reserved50
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- April 21, 2005
- Messages
- 1,267
- Reaction score
- 57
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2013 Sport Exploder
Back in the day I remember a time when my 93 mercury Sable didnt need a single repair even though it had those terrible 3.8s with leaking head gaskets, but those days are gone.
I have personally seen a few chain rattling Explorers, but not here to convince anyone, just making sure someone doesn't buy those old things thinking its indestructible due to misinformation. Craigslist is now littered with owners claiming they have had major drivetrain components or will need them in order for the vehicle to be driven safely, theres a few in the 100K mark, but the past is the past.
The newer the vehicle the more they cost and nothing can be done. If those old timers have money they will move on also to something newer, I've honestly never seen a farm truck down main street yet, I will look forward to when it happens .
The main issue I've heard is the chains stretching on the turbo engines at the 100K mark across the board from people that work at Ford, and at that time they change the water pump for preventative maintenance. I would only run synthetic in anything with chains and plastic guides.
Can only hope the water pump failing is very limited, say under 1% and its being blown out proportion, but the cost of repair is what makes people let others know about it. If it does I think I can DIY it for 200$ if I catch it early.
I have personally seen a few chain rattling Explorers, but not here to convince anyone, just making sure someone doesn't buy those old things thinking its indestructible due to misinformation. Craigslist is now littered with owners claiming they have had major drivetrain components or will need them in order for the vehicle to be driven safely, theres a few in the 100K mark, but the past is the past.
The newer the vehicle the more they cost and nothing can be done. If those old timers have money they will move on also to something newer, I've honestly never seen a farm truck down main street yet, I will look forward to when it happens .
The main issue I've heard is the chains stretching on the turbo engines at the 100K mark across the board from people that work at Ford, and at that time they change the water pump for preventative maintenance. I would only run synthetic in anything with chains and plastic guides.
Can only hope the water pump failing is very limited, say under 1% and its being blown out proportion, but the cost of repair is what makes people let others know about it. If it does I think I can DIY it for 200$ if I catch it early.
It's not that I'm not aware of the issue, it's that you're trying to make it into more than it is. Quite a few of them are still on the road today, as it was the more popular engine from '97-'98 till gen III. There would be even more on the road if it weren't for Cash-For-Clunkers program (that required it be a running vehicle). Resale value today is little different than the V8 version.
It is good that the newer engine doesn't have that issue but fairly irrelevant if everything else swamps it in cost. Most gen 5 owners won't DIY replace that so it's still a $1000 repair due to labor, and then another $1000 if it makes it to 200K mi so you're at the chain change interval again.
You wrote "so far" few need the water pump changed, but it is an expected repair over the life of the vehicle. I'm not arguing what will it cost if you sell it before it gets a few years old because then the cost of ownership goes up even more because you suffered the most on depreciation.
I'm not picking on gen 5 Explorers, this is a general trend seen throughout the auto industry, but even more relevant with higher complexity vehicles like SUVs. They now take more specialized skills, higher cost parts, and more often need more parts pulled if not the entire engine pulled to do a repair.
Additional subsystems requiring much greater expense are things like the electric steering rack, LCD dash display, LCD infotainment center, sheer # of airbags, strut towers, lift gate strut/motor, high battery drain requiring more frequent battery replacement, and more.
There's a reason that old timers drive 30 year old pickups with a pushrod V8 and a carb on it, low repair costs.