coonerboy
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2009
- Messages
- 194
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Herkimer, NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 98 Explorer XLT 4wd V8
Hi. I'm a newbie, however I have spent alot of time reviewing threads and searching, and I have to say this site is great! I purchased a '98 Explorer V8 AWD in May. I really like the vehicle, however the fuel economy is probably the lowest of any vehicle that I have ever owned. I record my fuel purchases on fuel economy.gov and over 3 months i have an average of 16mpg. Lowest has been 10-11 and recently I got 18.5mpg in alot of city driving. Not sure if this was a fluke, but this occured after removing the front driveshaft, along with removing the transfer case skid plate and fuel tank skid plate for weight savings.
The following tankful I got a little over 16mpg wich was with mostly highway driving. Now I have read the posts about the creep with the driveshaft removed, so I am aware of the saftey aspects with setting the parking brake. My concern is with burning up the viscous coupling in the TC. After driving about 500 miles with the front shaft removed, today I reinstalled it. I have noticed no binding or wheel hop that would be attributed to a seized VC. The only thing I noticed was the slightly heavier steering that was there before i removed the shaft.(removing the front driveshaft does lighten up the front steering some, and I think this could be what gave me the mpg increase in driving around town)
My question is, has anyone driven long term with the front driveshaft removed and reinstalled it, say for winter and experienced any problems with their transfer case? As a side note, my transfer case was replaced under warranty a couple weeks after I purchased the Explorer due to a noise. Apparently the chain was stretched out.
Here are a couple of pics of my Ex. Thank You.
The following tankful I got a little over 16mpg wich was with mostly highway driving. Now I have read the posts about the creep with the driveshaft removed, so I am aware of the saftey aspects with setting the parking brake. My concern is with burning up the viscous coupling in the TC. After driving about 500 miles with the front shaft removed, today I reinstalled it. I have noticed no binding or wheel hop that would be attributed to a seized VC. The only thing I noticed was the slightly heavier steering that was there before i removed the shaft.(removing the front driveshaft does lighten up the front steering some, and I think this could be what gave me the mpg increase in driving around town)
My question is, has anyone driven long term with the front driveshaft removed and reinstalled it, say for winter and experienced any problems with their transfer case? As a side note, my transfer case was replaced under warranty a couple weeks after I purchased the Explorer due to a noise. Apparently the chain was stretched out.
Here are a couple of pics of my Ex. Thank You.