Just picked up a 4th Gen, goodbye 3rd Gen

[BAMxi]

Hello to anyone still active on this forum! About five years ago, I bought a 2002 Explorer 4.0 XLT 4x4 as a 3rd vehicle for camping/winter driving, light towing, etc. It was in OK shape, but needed what we thought was going to be a little bit of mechanical work. Since then, that rig has had a complete suspension rebuild, we rebuilt the rear diff, new valve cover, new radiator, new headlights and lots of other little things. My father in law is a Ford mechanic, so I wasn't too worried about it, as I had him to help (and provide his discount on parts). After getting the 2002 up to acceptable condition, I ended up selling my daily driver, an E90 BMW 3 series, and went to driving the explorer full time, as I wasn't driving the BMW enough and felt like it was just depreciating in the driveway. Last weekend, I was wasting time on craigslist and fb marketplace gawking at cars, as I always do, and came upon a 2007 Explorer 4.0 XLT 4x4 being sold by the original owner with 112k miles on it. I almost never see explorers around here with low or even reasonable miles with no rust and in good shape. I was drawn to the leather (in great condition with no rips) and the moonroof that I missed from my BMW days. This one also shows no rust at all, and my 2002 explorer's rocker panels are pretty much gone at this point due to rust. The new one also has the factory tow package like my 2002, which I like as a I do occasionally tow a trailer. The owner had a folder of every dealer-performed maintenance item done to the car since new. His exact words were "whatever the dealer told me it needed, I just went ahead and did it." So, I drove to go check it out and ended up buying it on the spot. After some negotiating, I picked it up for $5750, which so far seems like a good price when factoring in that I think I can probably get $3500 for my 02 with 165k miles, based on its repair history and what other similar ones are going for in the area. The new one does need tires and the thermostat housing is starting to leak some coolant, but other than that, seems pretty solid. Anyway, just wanted to see if anybody is still around on these forums and introduce myself. I may update my progress in this thread as I get this new explorer up to speed. I think I'll end up either refinishing the wheels (oxidation from salt on them) or getting a new set. Either way I'm going to get some meaty tires. The chrome on the front grille is also starting to peel up, so I'm going to either paint the grill black myself or pick up a new black one off ebay. All of the current ones for sale don't seem to come with the little strip that attaches to the hood on top, which is annoying because it sounds like I'll be painting either way. Here's a pic of the new one the day I got it and the old one on a trip to Arkansas a few years ago.

 

[94Eddie]

Nice looking color and it looks like you got a good one at a decent price. I switched from a basic XLT 3rd gen to a completely loaded 4th gen last fall and have been very pleased with the new one.

 

[BAMxi]

Nice looking color and it looks like you got a good one at a decent price. I switched from a basic XLT 3rd gen to a completely loaded 4th gen last fall and have been very pleased with the new one.

Nice. I see you've got the v8, that's awesome. I had been keeping my eye out for a good condition v8 for a long time and just never see them come up around here. Over the winter, a local dealer had a 2010 Explorer Limited V8 on their lot. Had decent miles, somewhere around 120k. They were asking almost $12k for it. I went and drove it and looked it over and cosmetically it was pretty rough. The roof had rust and paint chipping off. The wheels had been curbed so hard that there were chunks missing. Interior was pretty worn and not super clean. I think the power 3rd row was messed up too. I offered to buy it way under the $12k, probably somewhere around $9k if I remember correctly, and they weren't interested in my lowball offer. haha

 

[94Eddie]

I took my time finding a replacement. The XLT was needing front wheel bearings, new tail lights, one new headlight housing and some AC repairs. All told it was around $2k so I figured it was time to look into upgrading instead of throwing that money at an eighteen year old vehicle. I got the 2010 for $6,500 out the door. It needed a radiator which helped me beat the price down. All in with the radiator (had them install a new water pump while it was apart), a complete fluid change and new tires I have about $8,500 out of pocket. Take out the $2k I would have spent on the 2002 repairs and net out of pocket is $6,500. Plus, it lived its life in Maryland and was completely rust free. The interior is pristine and the exterior is pretty good too. The one thing I wish it didn't have is the bucket seats in the rear. This reduces the ability to carry cargo some with the second row folded down. The console lid flips forward to keep it from standing up above the floor which helps a lot. The three valve V8 combined with the six speed transmission is a substantial improvement over the two valve V8 and five speed transmission that was in the 2002. It has a good bit more power, the transmission is much smoother and I get 2-3 mpg more on average. Some highway trips averaging 60-65 mph I have seen 20-21 mpg. At 75-80 mph it still gets around 18-19 mpg. I could rarely get above 16-17 mpg with the 2002 no matter what type of driving I did.

I initially looked at the 5th gen Explorers and really wasn't all that impressed with them. I didn't like the direction Ford took them being a transverse mounted front wheel drive unibody vehicle. After I learned of the idiotic internal water pump design in the 3.5L engines, I bailed on them. My wife drives a 2015 Edge with the 3.5L and now knowing this problem exists I feel like she is driving a ticking time bomb that can have a complete engine failure from a water pump going out. I think we will ditch it just before the warranty runs out.

Overall, it looks like you got a good one that should last you many, many more miles.

 

[BAMxi]

Wow that's a smoking deal you got on yours. And I agree with you on the rear bucket seats. Kind of cool for passengers but definitely impacts the cargo hauling. I was surprised to see that the normal rear seats in my 07 recline a bit. My daughter is still in a car seat and is the only one who really ever rides in the back of our cars, but if my wife ever wanted to sit back there with her, she would at least be a little more comfortable.

