chrsb5
New Member
- Joined
- October 17, 2012
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- NJ
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2004 Explorer Sport Trac
Hello All!
Let me first say how extremely pleased I am to have found this forum! I was unaware that the Explorer and derivatives like my Sport Trac had such an active enthusiast base.
My father in law gave me the truck last week, after realizing how little he could get on a trade in, and how much it would cost to ship cross country. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with an awesome free truck. It's a 2004 Sport Trac XLT, pretty nicely optioned in my opinion with the sliding rear window, moonroof, lockable bed cover ect.
It has a few flaws, most notably the leading edge of the hood.
It was driven repeatedly into the back wall of his garage and never fixed properly.
Other than the hood damage, the truck has sat for months, and generally been ignored and slightly neglected. On the bright side of things, it only has 51k miles on it.
My plan as of now its to get the maintenance up to date and go from there. All fluids, filters, change the belts, tune up ect.
I have a couple questions regarding that and was hoping I could be pointed to some threads or DIY instructions.
Transmission: What is the service interval? At 51k, I am assuming that the fluid is original and overdue for a change. Fluid recommendations, DIY instructions? I haven't dropped a pan on an automatic trans in over a decade, so the more detailed, the better.
Is Seafoam in the engine oil slightly prior to an oil change a good idea on these motors ?
Any known points of failure or weak spots I should immediately address ?
Suspension: It feels a little bouncy over bumps, so once I get the other stuff done, I figure new shocks are in order. I've replaced EVERYTHING related to the suspension on my BMW (springs, shocks/struts, all mounts and bushing,sway bars, ball joints...) So DIYing the Sport Trac shouldn't be too bad. What supporting components should I look to adress? What wears out on these trucks ? What shocks are recommended for a high quality, heavy duty OEM replacement ?
Thank you all in advance.
Let me first say how extremely pleased I am to have found this forum! I was unaware that the Explorer and derivatives like my Sport Trac had such an active enthusiast base.
My father in law gave me the truck last week, after realizing how little he could get on a trade in, and how much it would cost to ship cross country. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with an awesome free truck. It's a 2004 Sport Trac XLT, pretty nicely optioned in my opinion with the sliding rear window, moonroof, lockable bed cover ect.
It has a few flaws, most notably the leading edge of the hood.
It was driven repeatedly into the back wall of his garage and never fixed properly.
Other than the hood damage, the truck has sat for months, and generally been ignored and slightly neglected. On the bright side of things, it only has 51k miles on it.
My plan as of now its to get the maintenance up to date and go from there. All fluids, filters, change the belts, tune up ect.
I have a couple questions regarding that and was hoping I could be pointed to some threads or DIY instructions.
Transmission: What is the service interval? At 51k, I am assuming that the fluid is original and overdue for a change. Fluid recommendations, DIY instructions? I haven't dropped a pan on an automatic trans in over a decade, so the more detailed, the better.
Is Seafoam in the engine oil slightly prior to an oil change a good idea on these motors ?
Any known points of failure or weak spots I should immediately address ?
Suspension: It feels a little bouncy over bumps, so once I get the other stuff done, I figure new shocks are in order. I've replaced EVERYTHING related to the suspension on my BMW (springs, shocks/struts, all mounts and bushing,sway bars, ball joints...) So DIYing the Sport Trac shouldn't be too bad. What supporting components should I look to adress? What wears out on these trucks ? What shocks are recommended for a high quality, heavy duty OEM replacement ?
Thank you all in advance.
