my 2000 sport saga continues

[joe doe]

my 2000 sport has been killing us lately the last few years .it now has 133,000 and counting .we are the second owners.bought it after it came off a 2 year lease with less than 30,000 on it .
paid 14,999.00 8 years ago.

been good truck up until last few years .just done regular stuff .oil changes ,brakes ,rotors,tires.

last couple years though it been eating up parts .

let me run em down if i can remember it all.
replaced a perfectly good front passenger hub tracking down a wobble ,turned out to be tires.

new tires
done all the ball joints up front 3 years ago
front end alignment
lower joints lasted 2 years
new lower ball joints again ,went with moog this time

thing starts leaking antifreeze last year......i start tracking it down

replace the radiator,old one looked wet down the side.(was not the fix,still loosing fluid)

replace lower hose,again not the fix .

go looking ,its the heads leaking,oh great........

i limp it thru winter.runs fine but gotta add fluid every week.months go by .

in this time my alt bearings are making noise ,uh-oh..........
i order a new alt

my tensioner looks bad .......it is

new belt tensioner

my a/c pump is making noise ......great.......the pulley is making noise ,
guess what ......

reman a/c pump(not yet installed)

still limping the head leak along(oh yeah 2 cans of head leak repair too..lol)
whats this????????????

you gotta be kiddin me ..........water pumps leaking .......no way.....

new water pump


now we are up to the big days...........

head,intake,upper plenum,exhaust gaskets.....all of em ....and new head bolt too.
then off to my mechanic ........2 1/4 days later its back .

still have the alt to put on and the reman a/c pump yet .

this thing is costing me big time .thousands in the last few years .
and its not that great on gas

but i still love it .

all that by 133,000

oh yeah i had the trans flushed refilled and new filter and gasket too last year .

still has original exhaust...i know its coming .

when should i expect the trans to blow???lol.........just when you think you got it licked .i wanna be ready.

2000 ford ex sport 4by4 auto blk.

my 3rd explorer.

ps- i am jealous of jens explorer.want mine to look like that...lol
but with all these repairs i cant afford big tires and some lift...haha.

thanks for listening

 

[joe doe]

anyone else have this many issues with thier explorer engine ?

 

[JCat]

A couple of thoughts. . .

My father worked at Ford for 38 years in the department that created and wrote the service manuals. He used to tell me that the engineers were instructed to design parts so that they would only last so long. Once a vehicle reached 100,000 miles, it's life was over. Now that my father is gone, I have been trying Japanese vehicles. My Nissan has had 5 transmissions in it since 2004, and my 2005 Honda has needed a new water pump, and drive axles.

My 1998 Mercury Mountaineer with 140,000 miles has needed a fair share of replacement parts too.

I have owned enough vehicles (I'm 53) to have learned from experience that some are just built better and last longer than others. It can be "luck of the draw."

 

[stangladesh]

I guess I will run down my list. my sport has 253k+ on it:

Lower Ball joints
Uppers
Wheel bearing
Alternator
Fuel Pump
Rear diff rebuild
Cam kit
Sway bar
Body bushing(can't remember exactly what it's called)
Rear window of gate (got loose somehow)
Idler pulley
Water pump pulley
New caliper bracket bolts
2 EGR in the past year(autozone problem i suspect)
2 tensioners in the past 2 years(part problem i suspect. when we first replaced it, we went to PepBoys(wife's choice). 2 tensioners in same problem. got a refund. merchant's same problem. Finally we went to the stealership, done with now problems til recently. This time went to firestone because the stealership was closed on sunday. Champion built tensioner and trw idler pulley. started getting chatter and a brief squeal on start up. took it back. wrong belt. it was fine for about two days. got a brief the other day and still some chatter. about to take it back tomorrow and get the part from ford. sorry had to rant for a sec.
This is all in past two years.
Oh my to do list:
adjustable cam kit for driver side
rotors
calipers
find out where metallic rattle is coming from
thermostat and housing
outer cv axle boot. so an axle replacement is in the future.

 

[joe doe]

hey how you like your 04 escape?i been wondering about those.

my timing cover is leaking antifreeze now .i cant win .so we gotta open that up and change all that while we are in there .

i think this is excessive gasket failure for a 135,000 miles.

pretty much all within months of each other .

i am wondering if my heater core be next??what a nightmare.

 

[stangladesh]

it had an iac failure but that was easy. other than that it's okay. the newer escapes are supposedly a lot better. at least they look better. Once you hit about 150k with a ford its replacement time. whats funny is the failures occur at different intervals. but that can be attributed to driving habits, maintenance and region. What makes it even more unpredictable is the subcontracting of part manufacturers.