And I totally agree with you about the 5th gen and up explorers. I just don't care for the styling and car-like construction. My father-in-law says the 5th gen explorers are basically Tauruses underneath, with a bunch of spacers under the body to raise it up a bit. Not very rugged at all. I had originally said I'd hold out for the Bronco (which is awesome and I definitely want one). But, with it not even being available until next spring and my own hesitation to take on a car payment when our economy is in pandemic mode (I'm anti car payment in general anyway), I opted to just go with something affordable and cheap to repair in a platform I mostly already knew. I could see going Bronco when this explorer runs its course.

 

[BAMxi]

Well, just figured I'd update my own thread here. Unfortunately not the best news, or really all that surprising for those on the forum here, but that's what I get for rolling the dice on an old used car. After ~ 3 months of driving the 2007 explorer, it rather suddenly developed a pretty severe rough idle and loud rattle that seems to be timing chain related. The previous owner said he had timing chain rattle addressed under warranty, but I couldn't find much record of it in his maintenance history beyond his complaint of it, and didn't really hear any rattle at all (compared to my 2002 explorer that rattles pretty good when cold). Pretty impeccable timing (no pun intended) for that guy to sell it, I kind of wonder if he knew something was up with it, or just got lucky. Not the end of the world, but definitely unfortunate. My father in law says that in order to do the job properly, he'd need to pull the engine and would basically end up rebuilding it, spending quite a bit in parts and a ton of his own time/labor to do so. It's his preference to put a ford remanufactured engine in, as it would save him a lot of time and he worries that some damage may have already been done to the valves and untold other areas after listening to it and watching it run on his ford laptop. He can get a reman engine $200 more than the dealership's cost, I believe somewhere around $2500 and would have a 3 year unlimited mile warranty. Certainly not what I was hoping for, but I would feel terrible trying to turn around and sell it to someone else to try to get my money back out of it, knowing what's going on with it, so I'd be looking at taking a steep loss on an otherwise very nice explorer. So, I'm pretty sure she'll be getting a new engine. I kind of wish I would have held out for a v8, but I'll still have less money in this one even with a new engine than what the v8 explorers are going for around here.

Fortunately, I haven't gotten around to selling my 02 explorer yet, so I'll be able to drive that while the new one gets repaired. Plan will be to sell the 02 once the 07 is good to go, and then do a few mods to the new one as well. Nothing crazy, but I'll probably go with 265/70r17 tires, maybe some small wheel spacers and replace the grille, as the chrome is starting to bubble and flake off. I'll update here as things progress. Hopefully I'll get a few pics of the rig with the engine out and new one going in.

 

[94Eddie]

Sorry to hear about the engine. One thing you might want to look into before spending money on replacing the engine is the condition of the transmission. The 5r55 trannies can start going bad around the mileage you have on your 2007. I would hate to see you spend nearly $3k on the engine and then be looking at another $2.5-$3k on a transmission replacement. Are there any records of the previous owner changing the transmission fluid?

 

[BAMxi]

Yeah I thought of that too. Previous owner had “transmission service” around 75k miles, but I will plan to do another fluid and filter change with this job. Definitely a gamble but my father in law has a guy in his shop who will rebuild it for $300 in labor plus parts if needed, so it would still be a chunk of change with parts but not as terrible as it could be. There is no way i would have bought this thing or be dumping money into it if I didn’t have a Ford master tech in the family. Even with that hookup, I was very heavily leaning toward buying a newer 4Runner before I bought this thing. In hindsight, I definitely wish I would have, but can only move forward from here!

 

[loooney2ns]

Honestly, for $300 plus parts, I would rebuild the trans while the engine is out. Just for peace of mind. The 5R55 transmissions tend to go bad over time and miles. It shouldn't need too many parts if it was maintained properly.

 

[ThunderbirdSport]

Sell it, buy a V8.

 

[BAMxi]

Sell it, buy a V8.

Would love to. That was the plan initially, they’re just rare in my area and seem to command a premium above what I’ll have invested in this one even with a new engine. They go for $10k+ even with high miles around here. Plus I’d probably get $1500ish for my current one given its engine noise

 

[zerodevil]

The 5r55 series WILL fail, somewhere between 120-160k miles. regardless of fluid changes. There is a design flaw (corner cutting) where the steel pins on the servo's wear through the aluminum bore holes in the transmission case.

I would absolutely recommend you have the trans rebuilt while you have the engine out if at all possible. Also worth doing the T-case at the same time, the plastic guides on the forks tend to wear out at similar mileage. Thankfully the rebuild costs on the T-case is very low compared to the engine and trans. $300-ish.

Between these items, you could likely see 10+ years on the truck before any other major service is required, with the only unknown being the diffs. If your looking at a different rig, and not entirely in love with this one, this is probably the time to decide what you want to do, $4000 worth of repairs on the 13 year old vehicle doesn't really make sense unless you are attached to the rig.

 

[BAMxi]

The 5r55 series WILL fail, somewhere between 120-160k miles. regardless of fluid changes. There is a design flaw (corner cutting) where the steel pins on the servo's wear through the aluminum bore holes in the transmission case.

I would absolutely recommend you have the trans rebuilt while you have the engine out if at all possible. Also worth doing the T-case at the same time, the plastic guides on the forks tend to wear out at similar mileage. Thankfully the rebuild costs on the T-case is very low compared to the engine and trans. $300-ish.

Between these items, you could likely see 10+ years on the truck before any other major service is required, with the only unknown being the diffs. If your looking at a different rig, and not entirely in love with this one, this is probably the time to decide what you want to do, $4000 worth of repairs on the 13 year old vehicle doesn't really make sense unless you are attached to the rig.

Thanks for the info. I’m not attached to this rig really. Not pumped about losing a ton of money trying to sell it to someone else with an engine issue though and wouldn’t feel right not disclosing what I know about it. Plus it’s got a pretty obvious rattle now. I’ll ask about trans rebuild while engine is out and see about getting it done