What to look for...?

[AtTheDriveIn]

Welp fate has led me to an Explorer again.

Let me start off by saying Ford Explorers have been a part of my life since November of 1992 when my parents bought a new Forest Green 1993 Explorer XLT and then a Red 1998 Explorer XLT new after the tires separated on the 93 and my dad rolled it. (Thanks Firestone.) I swear I spent about a third of my childhood in an Explorer, seeing all of America while our Explorer(s) faithfully took us where we needed. The '98 was the only vehicle to endure my mother's psychotic, insanely aggressive driving, took me to my first date with my now wife and started right up after sitting for over two years in my mother's yard ..and then faithfully gave me and my wife 15,000 reliable miles for almost a year until I decided to sell it last year.

Well I need something that has four wheel drive, can tow stuff, haul stuff, is reliable and takes a s&%t on snow lol so I want another explorer. I found a 1993 with 160,000 miles on it on craigslist that's been adult owned for $800. It runs,drives,starts,stops, all power options work, door handles work and has only a little bit of rust around the wheel wells.

I know these trucks had problems with transmissions so I was wondering if there's any tests/checks I can do to make sure there's no problems with it?

Also is there anything else I should look at in particular when I'm checking this truck out?

Thanks in advance!

 

[vq5speed]

I've had my 91 since 94. I would do a oil change new plugs maybe new spark wires too. If the tranny seem to shift ok you could do a oil and filter change. Hopefully the front shaft seal hasn't hardened from sitting. That could start leaking when the tranny get up to temp. When my X sat for 6 years I had to replace my front seal. Its a big pain to drop the tranny to replace a $4.00 part.

 

[AtTheDriveIn]

I've had my 91 since 94. I would do a oil change new plugs maybe new spark wires too. If the tranny seem to shift ok you could do a oil and filter change. Hopefully the front shaft seal hasn't hardened from sitting. That could start leaking when the tranny get up to temp. When my X sat for 6 years I had to replace my front seal. Its a big pain to drop the tranny to replace a $4.00 part.

Nah the Explorer I'm going to buy hasn't sat. It was my '98 that sat and boy was everything rusted on it lol.

 

[larrydd999]

We've had our 92 XLT since new. I just had about $2800 worth of work done on it (it has about 210,000 miles on it, 60,000 on a rebuilt engine) since we intend to keep it as long as we can. Most of the recent work was to fix engine oil leaks, but part was front brakes and part was radius arm bushings. As with any relatively high mileage used vehicle you'll likely have repairs to make sooner rather than later, but as long as you like the vehicle I believe it's cheaper in the long run to keep rather than buy new every few years. BTW, the transmission in our 92 is original and strong, although I've seen CL Gen1's with bad transmissions at under 150,000 so who knows?

 

[AtTheDriveIn]

We've had our 92 XLT since new. I just had about $2800 worth of work done on it (it has about 210,000 miles on it, 60,000 on a rebuilt engine) since we intend to keep it as long as we can. Most of the recent work was to fix engine oil leaks, but part was front brakes and part was radius arm bushings. As with any relatively high mileage used vehicle you'll likely have repairs to make sooner rather than later, but as long as you like the vehicle I believe it's cheaper in the long run to keep rather than buy new every few years. BTW, the transmission in our 92 is original and strong, although I've seen CL Gen1's with bad transmissions at under 150,000 so who knows?

Exactly. Transmissions rarely ever go on Volvo 240s but guess what? It's going on the 240 I'm driving now and I've owned 10 of them in my lifetime and never had a problem with trannies on them. He says it runs strong and drives strong and doesn't leak any fluids. To me that's a huge selling point since almost every older car leaks some form of fluid. To me it sounds like it's been maintained for a good portion of its life which speaks volumes to how long it will last for me. I'm going this Sunday so I'll keep everyone posted.