not even turn it it was so seized.

I still believe that this has something to do with the secondary alarm system but don't know what to do. He says we should either put a new engine in or sell it for about $100 scrap. Pretty funny as we just gave them all that money a month ago to do the suspension with new parts.

Does anyone recognize this type of thing? The car reacted in exactly the same way as before, and then it had worked. Am I missing a trick? Please help if you can. I would really appreciate it.

You could have it towed to a second garage for another opinion. If it ran short on oil and seized then they can easily tell. Seized means that the pistion, that should go up and down, is now a solid part of the motor. If this is the problem a second opinion would confirm it.

A motor job will cost large but better then scraping it for $100.

A couple of questions come to mind:Did the car stall while driving it? Did the engine turn at all when the AAA came back out to tow it.If it did, someone drove it until it seized. It has to get very hot before it seizes or fuses the pistons or crankshaft. Have a different shop give a second opinion about it. Call AAA and speak with a supervisor. Ask them to recommend a AAA certified shop. They may tow you with no additional services against your AAA account since there is a dispute with the current shop and their diagnosis. Having only ½ quart of oil with a 7 quart capacity will have the oil light on more than just on occasion, it will be on most of the time. Also did the car overheat? It will usually happen when you run the engine with little oil. To be safe, get a second opinion. An Expedition holds pretty good resale value. Don’t scrap it for $100.00.

My 99EB had the disappearing oil problem too. It would all occasionly vanish within a couple of weeks of me checking it. It was not burning it and my very good mechanic could not figure out where it was going either. It could go months and not burn any oil and it would seemingly suddenly be gone - maybe a quart or so remaining. We also never had the oil light come on. A friend of mine told me of talking with a friend of his at Ford Motorsports and he was told of a problem Ford found having to do with a check valve sticking and oil pressure switch being on the wrong side of the valve causing the oil light to stay off and oil being lost - I still don't know where the oil is going. Our problem occurred 3 or four times over a period of maybe 18 months to 2 years. The motor finally failed, spun the bearings in the lower end we had to put in a new motor. We got a Ford rebuilt motor for $3,000 with a 3 year, 36,000 mile warranty. Our mechanic swapped out the motors for $1,000. Another friend of mine called a couple of days ago to ask about my oil problem because he has now seen the same problem with his 97.