Im looking to purchase a truck. Wondering what all you guys check and how much. Its a expedition so I would love for the tranny and 4 wheel drive to be checked as well if possible
What year? Mileage?
I can tell you that 2004 (ish) have ‘issues’ with Ball joints around 40k. It is just not a robust design. They are easy to change but, it is something you think would have been made better over the years.
Overall they are great SUVs. I would just look at the maintenace items to be sure they are “good for the price.” Obviously if you are paying a few thousand you won’t get a top notch SUV. But, if you are +$5,000 I would expect good brakes, tires, tie rods, struts/shocks, battery, belts, etc…
Personally, look at it during the day. You miss so much stuff at night viewings. Bring a flash light anyways to really look at some important areas. You are not getting a show truck so just make sure it is safe to drive and that all things that should be “up to code” for the price, are.
Also, take it for a drive…make sure there are no major knocks at cold start up that “go away” once it is warm. Get it up to the speed you will be driving at most of the time. Make sure it is aligned and doesn’t have any major issues.
This is more that there are thousands of explorers out there for sale right now. Don’t settle for a POS…
My $0.02…good luck.
2001 with 119k on it. It’s advertised at $4700 OBO. I’m not looking for it to be perfect. Just looking to have it for a season or 2. don’t want to buy it and a week later the transmission falls out of it. This is one reason why I stopped looking at explorers. Thanks for the info Luke
I can tell you from when I used to be a grease monkey a lot of these had sealed transmissions, I do not remember the cut off year, but no one EVER serviced them, the fluid probably looks like poo, make sure there are service records, I also highly doubt the diffs would have ever been serviced neither
My best answer to your question is we check as much or as little as the customer wants. When it’s a vehicle we’re extremely familiar with we know all the little quirks too look for aside from general safety concerns etc. An Expedition isn’t something we specialize in, but we can can give it a general look over. Give us a ring to set this up if interested. 716-873-7360.