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Ford Explorer Maintenance and Repair

6385 messages,  Last post on May 05, 2013 at 7:47 AM

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What is this discussion about? Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer

    

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Messages Page 184 of 639

#1829 of 6385 Cracked Heads & WIres by bigalds

Mar 23, 2003 (6:48 pm)

Stubborn1:
About the cracked heads, I had a 1991 Ford Explorer with the 4.0L OHV engine, which I bought in Sept 1998 with 120K. My wife and I drove it until Jan 2003 with 165K, we drove it 44,000 miles in 4 1/2 years, NO engine problems at all. It DID need a transmission.
I am currently driving a 1993 Ford Explorer with the 4.0L OHV engine, which I bought in April 1999 with 112K. It now has 167K on it in, drove it 55k in 4 years with NO engine problems. Of course, I take exceptional care of them, and never let them run hot. I converted each vehicle to the new 134A refrigerant and added a new electric pusher fan in front of the radiator with a thermostatic control switch. Temp gauge never goes over 1/4. An engine that overheats never lasts very long. Keep it cool.
 
Cheech2:
About the Spark Plug wire and missing, Remove and check plugs. If worn replace with new, gap plug at .040", this will make your wires last MUCH longer. I do this with all my cars and I never have to replace the spark plug wires. The 2 explorers I mentioned above, have the same wires in them as when I bought them, and run perfectly. And the wires where not new in either of those vehicles. If your wires are already bad, replace them now. You can test them by lightly spraying them with water with engine idling, while in a darkened garage of at night. Careful not to get shocked. Look and listen for any changes in the engine rpm, engine smoothness or roughness or any visible sparks. Any of this would require the wires be replaced.

#1830 of 6385 theaslip and '02 Trans problem by gregb5

Mar 24, 2003 (8:13 am)

I had a similar problem with mine. It would not engage any gear at idle. If you rev the engine slightly it may engage, but it will THUNK! so don't rev too much.
Get it back to the dealer; yours is not the first to have the problem. I am surprised that a more recent build date would still have the problem. Mine was built in late May '01. Mine eventualy got a new transmission.
Good luck!

#1832 of 6385 Vibration Problems by jecouey

Mar 25, 2003 (8:12 am)

I have a new 2003 Ford Explorer NBX with less than 6,000 miles on it.
 
About three weeks ago, I noticed what I call a lateral vibration at 60-65 mph that only gets worse the faster I go (the freeway speed is 75 mph here). I think it might be an engine problem in that the engine sounds a little "rough". The wheel weights are all there and there is no unusual wear on the tire treads.
 
I have it into the dealer now, so we will see what they say today.
 
These message board if very informative/interesting.

#1833 of 6385 jecouey by alman08

Mar 25, 2003 (1:13 pm)

Please let me know what the dealer has said about your car. I have an 02 XLT 4wd with 3200 miles on it, and I heard that 3 times in the past when was on the freeway going at 65-75... noise would be gone when I lifted my foot of the accelerator. Since it did not happen all the time, I did not bring it to the dealer. Thanks

#1834 of 6385 Re: vibration by heintz1

Mar 25, 2003 (5:05 pm)

If the problem remains unsolved, consider having the tires road-force balanced. In fact, I'm now convinced that anytime I place new tires on my truck, I'll have them road-forced balanced at the time of installation, and I don't mind spending the extra money to have things done right.

#1835 of 6385 that's a new one to me, heintz1 by swschrad

Mar 25, 2003 (8:55 pm)

what makes road-force balancing different from spin balancing? are the tires under load?

#1836 of 6385 Vibration Problem by jecouey

Mar 26, 2003 (6:51 am)

Well, the dealer said the vibration at 60-65 mph was caused by the wheels being unbalanced due to dried mud on the wheels. They took the mud out and rebalanced all wheels. The vibration did go away. We do live in an area where lots of the local roads are not paved with asphalt or gravel (i.e., northwest NM), so this is not as hokey as it sounds, and again, the vibration did go away.
 
But our Explorer still runs a little rough, especially when idling. The dealer said Ford was aware this is a problem on a lot of 2003 Explorers, but has not, and probably will not, do anything about it. I was reading the NM lemon laws yesterday before I went to pick up our Explorer, and when talking to the dealer, I noticed they were very cafeful in their wording to me how this rough idling issue did not affect operation and performance.
 
To the person who wrote about roughness when accelerating, maybe a higher grade of gasoline would help. I am not an expert, but you might give it a try for a tank or two. I used to have a Subaru that ran rough when I tried to accelerate aggressively (e.g., it almost knocked), but that went away when I used a higher octane (especially more demanding situations like mountain driving).

#1837 of 6385 Re: road-force balancing by heintz1

Mar 26, 2003 (3:57 pm)

I'm not mechanically inclined, but as I understand it, road-force balancing involves a rather expensive road-force balancing machine which essentially places a properly inflated tire under a weight and road-force load similar to actual road conditions as it spins on the machine. Now, no tire or rim is perfectly round (think about rolling an egg end-over-end), and I seem to recall that what a road-force balancer and a well trained technician can accomplish is a fairly accurate detection of high and low spots on a mounted tire/rim, which I believe are at least partly identified by pressure spikes and dips as the wheel spins under a road-force load or pressure. The technician then marks the HIGH spots on a given tire, as well as any LOW spots on its rim, and the tire is then remounted on its rim in such a way that the high spot on the tire is now centered directly over the most closely matching low spot on the rim, with the end result being that each wheel is thus effectively made more "round" and smoother riding overall, compared to more simple and less sophisticated tire balancing methods. My dealer charges ~$65.00 for road-force balancing of all four tires, which is not bad when you consider that the machine allegedly costs about $10,000.00 (plus technician training), and this is why many dealerships and shops don't offer this service. Thus, even if your vehicle rides smoothly, chances are that it will ride even better if the tires are road-force balanced, and if you do have difficult-to-solve vibrations at higher speeds, road-force balancing should be considered. One downside is that if a tire needs to be remounted at a later time, then it's road-force balancing should probably be repeated.

#1838 of 6385 OK that makes sense, heintz1 by swschrad

Mar 27, 2003 (1:29 am)

at least they don't have to weigh the lug nuts

Messages Page 184 of 639

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