New & Confused

[CourtneyLynn]

Hey Guys!

my name is Courtney and I just purchased my first Ford, a 2002 Explorer XLS 276XXX. I was unfortunately scammed when I bought this vehicle and now we are trying to get the parts and price things to fix it and get it together by next week. So if anyone can help that would be awesome.

Question 1: Everytime I am looking for an engine to price I can't find it. I have an XLS and the 8th letter in the VIN is K. The fuel it uses is gasoline. But when I look for an engine it comes up as 8th letter K Flex fuel......

We have a code reader here at home and the explorer keeps throwing us P0161 and P0156 codes. It does not have a muffler....we are going to get that. Do you think I should just get a new exhaust system for 127$ and find a cheap CAT, the o2 sensor is only 23$.

Sorry for the randomness. It has been quite a long day. Any help you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Courtney =)

 

[Machine090767]

This is going to sound mean, but did you not have the vehicle pre checked by your mechanic prior to you buying it?
Also, if you did some research, you'd find that unfortunately, the 2002 model explorer is on the list of the worst vehicle to own, due to thousands of complaints www.carcomplaints.com I truly hope you paid very little for this vehicle.
one thing how were you "scammed"?

 

[Josh P]

Welcome to the forum. I think the difference between the vin E and K engines is with the fuel system. What most report doing is getting a vin E engine cause it is cheaper and transfer everything from the K engine. I am curious how did you get scammed?

 

[1998Exp]

Hey Guys!
...
We have a code reader here at home and the explorer keeps throwing us P0161 and P0156 codes. It does not have a muffler....we are going to get that. Do you think I should just get a new exhaust system for 127$ and find a cheap CAT, the o2 sensor is only 23$.
...

If it doesn't have a muffler, you should definitely install one; it's illegal to drive without it.
Both of the codes you listed point to the circuit of oxygen sensor 2, bank 2. That's the one downstream from the cat, on the driver side. Quite possibly not the sensor itself, but damaged or disconnected wiring.