How do I start...
8 Years ago I purchased my 1st Explorer in 2004 it was a 1998 XLT in one of the prettiest colors that came on explorers, Teal Green Metalic.
It has 60K miles on it cloth interior with power lumbar, Premium sterio, Overhead console, was the OHV 4.0L V6, was open diff RWD.
These where the few things I did to it:
-Removed side shopping cart rails
-Newer 02-05 Explorer badges on rear and side
-Explorer badge on the hood like a range rover
-00 Explorer sport front bumper and fogs
Here are some pics:
It unfortunatly met its end about a year later on the interstate when a VW bug changed lanes into the rear of my car at 75 Mph Pit manuvering me across 3 lanes of 70mph + traffic. I tried to recover it and managed to miss a minivan and a escape and hit the inner median at a hard angle which caught the front tire, flipping me 3 times and spun the car the other direction facing north (we where on south bound lanes)
I got out unscathed besides a seat belt buckle imprint on my butt cheek lol, as I ended up sitting on the center console and my seat belt held me in as best it could.
Damn car was a trooper, was still running in gear wheels spinning while it was laying there dying. I loved my little explorer but I always wanted another. However gas prices lead me to other cars until now.
Here is my little 98 final resting spot
:navajo:
Cut to 8 years later and about 7 cars and it came around to replacing my 97 Saab 900 SE 5 door with a bad inner driver in the trans which was about 1100 bucs in work on a car I paid 1300 for. Sooooo I managed to sell it for 2 grand and set to work finding a nice explorer for that money.
Thats when I came across this...
I quickly negotiated it down to 1500 dollars
I thought I got an in good shape 1999 Mercury Mountaineer AWD 5.0 V8 with 155,000 thinking nothing of why it was so cheap, then I found out why it was the 4th day...Notice its on jack stands? The front diff exploded and left a nice path of fluid as the front end dove and binded to a stop from 35Mph, scarier then rolling in my 98 to be honest.
Well being broke and deciding that in the 4 days I had that mountaineer, that I wanted a nice explorer, I set out fixing this one to sell.
This Mountaineer was oddly equipped, had V8 and AWD but no sunroof, cloth seats, no over head console, the cheaper lower half console like an XLS has, no key-less entry FOB or a way to add it (missing the transmitter module in the left quarter panel in the back, and manual a/c and bad cruise control buttons (a common thing I am noticing on these cars) and manual seats.
So I did some redneck motorsports repairs.
1. Pulled the front drive shaft
2. Removed all the remains of the front gears in the front diff
3. Removed the cv joints separated then inner and outer and remounted the outer in the hub so the bearings didnt go bad.
4. Purchased and pulled a full console from the junkyard and installed it thanks to the intructions on this forum
5. Cleaned a car like it had never been detailed, removed carpet to flush, polishing and waxing and fixing neglect of many years, and brought it back to a good shape car
This basically made it RWD and sellable for all intensive purposes and I wasn't concerned about park drift as we are in FL which is pretty flat. But I did want to sell it seeing as I read on here its not the best thing to keep the car permanently in RWD with the Xfer case and all.
Well up it went on Craigslist and 2 weeks later sold it was for a whopping 3200 dollars! I was happy, guy came and paid me but was waiting till he finished moving to grab the car so I went and got on my search for my new explorer.
After driving around about a 50 some mile radius from my house looking at overpriced X's on lots and private party cars that where not as described or just crap, I was about to give up, Until I went to get Starbucks with my buddy and came upon this little guy sitting with a for sale sign in the window. Well 1 day later he was mine.
2000 Explorer Eddie Bauer 125K miles:exp:
, books and maint records as a 1 owner car with all work done at a local honda dealer (they knew a mechanic there) and even the original window sticker. Car had everything I ever wanted in my 98 XLT or the 99 I just sold. Here is the day I laid eyes upon it.
Well home he went to sit next to the sold Mountaineer which was days away from being picked up
Oddly they both had the same paint code even though the merc is clearly darker....
