roosterk0031:
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My boss has had 2 Tacoma frame failures, first one 1999? just after he gave it to his son, son took into Toyota for something and they found out about the frame rot, was about 30 days from being too old and wouldn't have been covered. Boss paid $5k, kid got $12k. His current 2005? had the frame replaced last fall.
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Sounds like they "won the warranty lottery" on those.
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Had a 94 explorer it was OK, had to replace factory auto hubs with some Warns. If I could find and 00 or 01 might be a good one to replace the Stratus for my 17 yo and I can use it on weekends. Wife got a Rogue instead of the Grand Vitara Saturday don't think she's going to let me use it on weekends for deer hunting. I've had a deer in the truck of the cobalt before so might again this weekend.
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Well, I bit the bullet and put down a deposit on a 2000 Ford Explorer XLS with the "X" code older style OHV 4.0 V6 (not the newer SOHC), 4wd (Auto, 4Hi, 4Lo modes) and a 5-speed manual transmission. 149k miles. Decent green color with a few scratches here and there, very clean light tan/beige cloth interior, no busted things inside, no busted things outside (other than non-functional aftermarket fog lights), and generally great condition for a Minnesota truck. Rust is just showing on the upper rear wheelwells (cracks, minor bubble - can be fixed and covered with fender flares relatively easily) plus a few door inside bottoms and the back-side of the rocker panels. No serious or visible holes anywhere on the body - floors are good, just getting some edge corrosion on the various welded-on reinforcement panels you can see from underneath. Frame is solid, a decent patina of fine-grained rust over all of it. All doors open and close well, though the power lock on the driver door gets sticky when cold. "Dances" a bit over bumps in the road, so I suspect shocks and/or swaybar links/bushings, and/or cranked torsion bars and pumped up rear air-lift shocks.
Known issues: needs tires (getting an appointment shortly for some General Grabber HTS's, they seem to be a decent compromise between ability and price), and the parking brake does not hold. Also a crack in the windshield but I think I'm going to let Winter go by a while before getting it replaced. Has a rotted out driver's rear spring shackle, but there's enough meat to drive on without issue for a while. The "rocker arm" or "lifter" tic is there on cold start if it hasn't been driven in a while, but with up to a few days between starts it is not present. (These engines have poor oiling to the rocker arm/pushrod interface, so they wear out over time. When the hydraulic lifters can no longer make up the difference, it tics. Ditto when the lifters bleed down.)
I've been getting estimates from a so-far-proven-to-be-good local mechanic (my usual mechanic is too far away and keeps making noises about retiring...) and I keep forgetting how much quality labor costs. The point of this truck is partly to get me back in the garage and working on a rig, so I think I'll use those estimates as a goad to do more DIY. If I can swap shocks, leaf springs, axles, shackles, shackle bushings, etc, on an FJ40 I should be able to do basic work on this Explorer. Apparently these things are known for valve cover leaks, so that may be where the oil is going - I'll need to clean it off and check, maybe add some UV dye.
What sub-forum would be good for a "I got this, I'm gonna build it!" thread?
Thanks for all the info!