Hey, thanks much, all, for the replies and anecdotes. Still working through the bugs but still appreciating the Explorer. New one just today is a coolant leak. Can’t tell if it is from the thermostat housing or just below that from the intake manifold. I spent $13 for a new thermostat and thermostat seal today that I’ll pop in tomorrow night and see if that addresses the issue. Anyway, some more specific replies:
@boominXplorer well the 4Runner didn’t start out to be outside our means, we just didn’t anticipate the medical bills.
@TechGuru yeah I’m familiar with the motor because of our 2001 Mustang. I’ve done a decent amount of work on that car to rectify previous owner’s sloppy corner-cutting. That was one of the things that drew me to the Explorer. And the transmission…it’s probably going to be an issue before we know it…previous owners regularly towed a 5,000lb trailer, BUT they also had an aftermarket transmission cooler installed and had the tranny regularly serviced. But it’s got 167K miles on it. What I can tell you is once warmed up it shifts nice, no issues, but when it’s cold there’s some hesitation when shifting from R to D. Like you gotta wait for it for a couple seconds. Thanks for pointing out the link to your parts/fluids recommendations. I appreciate that. And we’re selling the 4Runner outright. The market value is such that we can sell it at a price that will pay off the loan AND put enough cash in our pocket to cover the deferred interest cash advance we initiated to purchase the Explorer. So…4Runner goes away, we’re whole cash-wise and the fat monthly payment just *poof* goes away. I’m 50 and the first vehicle I ever financed was in 2006, new Honda Odyssey I purchased with my ex. She kept it. Then in 2017 a new Jetta for my wife. I was tired of always fixing cars…no time. And I just wanted her to have a car she could count on and was safe. When our second child was on the way we traded that in on the 4Runner…more room, still new and reliable, but life throws twists and turns and here we are.
@Josh P I’m no stranger to the left-for-dead vehicle…’79 diesel VW Rabbit…”you can have it if you get it off my front lawn” car. $200 worth of fluids and filters and some new glow plugs and I had it running. It gave me about 48K miles. It was a rare model with the 5spd instead of the 4spd. Looked like hell…fungus growing in the rear passenger carpet. But it was peppy and got 48mpg. And it was free. Loved that car. ‘80 Ford Fiesta…cool German-designed sub-compact hatchback. Free. Got it running, drove it for awhile. 2002 Toyota Prius. Was happy to have a car that worked with good AC and good mileage. Free. Got it working reliably. Had that for several years.