So I did some things to my little guy, TB/Intake cleaning since it was well here..
My dog approved so I was happy
Then found out about all the options it had that I didn't even know you could get, like the Rear EAS, 4x4 and the fact I got a revised 5R55E which was and still has been shifting like a dream and has had flushes every 40K miles. And a very efficient (despite the crap in the tb and intake) SOHC 4.0L and 4.10 gearing.
I honestly prefer the SOHC and 5 Speed over the V8 5 Oh with the 4 speed, I feel its faster once it winds up even though the V8 had great Tq, I also preferred the over 5Mpg bonus I get with the 6 and the 5 speed vs the 8 with the 4 speed.
I have sense getting the car fixed a few minor things:
1. Touch up bumper scuffs and fender chips in gold, and 2 green chips
2. Pulled off the horrid front license plate frame
3. Removed the original dealer badge that was bright white and the bumper stickers
4. Repainted the peeling roof rack
5. Through scrub of the leather and restored it to amazing shape
6. Good paint correction with polish and few coats of wax and a good claybar before that.
7. Syn oil change w/ filter
8. New wipers all around
9. Seafoam engine, intake and gas treatments
10. New MAF to fix bad idle
11. Cut the running boards so for better break over and to keep the rocker trim covered (still needs ends trimmed so there not aiming down.
Things I need to do:
1. Install Bank 1 Sensor 1 02 to fix my idle and CEL (just ordered today)
2. Upper and lower Intake gaskets (ordered today)
3. Brake, Coolant, PS, F&R diff and Xfer case flush and replace with synthetic (where applicable)
4. Order Diamond cut headlights and 5500K 55W HID kit
5. Tint front windows to match rears
6. Set of '12 Mustang rims with fatter tires so it has some nice 18 or 19s on it.
Here he is as of yesterdays photo shoot.
And my fav
Hope to put on many happy miles with my new explorer and Im so excited to be back on here with another explorer.
:exp:
Name is Nick, I live in sarasota, and I do computer work for a living. Im always down for an off road event and you can always contact me here about them!
8 Years ago I purchased my 1st Explorer in 2004 it was a 1998 XLT in one of the prettiest colors that came on explorers, Teal Green Metalic.
It has 60K miles on it cloth interior with power lumbar, Premium sterio, Overhead console, was the OHV 4.0L V6, was open diff RWD.
These where the few things I did to it:
-Removed side shopping cart rails
-Newer 02-05 Explorer badges on rear and side
-Explorer badge on the hood like a range rover
-00 Explorer sport front bumper and fogs
Here are some pics:
It unfortunatly met its end about a year later on the interstate when a VW bug changed lanes into the rear of my car at 75 Mph Pit manuvering me across 3 lanes of 70mph + traffic. I tried to recover it and managed to miss a minivan and a escape and hit the inner median at a hard angle which caught the front tire, flipping me 3 times and spun the car the other direction facing north (we where on south bound lanes)
I got out unscathed besides a seat belt buckle imprint on my butt cheek lol, as I ended up sitting on the center console and my seat belt held me in as best it could.
Damn car was a trooper, was still running in gear wheels spinning while it was laying there dying. I loved my little explorer but I always wanted another. However gas prices lead me to other cars until now.
Here is my little 98 final resting spot
:navajo:Cut to 8 years later and about 7 cars and it came around to replacing my 97 Saab 900 SE 5 door with a bad inner driver in the trans which was about 1100 bucs in work on a car I paid 1300 for. Sooooo I managed to sell it for 2 grand and set to work finding a nice explorer for that money.
Thats when I came across this...
I quickly negotiated it down to 1500 dollars
I thought I got an in good shape 1999 Mercury Mountaineer AWD 5.0 V8 with 155,000 thinking nothing of why it was so cheap, then I found out why it was the 4th day...Notice its on jack stands? The front diff exploded and left a nice path of fluid as the front end dove and binded to a stop from 35Mph, scarier then rolling in my 98 to be honest.
Well being broke and deciding that in the 4 days I had that mountaineer, that I wanted a nice explorer, I set out fixing this one to sell.
