hang3xc
New Member
- Joined
- July 8, 2011
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Boston area / Lynn MA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 98 XLT
Hi
New member here. My sister in law bought a new vehicle and instead of trading in her explorer, she gave it to my son who is a couple weeks away from getting his license.
So, it's a 98 Explorer XLT. The mileage is a bit high and it has a handful of small problems and one possibly somewhat expensive one. If it was perfect, she wouldn't have bought a new car!
I'm pretty good at fixing cars, so I figured I could work side by side with my son and teach him whatever I can while we get any problems with the vehicle fixed. Should be fun working with him and watching him learn. He's a great kid.
We started with learning to jack the vehicle and how/where to use jack stands. I told him there are quite a few people who have been killed or maimed because they didn't get this simple thing right.
Our first little job was to fix the broken drivers side interior door handle. A perfect, simple job that basically involves everything that every other job does. You have to locate the problem area. Then disassemble, as needed, so you can get to & work on the problem. Look the area over, try and understand how it works and why it now doesn't. Repair or replace parts as needed. Put it all back together.
Every job basically goes like that, simple or complicated, small or large, so I thought that was perfect for job #1.
It only cost $22 for a new handle and took a little over an hour, which includes the ride to pick up the part at the dealership. I'm going to have to find out how long my sister in law lived with that. Such an easy fix for such an annoying problem. You use the door handle EVERY time you get out of the car! How could you not fix it ???
The only big things that need to be fixed is the muffler, which is rusted so thoroughly to the pipes leading into and out of it that who knows how much will have to be replaced. That, and the rotors are rusted up from the vehicle sitting for about a year, so they'll have to be replaced.
An odd problem I've never seen before is the windshield wiper control arm. When you turn it, to turn the wipers on, it will actually turn 360 degrees. On low speed the washer fluid pumps out nonstop, high speed & delay work right, but I don't know if I've even found a spot that actually turns the wipers completely off. So obviously that needs to be replaced and hopefully that will all work right after. I hope it's not too complicated to get to.
Little things to do.... one of the upper ball studs for the tailgate support pistons broke off some time ago, so I'll have to buy a threaded on and maybe I can drill and tap the tailgate where it goes and just screw it in. If not, I can weld it on
The radio display doesn't work. The radio itself works great, but no display. He said he'd be using an ipod through the radio, so he doesn't really need the display, but I'll pull it out, open it up, and see if there is anything obviously wrong that I can fix
That would be it! A few minor little things, the muffler, and the rotors just because they rusted over pretty bad. It is a great vehicle with decent options... 4WD, cruise control, power windows, mirrors & seat,
Hopefully he gets a few years out of it
Did anyone read this far??
Thanks,
Ron
New member here. My sister in law bought a new vehicle and instead of trading in her explorer, she gave it to my son who is a couple weeks away from getting his license.
So, it's a 98 Explorer XLT. The mileage is a bit high and it has a handful of small problems and one possibly somewhat expensive one. If it was perfect, she wouldn't have bought a new car!
I'm pretty good at fixing cars, so I figured I could work side by side with my son and teach him whatever I can while we get any problems with the vehicle fixed. Should be fun working with him and watching him learn. He's a great kid.
We started with learning to jack the vehicle and how/where to use jack stands. I told him there are quite a few people who have been killed or maimed because they didn't get this simple thing right.
Our first little job was to fix the broken drivers side interior door handle. A perfect, simple job that basically involves everything that every other job does. You have to locate the problem area. Then disassemble, as needed, so you can get to & work on the problem. Look the area over, try and understand how it works and why it now doesn't. Repair or replace parts as needed. Put it all back together.
Every job basically goes like that, simple or complicated, small or large, so I thought that was perfect for job #1.
It only cost $22 for a new handle and took a little over an hour, which includes the ride to pick up the part at the dealership. I'm going to have to find out how long my sister in law lived with that. Such an easy fix for such an annoying problem. You use the door handle EVERY time you get out of the car! How could you not fix it ???
The only big things that need to be fixed is the muffler, which is rusted so thoroughly to the pipes leading into and out of it that who knows how much will have to be replaced. That, and the rotors are rusted up from the vehicle sitting for about a year, so they'll have to be replaced.
An odd problem I've never seen before is the windshield wiper control arm. When you turn it, to turn the wipers on, it will actually turn 360 degrees. On low speed the washer fluid pumps out nonstop, high speed & delay work right, but I don't know if I've even found a spot that actually turns the wipers completely off. So obviously that needs to be replaced and hopefully that will all work right after. I hope it's not too complicated to get to.
Little things to do.... one of the upper ball studs for the tailgate support pistons broke off some time ago, so I'll have to buy a threaded on and maybe I can drill and tap the tailgate where it goes and just screw it in. If not, I can weld it on
The radio display doesn't work. The radio itself works great, but no display. He said he'd be using an ipod through the radio, so he doesn't really need the display, but I'll pull it out, open it up, and see if there is anything obviously wrong that I can fix
That would be it! A few minor little things, the muffler, and the rotors just because they rusted over pretty bad. It is a great vehicle with decent options... 4WD, cruise control, power windows, mirrors & seat,
Hopefully he gets a few years out of it
Did anyone read this far??
Thanks,
Ron
