EasyRhino
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- March 25, 2001
- Messages
- 1,021
- Reaction score
- 3
- City, State
- Kailua, Hawai'i
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '02 Limited 4.6L 4x4
Trying to play catch up on some overdue minor maintenance on the 2002 4.6L V8 AWD Ex Limited at 111K miles owned since new in May 2002. Observations:
Replaced the original fan belt although the old belt looked as good as new once removed and inspected. Not a bad job, as I already had the upper fan shrould and clutch fan removed for access and inspection; however, I could not find a way to wind the new belt around the tensioner pulley without loosening (not necessary to remove entirely) the bolts that hold the tensioner to the block in order to slip the belt under the area between the tensioner pulley and timing chain cover.
With the belt removed I checked the idler pulleys for bearing wear (had this problem on my '97 Ex) I did check them with an automotive stethescope first, and all had good bearings; however, the grooved pulley on the driver's side, whose bearing was fine, wobbled a few thousands on the mouting stub which attaches to the timing chain cover. I reassembled it for now, but am concerned about its long-term reliability - noting that the mounting stub shows some very slight signs of galling.
Replaced the original spark plugs although the old plugs looked and gapped within spec. Not as bad of a job as expected, although moving the fuel rails out of the way was somewhat tedious. I DID NOT follow the Haynes manual advice to pull everthing off of the top of the engine. The passenger side plugs appeared to be burning a slightly leaner mixture than the driver's side plugs, but at 111K accumulated miles, the difference was too slight to get concerned about IMO.
Flushed the coolant even though the color and specific gravity appeared good, using the Prestone back-flushing adapter kit. This is an area where I have been remiss on refreshing the coolant in a timely manner but I may be okay anyway. The old thermostat looked brand new with no corrosion or deposits, and the water pump showed no shaft seal weepage. I do have one heater return pipe "T" with salt deposits accumualting indicative of a pinhole leak, so I will be watching this and planning replacement. All of the cooling system hoses looked very good, as did the radiator and heater control valve, so I will defer their replacement for now.
Other random observations:
The front lip of my hood and the top of the radiator support bracket (painted to match the hood) are beginning to show some pretty noticable corrosion (the iron contamination on aluminum issue). I intend to remove the loose flakes, touch-up paint it to slow additional corrosion to some extent, and install a bug defector to hide it for now - and probably forever.
The PCV valve (which I could not "find" before) is very conveniently located in the center of the passenger's side valve/cam cover and is easily removable by hand, contrary to what I had previously and erroniously concluded from some posts here (my mis read, I'm sure) that it was hard to find and had an electrical hook-up to it. Also, as it turns out, the part supplied by the local Ford dealer parts counter was a mismatch.
Finally, the rubber nipple that connects the vacuum tubing from the driver's side valve/cam cover is badly embrittled requiring replacement in the near future to prevent a vacuum leak.
All in all, a pretty positive report for a marginally undermaintained 2002 Ex with 111K miles.
The tranny is a different story - will have a follow up post on that in the not-too distant future.
Have a Happy New Year!
Replaced the original fan belt although the old belt looked as good as new once removed and inspected. Not a bad job, as I already had the upper fan shrould and clutch fan removed for access and inspection; however, I could not find a way to wind the new belt around the tensioner pulley without loosening (not necessary to remove entirely) the bolts that hold the tensioner to the block in order to slip the belt under the area between the tensioner pulley and timing chain cover.
With the belt removed I checked the idler pulleys for bearing wear (had this problem on my '97 Ex) I did check them with an automotive stethescope first, and all had good bearings; however, the grooved pulley on the driver's side, whose bearing was fine, wobbled a few thousands on the mouting stub which attaches to the timing chain cover. I reassembled it for now, but am concerned about its long-term reliability - noting that the mounting stub shows some very slight signs of galling.
Replaced the original spark plugs although the old plugs looked and gapped within spec. Not as bad of a job as expected, although moving the fuel rails out of the way was somewhat tedious. I DID NOT follow the Haynes manual advice to pull everthing off of the top of the engine. The passenger side plugs appeared to be burning a slightly leaner mixture than the driver's side plugs, but at 111K accumulated miles, the difference was too slight to get concerned about IMO.
Flushed the coolant even though the color and specific gravity appeared good, using the Prestone back-flushing adapter kit. This is an area where I have been remiss on refreshing the coolant in a timely manner but I may be okay anyway. The old thermostat looked brand new with no corrosion or deposits, and the water pump showed no shaft seal weepage. I do have one heater return pipe "T" with salt deposits accumualting indicative of a pinhole leak, so I will be watching this and planning replacement. All of the cooling system hoses looked very good, as did the radiator and heater control valve, so I will defer their replacement for now.
Other random observations:
The front lip of my hood and the top of the radiator support bracket (painted to match the hood) are beginning to show some pretty noticable corrosion (the iron contamination on aluminum issue). I intend to remove the loose flakes, touch-up paint it to slow additional corrosion to some extent, and install a bug defector to hide it for now - and probably forever.
The PCV valve (which I could not "find" before) is very conveniently located in the center of the passenger's side valve/cam cover and is easily removable by hand, contrary to what I had previously and erroniously concluded from some posts here (my mis read, I'm sure) that it was hard to find and had an electrical hook-up to it. Also, as it turns out, the part supplied by the local Ford dealer parts counter was a mismatch.
Finally, the rubber nipple that connects the vacuum tubing from the driver's side valve/cam cover is badly embrittled requiring replacement in the near future to prevent a vacuum leak.
All in all, a pretty positive report for a marginally undermaintained 2002 Ex with 111K miles.
The tranny is a different story - will have a follow up post on that in the not-too distant future.
Have a Happy New Year!