This Mountaineer was oddly equipped, had V8 and AWD but no sunroof, cloth seats, no over head console, the cheaper lower half console like an XLS has, no key-less entry FOB or a way to add it (missing the transmitter module in the left quarter panel in the back, and manual a/c and bad cruise control buttons (a common thing I am noticing on these cars) and manual seats.
So I did some redneck motorsports repairs.
1. Pulled the front drive shaft
2. Removed all the remains of the front gears in the front diff
3. Removed the cv joints separated then inner and outer and remounted the outer in the hub so the bearings didnt go bad.
4. Purchased and pulled a full console from the junkyard and installed it thanks to the intructions on this forum
5. Cleaned a car like it had never been detailed, removed carpet to flush, polishing and waxing and fixing neglect of many years, and brought it back to a good shape car
This basically made it RWD and sellable for all intensive purposes and I wasn't concerned about park drift as we are in FL which is pretty flat. But I did want to sell it seeing as I read on here its not the best thing to keep the car permanently in RWD with the Xfer case and all.
Well up it went on Craigslist and 2 weeks later sold it was for a whopping 3200 dollars! I was happy, guy came and paid me but was waiting till he finished moving to grab the car so I went and got on my search for my new explorer.
After driving around about a 50 some mile radius from my house looking at overpriced X's on lots and private party cars that where not as described or just crap, I was about to give up, Until I went to get Starbucks with my buddy and came upon this little guy sitting with a for sale sign in the window. Well 1 day later he was mine.
2000 Explorer Eddie Bauer 125K miles
:exp:, books and maint records as a 1 owner car with all work done at a local honda dealer (they knew a mechanic there) and even the original window sticker. Car had everything I ever wanted in my 98 XLT or the 99 I just sold. Here is the day I laid eyes upon it.
Well home he went to sit next to the sold Mountaineer which was days away from being picked up
Oddly they both had the same paint code even though the merc is clearly darker....
So I did some things to my little guy, TB/Intake cleaning since it was well here..
My dog approved so I was happy
Then found out about all the options it had that I didn't even know you could get, like the Rear EAS, 4x4 and the fact I got a revised 5R55E which was and still has been shifting like a dream and has had flushes every 40K miles. And a very efficient (despite the crap in the tb and intake) SOHC 4.0L and 4.10 gearing.
I honestly prefer the SOHC and 5 Speed over the V8 5 Oh with the 4 speed, I feel its faster once it winds up even though the V8 had great Tq, I also preferred the over 5Mpg bonus I get with the 6 and the 5 speed vs the 8 with the 4 speed.
I have sense getting the car fixed a few minor things:
1. Touch up bumper scuffs and fender chips in gold, and 2 green chips
2. Pulled off the horrid front license plate frame
3. Removed the original dealer badge that was bright white and the bumper stickers
4. Repainted the peeling roof rack
5. Through scrub of the leather and restored it to amazing shape
6. Good paint correction with polish and few coats of wax and a good claybar before that.
7. Syn oil change w/ filter
8. New wipers all around
9. Seafoam engine, intake and gas treatments
10. New MAF to fix bad idle
11. Cut the running boards so for better break over and to keep the rocker trim covered (still needs ends trimmed so there not aiming down.
Things I need to do:
1. Install Bank 1 Sensor 1 02 to fix my idle and CEL (just ordered today)
2. Upper and lower Intake gaskets (ordered today)
3. Brake, Coolant, PS, F&R diff and Xfer case flush and replace with synthetic (where applicable)
4. Order Diamond cut headlights and 5500K 55W HID kit
5. Tint front windows to match rears
6. Set of '12 Mustang rims with fatter tires so it has some nice 18 or 19s on it.
Here he is as of yesterdays photo shoot.
And my fav
Hope to put on many happy miles with my new explorer and Im so excited to be back on here with another explorer.
:exp:Name is Nick, I live in sarasota, and I do computer work for a living. Im always down for an off road event and you can always contact me here about them!
