2007 Explorer: Frat Boy Edition

[davej]

Or Eddie Bauer, as the Ford marketing people tried to call it. 

This fell into my lap for cheap from a coworker right about the time things were getting serious with the RS6 buyer; so I figured why not. it'll bridge the gap until something new catches my eye. 
It's been nice having 2 - 3 row vehicles when hauling a family that could field our own ice hockey team around. 

The truck? car? idk, they call it a ranger based vehicle, so whatever that means, has a solid amount of creature comforts from a 12 year old vehicle. 
Has the 4.6L 3 valve mustang engine, and push button 4WD. 


it had just turned 150k when I got it, the transmission shifts hard sometimes, but not slipping yet. There is a lovely engine tick which I've at least ruled out cam phasers and broken header stud/exhaust leak, and kind of leaning towards a stuck cam follower/roller thing. It did get quieter with an oil change and I'll probably still try to poke at it here and there, but most likely just gonna send it. 

https://vimeo.com/347371378

It's coming up on 155k, so I'm open to any and all suggestions of oil weights and snake oil additives to try. I did toss a can of sea foam into the intake when I first got the car, but that didn't seem to do much for the noise. 

Other minor things wrong: 
  - The automatic running boards are mostly seized, but the motors run every time you open the door. I just disabled them in the down position from the OBC
  - P0420 Code for a bad cat on the passenger side
  - Driver window didn't work (turned out to be a broken wire at the regulator, easy enough to fix)
  - Driver side motor for raising/lowering 3rd row has stripped gears, apparently a common issue with the plastic gears, and of course there's not a manual override to lift the seat.  
  - The head unit display was out. I finally pulled that and re-soldered a few of the connectors per youtube, and tada!

[Senor_Taylor]

Most pics don't work.

Every Po420 I've had was an AF sensor, not the cat.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[JPolen01]

Photos in the minibike thread worked earlier on my PC but they are borked in that thread and this one on mobile.

[ScottyB]

FWIW, my brother in law took their 2004 Exploder 2WD V6 to the scrapper just last year. 330,000 hard atlanta miles, and who even knows how many hours it sat idling with the A/C blasting (he's a private investigator). i have literally no idea how it managed to get through the final 100k, considering how much it was leaking *everything* and had quite a few unusual noises. they're the "only pay for stuff if its broken" kinda people so maintenance was minimal at best. finally went to start it one day and it just seized up. i was impressed.

from what i know about the 3V they have tensioners that like to get loosy goosy after a while.

i think they spec a 5W-20 for it? i'd run a high mileage oil blend and see if the additional detergents/seal swelling additives help with any noise.

[Jake]

Images borked for me too.

Sounds like a good enough beater for the moment! I would probably turn the radio up louder to fix the engine noise. If it has the 5-speed auto, it's the same as what my uncle's Ranger had. His would shift firm and then slip once the fluid got hot, and I fixed it for the most part with a drain and fill - and new filter. That truck had 214k when I sold it so you can eke some life out of that trans, if you get ahead of it.

[davej]

Photos should be better now, I wish google photos hadn't removed the direct link ability. Anyone know an easy work around?

Yeah, it's a nice beater and I'm loving not having to worry about where I park or throwing 400#'s of retaining blocks in the back.
I failed to mention I had the shady shop that did the inspection drain/fill/filter the transmission, I picked it up after hours though and never talked to anyone about it. It'd probably be worth checking the fluid level.

I was digging the oil drain plug as it has a little shield to prevent the oil from splashing all but quickly found out as you back the bolt out the wrench gets stuck against the shield before it's out, that was using a 3/8th and regular sized socket. Perhaps someone replaced it with a longer bolt at some point?

[rherold9]