Hi PLH. Congratulations on deciding to buy an Explorer, whether it be the 2014 or a more recent model. As others have already mentioned, Carbon Monoxide entering the cabin is likely the largest health-based concern you may encounter. A quick way of determining whether your prospective 2014 has this issue is to test-drive the vehicle with all Windows up, the AC turned on halfway and make certain that the Air Re-circulation button is turned off. From a stoplight or stop sign, get on the gas a few times and see if you start to experience an unpleasant smell in the cabin. Whether you do or not, you’ll want to take advantage of
Ford’s Recall and have them correct the issue (Which involves re-guiding some drainage lines, re-programming the air controller module, possibly tightening the seals on the tailgate and sealing a couple other areas of potential air entry into the cabin). The good news is that it’s correctable at no cost to you.
For a vehicle at 60,000 miles, see how the transmission performs. Do you experience any hard shift points? If you do, not many folks know that Explorers have adaptive learning when it comes to driving behavior. There are YouTube videos on how you can reset and allow the Explorer to re-calibrate it’s shift points based on how you drive. Here is a
LINK to that Video.
Look at the Vehicle from Behind when it’s on level ground. Does it appear to sit level? If the Rear end seems to sag toward the right, you might have a bad Rear Toe Link. These are known to go fail prematurely on our Explorers.
When you first start driving the car (cold start), listen for a Clicking or ticking noise during the first 100-200 yards. These vehicles are known to have issues with the front halfshaft (TSB 17-2095) within the first 60K miles.
There’s a number of other lesser-important TSBs (Technical Service Bulletins) out there. My advice would be to visit
NHTSA and enter the Vehicle’s VIN number into the search bar (Mid-page, right-hand side), or click the “Recalls” link and learn a bit more about your specific vehicle. If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to me. I’ve owned my 2015 Ford Explorer SPORT for nearly a year now and I’ve had 11 aspects of it corrected or repaired, based on the TSBs or Exhaust Recall.
Best of Luck and Welcome to the Forum!