Explorer #5 - 2006 XLT V6 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Explorer #5 - 2006 XLT V6

2006 Explorer XLT 4.0 V6 4x4 - 81,000 miles
Charcoal Beige (Not sure of the real name) with the ugly faded plastic.
Medium Light Stone cloth interior, not many options. Power drivers seat, 3rd row seats, thats about it.

Been out of the Explorer game for a few years now, after I sold my 2000 Limited, I got a little Focus for work, but realized saving gas wasnt worth the price of comfort and luxury, so I picked up a 2004 Crown Vic LX Sport. Was at a Dodge dealer some time later with a friend who picked up a newer model Charger R/T, I fell in love, and let the dealership talk me into trading the Vic in for a 2013 R/T. Worst Winter we've ever had lead me to trade that in and lease a Patriot which I ended up "giving" to my girlfriend after we bought our house a few months prior. Patriot wasnt really for big guys like myself, and the 4 cylinder was just terrible and slow. I picked up an 09 Edge Limited with around 100k miles. Regretably didnt do much research on them first. I always loved the look, and when I randomly saw this one, I jumped on it. Ran and drove great, but started to develop numerous problems which kept it off the road for a month or two while I replaced parts in the blistering cold Winter last year. All was well, then it got the infamous PTU leak, trans seals going bad, among other large problems. Could not afford to keep it and fix it, so I had to take a hit and trade it in.

Local dealer happened to just get this 2006 Explorer in, and from across the parking lot seeing it, I had to have it. It has 80k miles, runs and drives great. 4x4 works flawlessly. Its nice to be back in a body on frame vehicle with differentials and stuff like that :D. The Edge was super fun, smooth and fast, but boy when there was a problem, it was EXPENSIVE.

The previous owner smoked in it, and had kids. Lots of kids it looks like. Kids who had no discipline either, because there is crap under every crevice and panel. It needs alot of TLC cosmetically, but I haven't torn a vehicle apart in so long, im excited. The Edge was too new and fancy to do anything to, aside from my stereo.

I will upload pictures later, when I get some.

I would love to lift it, but this is my DD to work, which is about 65m per day, so thats not friendly on the pocket at all. I love the look of these being lowered an inch or two, with some good looking (not gaudy) 22's. A style like the Adrenaline rims, like a 5-6 spoke wheel.

Plans are:
-Stereo, speakers, amp, subwoofer, big three upgrade, 2 batteries in the back
-Power auto dim rear view mirror
-Homelink addition somewhere
-Brush bar (The one that just comes up and under the grille, not the big one)
-30" LED bar on the guard
-22" Wheels
-Lower 1.5-2"
-Light tint on the front windows
-Change all applicable fluids to synthetic
-Spark plugs and wires
-Possibly an intake, just for looks, since they dont actually improve performace
-HID retrofit, with black housings, halos, and switchback blinkers
-Open the taillights and replace the running lights with red Halos, LED brake/blinker bulbs
-Slowly convert the interior to black leather, or at least black carpet and black headliner
-New drivers side door panel (Sun faded BAD)
-New console lid, worn out where your arm rests on it
-3rd row delete (PM me if youre interested in swapping)

Many other things as well, that ill list as I go. This is all gonna be in good time.

I also want to replace the gas cap. Somehow the PO managed to break the little holding wire off, id like to go back to the "capless" system. Anybody have experience with those aftermarket capless caps?


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1/07/2016 Update:
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Welcome to the forum.

Thanks Mike, I've actually been on here since like 2009 or 2010. By far, my favorite vehicle forum. Been on one with every single vehicle I've owned, and the rest were pretty bland, no good info, no helpful members, etc. This forum has taught me everything I know about Explorers, and helped me through work that I would've never considered before being on here. :thumbsup:

Can't wait to renew my Elite membership, just gotta get that cushion back in my bank account first, I put a hefty amount down on this Explorer.
 












FordEtis is probably the closest thing to a build sheet or window sticker you will find. Click "minor features" and save it.

https://www.etis.ford.com/vehicleRegSelector.do

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Typed in my VIN when I got home and showed me some features and I figured out the name of my exterior and interior, lol.

Also updated the original post with a picture I snapped leaving Kroger. Not the best pic, but many more to come once I start actually driving it and working on it. (Girlfriend now has a 2009 Fusion that had a CEL which has been at the Ford Dealer under warranty now for probably over a month total :thumbdwn:

Took them 2.5 weeks just to get us a loaner, which is a little 2010 Focus. Ive been driving that though to save miles on the Explorer :D Im gonna have to steal my keys back from her when she gets her car back, shes in love with everything about this truck. Made me happy, I figured she wouldnt like driving such a big box, body on frame, etc since all shes driven before is FWD unibody independent suspension and all that fancy schmancy stuff.


