Previous Owner Rage Thread | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Previous Owner Rage Thread

I just love tackling simple jobs only to find that they are undone by the previous owner's incompetent repairs.

Example: Thermostat housing gasket. Normal work of 3 hoses, 3 bolts, old gasket off, new gasket on, 3 hoses, 3 bolts. Find only 2 bolts. 3rd bolt hole has a broken bolt in it. Previous owner attempted to drill it out. Wildly unsuccessful, as he managed to destroy the aluminum of the lower intake manifold, and not remove the bolt.

Engine is vomiting coolant and I have no way to stop it, so I'm kinda stuck. Junkyard, here I come!

TL:DR Previous owner damaged the LIM beyond reasonable repair, and I can't secure the T-stat housing.

What did your previous owner destroy through carelessness?

Edit: apparently the 4.0 doesn't have a lower intake manifold... damage is to the Passenger side head. you know, the one that you can't replace with the engine in the car.
 



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Stupidly bought my Ex from a dealer without having it inspected. Later found that the previous owner had apparently run it for an extended period of time with too little oil in it. A new engine and $4,500 later, I learned my lesson to always get my mechanic to inspect a used car before I buy it.
 






Both sun visors had the vanity cover mirrors ripped off and cigarette burns on both visors
 






2001 Sport Trac - extremely poor bodywork. Why straighten the fender when 1/16 to 1/8" of bondo will do the trick? A 4"x4" piece of filler has fallen out and more will someday. I haven't seen where the fender is that bent. Would have looked better had they not done anything. Also a couple of areas of filler in the middle of the hood that are noticeable. The tailgate has a lot of filler that's going to fall off someday too. The worst thing though, is someone sprayed something on the hood, tailgate and left side of the bed that left texture and no shine. I don't know if it was a color coat, or more likely a clear coat, with way, way too much air in the spray or if it's something else. Or how to get it off without ruining the paint under it. Or why they sprayed the side of the bed that doesn't appear to have been repaired like the hood and tailgate. There was a bumper sticker on the tailgate that I removed with a hair drier. You can see where the bumper sticker was because the original paint shows there and in a small area coming out of that spot. And of course the truck is BLACK, making this crap all the more noticeable!
 






'01 ST. Really too many things to list. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Took a saws-all to the front of the battery tray to change a headlight bulb.

2. Broke the top off the A/C high pressure switch while changing the #4 spark plug.

3. Broke everything (and I mean everything) in the d/s rear door because he believed the reason the window stopped working was the window motor, when the problem was the master window switch. Fortunately he gave up before destroying the p/s front and rear door windows, which also didn't work.
 






There are a few small burn marks/holes throughout the interior of the vehicle...on the headliner, on the rear seats, etc. WTF were they doing? They aren't cigarette burns as the vehicle doesn't wreak of cigarette smoke so I just have to wonder.

Also not crazy about the semi-hack install of some aftermarket nerf bars down the sides. I don't think they really measured/made sure they were level. On the passenger side, the front of the bars are fairly close to the rocker panel whereas the rears have plenty of gap to step up onto them. The driver side isn't as bad, but similar.
 






There are a few small burn marks/holes throughout the interior of the vehicle...on the headliner, on the rear seats, etc. WTF were they doing? They aren't cigarette burns as the vehicle doesn't wreak of cigarette smoke so I just have to wonder.

Also not crazy about the semi-hack install of some aftermarket nerf bars down the sides. I don't think they really measured/made sure they were level. On the passenger side, the front of the bars are fairly close to the rocker panel whereas the rears have plenty of gap to step up onto them. The driver side isn't as bad, but similar.

LOL, That's what happens when you don't get all the seeds out of your pot. They kinda explode.
 






In my 02 Ranger:

1.) Underneath carpet and jump seats, kibbles and bits.....a lot. The kid who owned it took it with him surfing with his dog and instead of feeding him outside of the truck he threw food in the back for the dog to eat while he was in transit. Needless to say sand and dog hair was a fixture in the carpet until I replaced it.

2.) Not so much the PO, more-so whom he took it to to have the oil changed...I can only assume the quick lube place misplaced the correct drain plug and used a "replacement" plug (aka whatever was rolling around) and gorilla-ed it into place. 3 hours after starting my oil change and praying that the threads weren't completely destroyed (includes a trip to my dad's garage and to the parts store for the correct drain plug) it had fresh oil/filter.
 






In my 02 Ranger:

1.) Underneath carpet and jump seats, kibbles and bits.....a lot. The kid who owned it took it with him surfing with his dog and instead of feeding him outside of the truck he threw food in the back for the dog to eat while he was in transit. Needless to say sand and dog hair was a fixture in the carpet until I replaced it.

You wanna talk dog hair? Check out this mess (and this was after I'd picked up all the 1/2 eaten food, cookies and french fries)... I was lucky in that my floor was rubber.

Before:
115_0090_zpsacwu2wqa.jpg


After:
115_0096_zpsnmg77zru.jpg
 






You wanna talk dog hair? Check out this mess (and this was after I'd picked up all the 1/2 eaten food, cookies and french fries)... I was lucky in that my floor was rubber.

Before:
115_0090_zpsacwu2wqa.jpg


After:
115_0096_zpsnmg77zru.jpg

At least yours had the vinyl flooring, but that's quite a bit of human slime as well....
 






At least yours had the vinyl flooring, but that's quite a bit of human slime as well....

Yeah, before I hit it with the vacuum the dog hair was about 1/4" thick along the console... Gross! If the floor wasn't rubber/vinyl it would have been new carpet for sure.
 






Some people are just plain disgusting. It makes you wonder how their house is..

When I bought my Jurassic project vehicle, the entire interior was destroyed. The headliner was in ribbons, the door panels hanging on in pieces, and the dash was broken. How do you break the dash?? They had forced the sides open to run speaker wire behind it then ripped opened the rubber tubes in the door jambs, cut the wires back only to rip back the door panels to get to the speakers. There were only the four screws near the windshield holding the dash to the body.. everything else was broken. The only stuff worth saving was the rear most side panels. I threw everything else away.
 






Previous owner of my Explorer cut two big holes in the inner door panel of the liftgate to mount speakers. The speakers were missing when I got it; just two big holes remained. The wiring ran to them was still there though, and it was a horrible hack job. It was many pieces of speaker wire spliced together by twisting the wires together and tape wrapped around it. And they had both speakers connected to the same channel on the stereo. It had one positive and one negative lead connected to the stereo, and about halfway back, it T-eed off to two separate wires.
It also has this stupid looking faux carbon fiber trim stuck on the dash bezels and on the door panels that's gonna be a nightmare to peel off.
 






Some people are just plain disgusting. It makes you wonder how their house is..

When I bought my Jurassic project vehicle, the entire interior was destroyed. The headliner was in ribbons, the door panels hanging on in pieces, and the dash was broken. How do you break the dash?? They had forced the sides open to run speaker wire behind it then ripped opened the rubber tubes in the door jambs, cut the wires back only to rip back the door panels to get to the speakers. There were only the four screws near the windshield holding the dash to the body.. everything else was broken. The only stuff worth saving was the rear most side panels. I threw everything else away.
Hey the only four screws are by the windshield??? There isn't any other screws?? If you know of any other screws let me know please. I'm currently going to take off the dash because I have a short somewhere in there
 






Hey the only four screws are by the windshield??? There isn't any other screws?? If you know of any other screws let me know please. I'm currently going to take off the dash because I have a short somewhere in there

There are a bunch underneath. There are braces that go from the floor to the dash. It bolts to the body on both sides. What's your trouble? Maybe you can find it without removing the dash.
 






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