2002-2005 Ford Explorers - Australia

[NayNay75]

Hi, Im new to this forum... and forums in general so go easy on me please.

Re: 2002-2005 Ford Explorers - in Australia

My hubby has asked me to do some research on a car that I want to buy for myself and the kids to use. I need to suss out their mechanical history and to find out if there is anything that we should know about them before making the purchase... We just want to know are any of these models renound for things going wrong mechanically or anything else.

We were originally thinking about purchasing a second hand Ford Territory until we did our research on the net and realised that everyone was warning people away from them.. Saying they were lemons... We cant find a bad word on the net about explorers. So this time we are researching completly and hitting the forums.

I look forward to hearing all your responses.

Cheers
NayNay75

 

[Triton8273]

You will be a little better off if you spend a little more and get an 06 or newer. They are on the same platform as the 2002-2005's but had less problems.

Don't get me wrong, I love my 04' but the slightly newer ones are less problematic.

There is a member on here from Albany Austrailia with a 2004 V6 4x4 and he is a well known member on here, You should contact him for his thoughts.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/member.php?u=122510

Good Luck

 

[NayNay75]

Thanks for that Triton8273.
I didn't think there were Ford Explorers past 2005 in Australia??
What sort of probs have you come across or heard of with the 2002-2005 models. I can't find anyone bagging them on the net.

Cheers
NayNay75

 

[Triton8273]

Ah...I did't realize that there were no more Explorer exported to you after 2005.

As for issues, I have had no major mechanical issues with my 2004 or my moms 2002 both with around with 82,000mi (132,000KM).

The 2002-2005 Explorers have their share of issues but most are stupid little things that are just annoying to us that Ford never attempted to fix. But the 2002-2005's are known to sometimes have major transmission issues and have failure between 80,000mi (130,000KM) to 120,000mi (193,000KM). Most of the transmission that have failed happened between those mileage ranges.

So your choice is to either buy a low mileage on and hope that you tranny will not have any issues, or buy one with more miles and feel comfortable that the transmission is out of the danger zone. 1 tip I can give you is if you can find one with a V8, go for it as they are a much better motor and those transmissions were a little better build than the ones matched to the V6.