Ive noticed alot of posts related to spark plug and radiator issues with these trucks. What years/engines has those common issues? I have a bit of a vibration at idle which seems to be normal according to the forum, but id like to change my plugs and wires anyways just for peace of mind. Anything I need to look out for? I know, I know, NO bosch! Gonna go with OEM stuff.
 
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At a certain point in your life, driving around an economy car to save a few dollars in gas just doesn't seem worth it. I've been there.

The oil company I used to work for had a few of these Explorers as company cars. Those that drove them seemed to really like them.
 






Yeah, going from the V8 Explorer to the Focus the first time was a life saver for a bit, I didn't get paid when I started at JCI for almost a month, so I literally couldn't afford to drive down there and every week it was just "Oh sorry, this or that happened you should be paid by next week" so the a Focus helped me out for the month or two I kept it. But like you said, the sacrifice of saving a few bucks on gas vs a completely uncomfortable ride wasn't worth it. I love this 4th gen though. Loved them since the day I first saw one, and surprisingly never even sat in one besides one V8 I looked at at the Ford dealer, drove it through the back roads, and as soon as I got on it, the dash went nuts, check trans displayed on the message center and it started driving like ass. Kind of scared me away from the 4th gens for awhile. That's when I had Charger and was looking for a winter vehicle.

Boy the power in that V8 Explorer was nice though, and it sounded so damn good!
 






Need new front wheel bearings, so I ordered 2 new Motorcraft hubs for $310 on eBay BNIB. Those will be here Friday, so until then I decided to go out and do some more interior work.

Got the 3rd row out, and the 40% 2nd row seat out, but there was one stubborn rusted bolt not coming out with my ratchet or air gun. Remembered I had a breaker bar, and that baby came right out. Took the fronts out, and unbolted a couple bolts in the console which let me lift it enough to remove the carpet, easy peazy!

Didnt get as good of results as I expected, but at least its not gonna be nasty, matted down and stink anymore. Will eventually be replacing with new black carpet from StockInteriors.com.

Will post pics of the final result tomorrow or Friday when its done drying and I can vaccuum it real nice. Just getting the carpet out improved the interior smell 110%

Pictures honestly do not do it justice as to how dirty it was.
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Water in the back was from the wet carpet on the ride home. You can see the black gunk built up along the plastic trim. DONT LET YOUR UN-DISCIPLINED CHILDREN EAT AND DRINK IN YOUR VEHICLE!
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I think next time I would rather buy a flood vehicle or salvage title from a bad wreck!
 






The picture im about to share with you is NOT SAFE FOR WORK! It also might make you sick to your stomach.

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This picture does it NO justice. I had finished the carpet and got back, popped the hood to see where im gonna route my amp wiring, as well as my big three upgrade wiring. Decided to pop the air filter box open, pulled out the filter and there was a whole layer of gunk at the bottom. I blew it off with my air compressor just to feel better driving it across town to buy a new one. Just blowing the layer of stuff off caused such a difference in airflow, that it didnt run right for a minute or so until it re-adjusted itself to all the extra air it was getting.

So I changed the air filter, cleaned the MAF sensor, and did a full synthetic oil change with a Mobil 1 filter instead of the super-economy generic POS it had down there cranked way too damn tight.

Whats the deal with these transmissions, im reading alot of hate on the forum about the 4.0 trans. Someone said to change the fluid out every 30k miles if you want the thing to last, is that really necessary? At 80k, what would your thoughts be on mine? I would like to drain and clean the diff's and put synthetic in, as well as the trans, but im on the fence about the trans.

Anybody SeaFoam a 4th gen? Was at Walmart and they had it marked down to like $5, so I picked up a can and am thinking about using it with the old brake booster method.
 












I was hoping for results like when I did my 2000's gray carpet. It was terrible, and when I was done it looked 95% new. This looks tremendously better, but still not as good as I want it, so one of my top priorities after a tune up is new carpet.
 






Replaced my hubs yesterday, (9/6/15 - 81k for my own reference, lol) boy that was fun.

She feels great now though, no more roaring down the road like I had mud tires, and seems to roll better now too. Cant wait to give this thing a tune up, and was gonna today, but all the extra crap I had to buy to get these hubs done, thatll have to wait until next weekend, or some time when I get a couple days off in a row.

