MyExplorer03v8Lim
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- June 20, 2016
- Messages
- 261
- Reaction score
- 14
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2003 Explorer 4.6L
I am really not sure where to go from here. I have no way to verify that any of the work on this vehicle has been done correctly. I keep giving it to people, and it keeps coming back broken.
The vehicle is a 2003 explorer. V8 Limited, AWD, 156k miles.
They swapped in what they told me was a mountaineer engine from the same year (or generation... who really knows.) with ~75k miles.
They got everything put back together, and realized that the bolts they used (from my old engine) for the flex plate or torque converter or something were too long by 1/16 of an inch, so they had to drop the transmission again to get them out and put the correct bolts back in. They said that turning the gears from the little window where the starter is located would cause the bolts to scrape and possibly damage stuff. (okay, how did you get them in?)
Once they got the car running, they told me that the torque converter had early sounds like it was probably failing. I did some research and found that the torque converters on these are noisy, but that they're rarely an actual problem. They wanted an extra $500 to put in a new "beefier" one. I declined.
I got the vehicle home and it felt great for about a month, and then all kinds of problems started happening. I know that my old engine had almost brand new motorcraft coil packs. The new engine has some off brand ****, and they're all junk or nearly junk. So I've replaced a couple of them, but I've been told that more have cracked boots and will need to be replaced. Also had a couple spark plugs replaced, even though the engine shop said they gave me all new plugs (paid for a full tune up after the swap).
I've been experiencing:
- RPMs race and then dip randomly
- Stalled at low speed/ stop light twice
- Misfiring cylinders (fixed by replacing two coils, two plugs, and an injector)
I let my local mechanic (not the engine swap guys) keep the explorer and look at it for an entire month. They couldn't figure out what's wrong with it. All they told me is that it's a really weird backpressure issue that they can't solve. Sometimes it drives fine, sometimes it drives like hell.
After a month I had them drop my car off. I accepted that they wanted to throw in the towel and be done with it. So my next step was the ford dealer.
For $169.99 the ford dealership offered to diagnose what's going on, so I drove it down there. I had a lot of weird issues on the 25 minute drive. First it continued to do the engine racing/ dipping thing, but also I was experiencing loss of power and it felt like it was downshifting and then wouldn't shift back up. A couple of times I heard a noise like popcorn popping from the engine compartment area, or maybe it sounded like rocks in a soda can.
I am worried that this could be the torque converter failing, or perhaps the catalytic converter, because since it was misfiring I'm told there might be some damage to the exhaust.
The ford dealer told me that I have the following issues to deal with immediately:
- vacuum leak somewhere
- transmission not shifting as it should be at times
- tech IDs multiple trouble codes: p0053 132 172 2195 2175 (mostly related to o2 sensors bank 1 and 2) and circuit and wiring issues
- has mis-routed harness sitting on top EGR tube and wire tied
- has numerous faults with wiring and o2 sensors
They gave me pictures. One showing an O2 sensor with air hammer marks on it, they're suggesting someone tried to get it off and couldn't so they maybe left it broken or maybe the hammering damaged it.
They also gave me a picture of the wiring harness with broken zip ties holding it to the EGR tube. I have no idea if this is bad. They suggested that wires could be melting and contacting things they shouldnt be.
They gave me another picture showing that there's a wiring harness connector that just has no wires at all going into it. They didn't tell me what's supposed to be plugged into it, just that there aren't wires where there should be.
So guys, what would you do with this vehicle? I have already dumped $9k into it between purchase and parts since April 2016. So it has a bunch of good parts, but potentially a bad tranny and a bad engine swap, who knows what else.
The vehicle is a 2003 explorer. V8 Limited, AWD, 156k miles.
They swapped in what they told me was a mountaineer engine from the same year (or generation... who really knows.) with ~75k miles.
They got everything put back together, and realized that the bolts they used (from my old engine) for the flex plate or torque converter or something were too long by 1/16 of an inch, so they had to drop the transmission again to get them out and put the correct bolts back in. They said that turning the gears from the little window where the starter is located would cause the bolts to scrape and possibly damage stuff. (okay, how did you get them in?)
Once they got the car running, they told me that the torque converter had early sounds like it was probably failing. I did some research and found that the torque converters on these are noisy, but that they're rarely an actual problem. They wanted an extra $500 to put in a new "beefier" one. I declined.
I got the vehicle home and it felt great for about a month, and then all kinds of problems started happening. I know that my old engine had almost brand new motorcraft coil packs. The new engine has some off brand ****, and they're all junk or nearly junk. So I've replaced a couple of them, but I've been told that more have cracked boots and will need to be replaced. Also had a couple spark plugs replaced, even though the engine shop said they gave me all new plugs (paid for a full tune up after the swap).
I've been experiencing:
- RPMs race and then dip randomly
- Stalled at low speed/ stop light twice
- Misfiring cylinders (fixed by replacing two coils, two plugs, and an injector)
I let my local mechanic (not the engine swap guys) keep the explorer and look at it for an entire month. They couldn't figure out what's wrong with it. All they told me is that it's a really weird backpressure issue that they can't solve. Sometimes it drives fine, sometimes it drives like hell.
After a month I had them drop my car off. I accepted that they wanted to throw in the towel and be done with it. So my next step was the ford dealer.
For $169.99 the ford dealership offered to diagnose what's going on, so I drove it down there. I had a lot of weird issues on the 25 minute drive. First it continued to do the engine racing/ dipping thing, but also I was experiencing loss of power and it felt like it was downshifting and then wouldn't shift back up. A couple of times I heard a noise like popcorn popping from the engine compartment area, or maybe it sounded like rocks in a soda can.
I am worried that this could be the torque converter failing, or perhaps the catalytic converter, because since it was misfiring I'm told there might be some damage to the exhaust.
The ford dealer told me that I have the following issues to deal with immediately:
- vacuum leak somewhere
- transmission not shifting as it should be at times
- tech IDs multiple trouble codes: p0053 132 172 2195 2175 (mostly related to o2 sensors bank 1 and 2) and circuit and wiring issues
- has mis-routed harness sitting on top EGR tube and wire tied
- has numerous faults with wiring and o2 sensors
They gave me pictures. One showing an O2 sensor with air hammer marks on it, they're suggesting someone tried to get it off and couldn't so they maybe left it broken or maybe the hammering damaged it.
They also gave me a picture of the wiring harness with broken zip ties holding it to the EGR tube. I have no idea if this is bad. They suggested that wires could be melting and contacting things they shouldnt be.
They gave me another picture showing that there's a wiring harness connector that just has no wires at all going into it. They didn't tell me what's supposed to be plugged into it, just that there aren't wires where there should be.
So guys, what would you do with this vehicle? I have already dumped $9k into it between purchase and parts since April 2016. So it has a bunch of good parts, but potentially a bad tranny and a bad engine swap, who knows what else.
