Hbar Moustache
New Member
Hello Guys,
First time poster here. I like the site; lots of good info here. I'm thinking about buying an 05 Expedition XLT, and was looking for some general opinions. I've done a lot of reading on the 2nd gen Expeditions (also read the sticky thread here on what to look for when buying).
The subject vehicle has 179,000 'highway' miles and is in decent shape. There are a couple of minor things wrong with it that I'm not really worried about (one rear window doesn't operate, etc). The truck starts and idles fine. The transmission feels good. No leaks anywhere; oil and coolant look fine. Good tires, no suspension noise. A/c was cold.
It drives okay if you don't give it lots of gas, but if you get on it, it stumbles and hesitates. I took it on the highway and gunned it, and it got up to about4,000 rpm and kind of held there for a while (a couple of seconds) at around 60 mph with my foot still to the floor. It didn't really want to accelerate anymore (the transmission wasn't slipping..the motor just didn't really want to build RPM). After a couple of seconds, it accelerated past 60. The CEL came on intermittently while it was stumbling, but then it goes off after you let off the gas. It seems to me like it needs a tune up, probably 8 new coils, new plugs, maybe an air and a fuel filter. The air filter was dirty, so it doesn't look like they have even tried to chase the problem down and fix it.
The guy is asking 6,500 for it; his bottom dollar is 5,500. I ran an autocheck on it and that came back good. It supposedly is a 1 owner.
Does it sound like something more serious than just plugs and coils? I am inclined to take the risk, buy it for 5500 and give it a tune-up, see if I can fix it. Any opinions? Will the 5.4 give me good service past 179,000 miles, assuming it was reasonably maintained in the past?
Edit: I am getting scared, reading about the spark plug breakage problems with the 3v heads. For all I know, the plugs have never been changed in this truck.
Thanks for the input.
First time poster here. I like the site; lots of good info here. I'm thinking about buying an 05 Expedition XLT, and was looking for some general opinions. I've done a lot of reading on the 2nd gen Expeditions (also read the sticky thread here on what to look for when buying).
The subject vehicle has 179,000 'highway' miles and is in decent shape. There are a couple of minor things wrong with it that I'm not really worried about (one rear window doesn't operate, etc). The truck starts and idles fine. The transmission feels good. No leaks anywhere; oil and coolant look fine. Good tires, no suspension noise. A/c was cold.
It drives okay if you don't give it lots of gas, but if you get on it, it stumbles and hesitates. I took it on the highway and gunned it, and it got up to about4,000 rpm and kind of held there for a while (a couple of seconds) at around 60 mph with my foot still to the floor. It didn't really want to accelerate anymore (the transmission wasn't slipping..the motor just didn't really want to build RPM). After a couple of seconds, it accelerated past 60. The CEL came on intermittently while it was stumbling, but then it goes off after you let off the gas. It seems to me like it needs a tune up, probably 8 new coils, new plugs, maybe an air and a fuel filter. The air filter was dirty, so it doesn't look like they have even tried to chase the problem down and fix it.
The guy is asking 6,500 for it; his bottom dollar is 5,500. I ran an autocheck on it and that came back good. It supposedly is a 1 owner.
Does it sound like something more serious than just plugs and coils? I am inclined to take the risk, buy it for 5500 and give it a tune-up, see if I can fix it. Any opinions? Will the 5.4 give me good service past 179,000 miles, assuming it was reasonably maintained in the past?
Edit: I am getting scared, reading about the spark plug breakage problems with the 3v heads. For all I know, the plugs have never been changed in this truck.
Thanks for the input.
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