Anybody using synthetic fluids in the trans/tranfercase/diffs? Id like to change all mine out, I know damn well its still original. I feel dumb for asking this, but do these gen's even have a tranny dipstick? Now that im thinking about it, I dont recall seeing one. Should make a drain/refill even more fun.

I also shampooed all the seats with one of those shampooers that has the hand attachments (Not the joke of a shampooer at the carwash) and my God, the stuff that was coming out of those seats. I used just the regular Bissel stain remover/cleaner, along with some Oxy additive that is supposed to super deep clean and lift stains. The liquid is clear, but I was sucking up yellow, black, red, etc. Pouring the container out of the machine, it was like thick chocolate milk. So nasty. I even did the driver and passenger seat twice until it was vacuuming up clear finally. \

The carpet left me less than happy, its alot better than before, its soft now and doesnt smell...as bad. I put it in and could still somewhat smell the nasty odor, so im gonna dowse it with febreeze or something. I left the windows cracked and put a box fan in the back last night since the seats werent 100% dry, I didnt want them getting a musty smell or something.

I also ran my power wire, two runs of 0 gauge to the back, and then today ill probably start doing the big three upgrade. (0 gauge from alt to battery, 0 gauge from battery to chassis/body and 0 gauge from the block ground) Planning on 2 extra batteries in the back, probably gonna stick with some Optimas, and get a matching one under the hood.

Also wanting to get an alarm and remote start, something like the Viper 2 way I had on my Crown Vic. The one that has the little screen on the remote, tells me if the cars locked or not, started or not, etc. Plus the alarm is a big plus with the audio equipment ill be running.
 






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I think my first big mod will be an electric fan setup. I didn't realize this thing had a mechanical fan (until that day I changed my oil and air filter) but leaving the house and having the AC on makes this thing sound like a semi taking off!

I don't care about that, but I usually spend my lunch break in the car, on a blacktop parking lot and having the ac on so far is ok, but if I have the rear on, there's a noticeable difference in how cold the front blows, and watching my ultra gauge my intake temp on an 80 degree day is 150, and the coolant temp is right around 150.
 






Is there any company that makes lowering springs for 4th gens?

Ive searched and searched the site, it seems as if the companies that sold them years ago only made a few sets.

I would like about a 2" drop. I will most likely be going with 22's, so I can still get a good size tire on them. I made up my mind on lowering/lifting after my little mud incident this past week.

Theres a back road near my moms house, and I was stopping by to grab some mail that she got there for me, and theres a "path" along said road with some mud/water that I figured id finally test my 4x4 in. Went through in 4 high with no issues on my way there, and had a blast, so I decided to go the exact same route home, and passed through again, only this time I somehow dug deep down and was laying on my frame digging in. I got out wiggling back and fourth after about 5 minutes, but my god it took an hour to clean the dried on dirt from my undercarriage, which was rattling and causing all kinds of noise, and my tires look like they absorbed the mud, because after 3 washes, theyre still dirty. Ill maybe lift this thing in the future when I pay it off and get myself a V8 4th gen, but for now I want to lower it, since I do have a 65m/per day trip to work.
 






Got a small bonus at work, and wanted to treat the X to some visual mods, next week I will be doing plugs and probably wires, possibly seafoam through the brake booster line as well beforehand.

Made out a list of about 20 different things related to lights, converting all "plug and play" lights to LED. (Blinkers, markers, puddle lamps, taillights, reverse lights, dome lights, licence plate, etc), also bit the bullet and grabbed an HID kit for the headlights. I do plan on doing a retrofit, in fact even have everything in my garage, but ill wait until later on in the year and do that as a winter project. I just ordered a single beam kit since the last bixenon kit I had was a joke, high beams just moved the terrible beam pattern around. I am also going to order that "Bentley" style gloss black mesh grill. My chrome grill is peeling like crazy and looks pretty bad. Will probably oven-cleaner the chrome off and sell it prepped for paint or keep it as a spare to experiment with or something.

I also scored a pair of new fogs on eBay for $20, I plan on lightly smoking them, since I will be going with the black adrenalin style housings for the projectors. I am also thinking about doing a switchback LED strip on the top and bottom of each one, where it would be white as a DRL, along with the halos and such with the retrofit, and then when I turn my blinker/flashers on, the white will all flash amber. Thats up in the air though still.

