200,00 miles on 99 explorer

[trevdawg]

hello,
I am thinking about buying a 1999 eddie bauer explorer with 200,000 miles from my coworker.
His wife bought it brand new back in the day. So I am on this site, doing some research.

It has been taken care of but still. . . that is a lot of miles. I would get it for 500 bucks though. . .

it has the tick from the exhaust manifold gasket so that would have to be fixed first, then ball joints.
Other wise the A/C is cold and new breaks. has a new o2 sensor as well.
I have to get under it and look at the frame, since it has been in the salty Midwest it's whole life.

anything else you recommend I look at??

 

[Rick]

Which engine does it have? Of the V6s the OHV is more reliable than the SOHC due to timing chain tensioner issues. As long as that's not a problem on your's the engine should have many miles left in it.

I would check the usual stuff, brakes, suspension components, rubber bushings, tie-rod ends, etc.

$500 is definitely a "Can't go wrong" price for a running truck

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Check the blend door. Some members have twice as many miles as what you have on it.

 

[trevdawg]

it has the 5.0 v8.
I plan on buying it Monday, before 4th of july

i talked to him some more yesterday. he said they would fix stuff as it went bad because they didn't know how much longer they would keep the truck, then another year would go by, and so on, and they still own it. They have the new Explorer with the turbo motor now, and he just picked up a SHO Taurus so that is why they need to get rid of extra vehicles.

don't quote on exact time frame but from what I can remember....

he changed the exhaust manifold gasket 10 years ago he said. So it isn't the original one. That should make it a little easier to work on now. he said they cracked one bolt, and didn't replace it but left it broke, and it lasted this long

suspension was done 3 years ago

front brakes were done last year

spark plugs were done 5,000 miles ago

he hasn't towed anything with in 5 years, before then it was his boat, or a flat bed trailer to tow his off road jeep Cherokee

minimal rust, some along rear passenger door. he said there was some along the tailgate but he put the rust converter/preventer on it and it hasn't got worse

need to replace the ball joints but those and the brakes are under warranty at autozone, so he said I could remove them and bring them in to exchange for new ones.

tie rods were done 5 years ago

he already fixed the shift indicator

 

[UtahX]

Sounds pretty good for $500, especially if you do the work yourself.

 

[trevdawg]

So I will get the Explorer the end of this week... I just ordered new exhaust manifold gaskets and replacement studs from rock auto.
There were a few didn't fferent exhaust gaskets to pick from. There were only one type of studs to pick.
We will see how it goes

 

[Mbrooks420]

Provably a safe buy. The manifold itself might be cracked, as well as the EGR tube.

 

[trevdawg]

Once I get it. I'm going to park it in my garage, spray penetrate lube on studs for a few days, replace ball joints, then attack studs.

I will have to check/look into the EGR tube

 

[trevdawg]

Finally got it yesterday.
Jacked it up and put penetration lube everywhere!! I'm going to spray it every day and start to attack this weekend.

 

[BrooklynBay]

This site is not set up for non elite members to upload photos. You could embed the photo from another site into a post on this site.

 

[trevdawg]

That makes sense. Maybe I will pay and become elite.

 

[trevdawg]

I used Pb Blster on head studs Sunday & Monday, Kroil Tuesday and Wednesday, then 50/50 mix of Acetone/ATF Thursday and today.
We will see how this goes tonight with trying to remove them.

 

[falconater]

I've had the heads off my 2001 5.0 with 189,000 miles. You could still see cross hatching in the cylinders, good purchase.

 

[trevdawg]

Update:
passenger side
- all exhaust manifold bolts came out no problem, 2 of them were already snapped. Only thing holding it in place is exhaust piping bolts and EGR valve tube. I will probably cut piping bolts.
- Got upper ball joint arm bolts loose
- lower ball joint castle but loose

Driver side
- 2 exhaust manifold bolts are stuck... not stripped but pretty limited on how I can get them out
- upper ball joint arms loose. It should be fun trying to get those longer bolts out.
- Unable to loosen lower castle but for now

 

[trevdawg]

I can not get these lower ball joints out!

I used the pitchfork and didn't get any where. Then I exchanged it for a another tool - ball joint separator and it doesn't fit right.....
I don't know what to do to release the hub