Hi

[cpurick]

Just a quick post to introduce myself. I had a 2000 Explorer Sport till 2003. It had about 65K on it when I traded it in. My daughter now needs a car for college. Remembering what a pleasant experience our Sport was to own, drive and maintain, I'm in the process of buying one for her. The vehicle we've chosen has 85K, is mechanically sound, and has an okay body. The interior's not bad, but it was neglected some. I'm here mainly to get advice on maintaining it, and because my previous experience with the vehicle did not expose me to any aging issues. If you can think of anything you think I might want to be particularly careful about, please let me know.

Thanks in advance,

Rick

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Check the blend door, transmission shifts, timing chain rattle, and for leaks around the intake manifold. See if they performed the recall for the cruise control pressure switch.

 

[Dopler174]

Welcome to Explorer Forum!

 

[cpurick]

The timing chain makes noise at startup (which I expected), but a Ford mechanic who inspected the vehicle told me it does not indicate a problem, and recommended that I only have it fixed if the noise bothers me. Should I be more concerned?

The transmission seems okay, though there's some whine from the differential, particularly in tight turns. The mechanic did not think this called for any action. The vehicle has been used for some towing in the past, though my daughter will not be towing anything.

The cruise control fix has been done.

The blend door problem sounds like something I need to check. I ran the car with the A/C in max. I tested the heat by rotating the temp to full hot. It took longer than I expected for the air to warm up, but it did go to full hot, and then it switched back to cool okay. I attributed the delay to the icy cold A/C, but now I wonder if there's a problem with the blend. I didn't try running it in the middle.

I like the vehicle because I consider 85K to be fairly low mileage for an '01, it's well equipped, and except for a beat up center console and a little carpet wear everything seems to be in good shape.

The mechanic did say it needs new ball joints. I'm planning to purchase the truck for $5K and then put another thousand into it to fix the ball joints, but I realize it's going to need some other things before I want my daughter taking it out of town. I was counting on doing belts and hoses, and new wiper blades, etc. I'd really like to get three years out of it without having it strand her on a dark highway.

Not having owned one of these with high mileage before, am I being unrealistic?

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

welcome rick