I will probably try out those new LED headlight bulbs in the fog housings. I wanted to try them in the headlights, but at nearly $100 a pair, ill stick with my tried and true HID kit for now.

Also bought some polishing compound by Meguiars, to take care of some crap spots my paint had. It was nearly impossible to get pictures of the before, since the reflection was so strong, but it resembled dried on wax, but all over the drivers side doors. It wouldnt come off from washing, and scrubbing so I tried that compound and it came right off. Looks 100x better. Cant wait todo the whole truck.

Also removed that fugly front licence plate holder, that thing was abnormally large. Heading to the carwash now, will post pics later.
 






Little update (Not sure if anyone actually follows this? More of a reference for myself I suppose LOL)

Borrowed a friends hair dryer to take my pinstripe off, found out that the dryer actually makes it harder to remove, so I went cold turkey. Looks 1000x better, also took the AdvaceTrac badge off, and still have the 3 Explorer badges.

Got the new fogs in, wet sanded them down with 2000 grit to shoot a couple light coats of VHT on, to smoke them just a tad, but this is a PITA, paint keeps splitting/cracking, or just looks awful when it doesnt. We'll see how it turns out. I also ordered the HID kit for the headlights, 5000k 55w kit, and decided to try the LED kit for the fogs, which I like better anyways, since the fogs come on and off everytime you unlock it after dusk, so that wont burn out HIDs/ballasts if I went that route down there. I found a set on Amazon for $60, has hundreds of reviews, few Wrangler owners say they cause radio interference but other than that 100% worthwhile upgrade, everyone else had no complaints except for a few DOA units which happens with anything.

Also have a cart full on Amazon of all the LEDs for inside and out, but im gonna space out all these $50 here-and-there purchases for this Explorer, lol.

Really cant wait to order the "Bentley" style grill, and black headlights. But thats gonna be an expensive project, lol the damn LED Halo's are over $100 alone IIRC.

Also finally grabbed some new door speakers, some Pioneer 2-ways from SonicElectronix for $30/pair, couldnt beat it, its great not having 4 blown sounding speakers!
 






So over the past few days, ive smoked my new foglight housings, smoked my CHMSL, but went way too dark and didnt prep properly, so that will be getting sanded down and redone soon.

I got my LEDs in today, boy the little LED panels for the 578 dome lights are so much brighter and crisper. Perfect amount of light, now im going to do some footwell lighting to match.

I replaced with LEDs:
Foglights (47w LEDs)
Switchback blinkers up front
taillights,
front and back marker lights
CHMSL
Dome lights
puddle lamps
reverse lights

I think thats it, but definitely gonna be doing some more LED work. It makes the vehicle seem 10 years newer, brighter better output, and of course looks better.

Waiting on my HIDs still, was going to bite the bullet and buy the black housings and start the retrofit, but had a little mishap with our cable/internet/phone bill which wasnt taken out, so I thought I had quite a bit more money than I did.

The truck is night and day without the pinstripe, and badges on the rear. Cant wait to take the badges off the doors as well. The only thing she really "needs" on the exterior now is a grill, the stock one's chrome is peeling so bad, if you're within 10' of the front, thats all you notice.

I did remove the rear fascia piece with the Ford logo, was thinking about shaving the Ford logo off, but theres a big hole in the body where that piece snaps in. Sanded and prepped that chrome piece and painted it glossy black, looks SO much better with the dark paint. I also got rid of most of the rust "dripping" that was along the license plate from that piece's rusty bolts. Looks new in the back now aside from a long ding on the right side.

Anyone know what replacement front bumpers go for? Mine has a big crack in the plastic, previous owner definitely hit something lightly on the front passenger side.

Also, what would a set of used stock headlights go for in 7/10 condition id say? Having a buyer lined up for those would help with the cost of the new ones.
 






Planning on doing some BMW style ambient lighting.

I miss the kit Ford uses, with the button to change colors like my Edge had, and the GF's Fusion has. I can get my hands on those, but im thinking of going the "BMW" style route as well.

A friend is storing his Beamer at my house, and I have the keys to start it up every once in a while, and move it if needed, and when I was in it the other night, there are hidden little LEDs mounted in various places that illuminate the interior slightly, but its very easy on the eyes, and very handy. This Explorer is just so "plain" driving at night, I have the cluster, radio and HVAC knobs lit up, thats all.

I plan on doing a couple small orange LEDs hidden in the upper console shining down, and then some possibly in the doors or something, not sure yet.
 



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Sounds like your ex is coming along! What color is your interior?
 






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