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G'Day from an Aussie Explorer noob!

TerryinAustralia

New Member
Joined
April 6, 2015
Messages
6
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City, State
Melbourne Australia, Mate!
Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 Ford Explorer
G'Day everyone, my name's Terry and I've just become the proud owner of a very clean 1998 V6 Explorer, so of course I thought I better find an owners forum so I could pester everyone here with questions they've probably heard, and answered, 100 times already! Well, I promise I'll check out the FAQ's first, before I annoy anyone here.....

I'm 55 years old and have spent the majority of my life in the Military. 24 years in the Regular Army, then I retired in 2001, got a "real" job (Defence Contractor) and transferred to the Army Reserve. Late last year I transferred to the Inactive Reserve, then changed jobs again, and now I work for a company that repairs/maintains/downloads aircraft Flight Data Recorders, ****pit Voice recorders, Underwater Locator Beacons etc for both the military, and civilian airlines here and all around the world.

As a Defence Contractor I always had a company car, (Ford Ranger) but with the new job I became car-less. Well not quite, I've got an old Subaru Liberty (Legacy in the US) that I bought on Gumtree (like Craigslist) for 450 dollars, as I needed something to drive on weekends that was easier to manoeuvre in tight car spaces than the Ranger.

I bought another Liberty, but this one was special, it was the all wheel drive variant, with the bonus of a 280 BHP twin turbo engine. It had quite a few problems though, and I only just had it registered and road legal, last week. I love it, but my son loves it more, so I sold it to him over the weekend and started looking for another car.

My other son has an Explorer, a 2002 XLT. It's currently off the road and parked in my back yard, but not due to any fault of the car. Rather, he had a minor collision and couldn't afford to repair it, so it sits in my yard, and I start it once a month, and drive it around my back yard, just to keep it in some sort of serviceable condition. What impressed me about my son's car is that he was never able to destroy it, regardless of his disinterest in basic maintenance, and even now, it's willingness to start after sitting idle for so long.

While I was thinking about cars I'd like to own, I did an eBay search, and found what appeared to be a very clean 1998 V6 Explorer with 140,000 miles on the odo for about $1260.00 US. I contacted the owner who invited me around to check it out today. He'd told me that he bought it from the original owners, and was only selling it because he had 6 other cars in his yard. The car proved to be in very nice condition, so I gave him a deposit, and will collect it on Wednesday.

And that I guess, is why I'm here. Sorry for the long winded first post everyone, I'll try to curb my enthusiasm and keep my future posts short. Thanks for having me! Cheers, Terry.
 



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No problem and welcome.
 












welcome to the site

Tony :wavey:
 






Thanks everyone, I'm collecting my new (to me) Explorer tomorrow morning and I must admit, I'm quite excited! Cheers, Terry.
 






Another Aussie on the forums - good on ya.
I have a '96 explorer V6. Original owner did 79,000 kms before he passed away, poor bugger. I bought his pride and joy and I love it.
Its easy to maintain for basic maintenance (oil, filters, etc) and there is a wealth of info on the forum for the "unusual" problem that all cars develop.

Mine had the usual problems for the Explorer when I bought it - indicator, gas struts and cruise control buttons all needed replacement. The indicator stalk and cruise control buttons can be bought from ebay US. Dont buy local - too expensive. The gas struts have to come from here - again ebay, there's a guy in Melbourne that sells them fairly cheaply . . . and replacement videos can be found on Youtube, believe it or not.

If your cabin lights stay on regardless of what you do (as mine are now) its a broken ground wire in the bundle in the drivers door. Again - an easy fix.

The only other hassle I've had (similar model to yours, thats why I mention all these) is the bolt that holds the drivers seat upright occasionally breaks and was a reason for a vehicle recall some years back. An easy fix with an M10 Gr 8.8 setscrew and a little Loctite.

Other than these, my vehicle has been dream to drive and i look forward to driving her for years. I hope you get the same fun from yours brother!
 






Hey thanks mate, much appreciated! I picked it up today and really enjoyed the drive back home, the car (truck?) is in such good nick for it's age, and I intend to keep it looking good.

I've insured it with Shannon's with an agreed value policy which was still cheaper than any other insurer I could find on line, all my motorcycles and my twin turbo Subaru are insured with Shannons, and they just can't be beaten for price.

It does have a timing chain rattle and the "Overdrive off" light is flashing so I'll do some research here to sort those two issues, but all in all, I'm very happy! Cheers, Terry.
 






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