Need Advice Before Buying Explorer

Aug 17, 2005 2 Replies
C

I need a vehicle for occasional trips on rough dirt/gravel roads and dealing with some mud and maybe fording less than a foot of water. I'm not going to be doing any off-road stuff, just dusty washboard/potholes and rocks on rough roads, and trying not to get stuck in soft spots. I won't be putting a lot of miles on it, it'll be a secondary vehicle.



I'm a big, tall guy, so the Explorer seemed like a good choice, and lots of them are for sale locally, I guess due to the surge in gas prices.



Does the Explorer seem like a good choice for this kind of use?



What years, '98 and earlier should I look at or avoid? Is the 4.0 SOHC engine a lot better than the older one? I don't need a lot of power, but I do want reliability and fuel economy. How about the transmissions, any recomendations?



I'd appreciate any Explorer-specific buying tips.



-Paul



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U

My wife and I do that kind of driving in '91 and '92 Explorers. There have been times when we were just about the only people who made it down the road, passing multitudes of stuck vehicles. There was one guy with a new F250 4WD that also made it easily. My wife managed to get stuck once but she would have made it if she's just been going a bit faster. I easily pulled her out with my '91. The only time my '91 got stuck was when I was driving along a deep rut and the ground collapsed beneath me and all 4 wheels were off the ground. As long as 3 wheels can get traction it'll go just about anywhere.

The original (91-94) Explorers have a high rate of automatic transmission failure around 175K miles or so and the autohubs fail too. If you decide to get one I suggest you find one that has already had the transmission replaced/rebuilt and has Warn manual locking hubs. The 4WD servo motors have a tendancy to get stuck and the front differential won't engage but it's only been a matter of fiddleing around with it to get it to work again (for me anyway).

The 4.0 V6 that's in both of them has been a very good engine with few problems. I'm not sure what the letter designation is for it but it might be OHC. Right now it's looking like the '92's engine may be wore out at

280K miles. My '91 has about 198K miles and it still runs great.
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C

Thanks, that's just the kind of info I need.

-Paul

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