gcsprayjr
Member
Hi,
We are Betty and Charles from the Smoky Mountains. We are both nurses, and have to get to work in any sort of weather. We purchased our 2001 Expedition XLT AWD in 2008 to use as a winter vehicle. It replaced an 87 Dodge Ramcharger 4x4 that was used up. The Expy was a one owner garage baby with 77K miles on it. The vehicle currently has 100,200K miles on it, and still looks pristine on the inside and out. The paint is near perfect, and the vehicle has never needed any body work done. My baby is a 2002 F-350 CC, Dually, 7.3PS with a six-speed stick and 4x4. I bought the F-350 new and it currently has 49K miles on it. The Expedition was purchased to prevent the F-350 from being driving on salted roads. We did not count on liking the Expy as well as we do. In addition to its duties as a winter beater, we often drive it on trips.
The problems we have had with the Expy in 5 years and 23K miles have been a cracked intake manifold. In 2010 and 89K miles the water jacket cracked and sprayed a fine mist of coolant into one of the coil packs. This shorted out the coil pack and caused a skip. The leak was so fine that there was no fluid on the ground or in the parking spot in the garage. While the dealer replaced the intake, they did the 100K tuneup. That saved me the labor charges to do the work in 10K more miles.
After we purchased the vehicle we noticed that it has zero engine braking on hills. Even with the OD button off and gearing down the engine stays at idle speed, and the vehicle freewheels down the hill. Touch the gas and the transmission engages and begins to pull normally. A local transmission shop diagnosed the problem as a worn coast clutch. The transmission shifts perfect, and has no other problems. A full rebuild will be necessary in the future, however I am putting that off as long as possible.
The last few weeks the vehicle has failed to start a couple of times. I took it to the dealer, who kept it for 2 weeks. It started every day for them. Finally I went and picked it up, and figured that I would drive it locallly until it acted up again. After a week of running flawlessly, I foolishly drove it 35 miles to another town. Of course, it would not start when I was ready to come home. So we called a wrecker, and it rode back to the dealer on a rollback. The dealer finally pinpointed the problem. The fuel pump had failed. We are supposed to get it back next week.
As for rust prevention, I pressure wash the undercarriage after each winter storm. Every spring I place the truck on jack stands, pressure wash the chassis and floor pan, scrape and sand any surface rust that has formed over the winter and apply a fresh coat of Rustolium black paint. Open areas are brushed on, and tight spots are sprayed with an old style automotive paint gun. So far this strategy is working. There is no flaking rust, everything is solid and clean. Eventually the rusts Gods will win though.
I keep having thoughts about converting the transmission from an automatic to a manual. I have read a couple of treads on this site where people have done this conversion, and it sounds like a sweet setup. The problem is that I don't have the time, tools, or expertise to do a job this involved. Are there any good shops that will do this conversion? What will be a fair price to pay for this conversion? Thanks.
We are Betty and Charles from the Smoky Mountains. We are both nurses, and have to get to work in any sort of weather. We purchased our 2001 Expedition XLT AWD in 2008 to use as a winter vehicle. It replaced an 87 Dodge Ramcharger 4x4 that was used up. The Expy was a one owner garage baby with 77K miles on it. The vehicle currently has 100,200K miles on it, and still looks pristine on the inside and out. The paint is near perfect, and the vehicle has never needed any body work done. My baby is a 2002 F-350 CC, Dually, 7.3PS with a six-speed stick and 4x4. I bought the F-350 new and it currently has 49K miles on it. The Expedition was purchased to prevent the F-350 from being driving on salted roads. We did not count on liking the Expy as well as we do. In addition to its duties as a winter beater, we often drive it on trips.
The problems we have had with the Expy in 5 years and 23K miles have been a cracked intake manifold. In 2010 and 89K miles the water jacket cracked and sprayed a fine mist of coolant into one of the coil packs. This shorted out the coil pack and caused a skip. The leak was so fine that there was no fluid on the ground or in the parking spot in the garage. While the dealer replaced the intake, they did the 100K tuneup. That saved me the labor charges to do the work in 10K more miles.
After we purchased the vehicle we noticed that it has zero engine braking on hills. Even with the OD button off and gearing down the engine stays at idle speed, and the vehicle freewheels down the hill. Touch the gas and the transmission engages and begins to pull normally. A local transmission shop diagnosed the problem as a worn coast clutch. The transmission shifts perfect, and has no other problems. A full rebuild will be necessary in the future, however I am putting that off as long as possible.
The last few weeks the vehicle has failed to start a couple of times. I took it to the dealer, who kept it for 2 weeks. It started every day for them. Finally I went and picked it up, and figured that I would drive it locallly until it acted up again. After a week of running flawlessly, I foolishly drove it 35 miles to another town. Of course, it would not start when I was ready to come home. So we called a wrecker, and it rode back to the dealer on a rollback. The dealer finally pinpointed the problem. The fuel pump had failed. We are supposed to get it back next week.
As for rust prevention, I pressure wash the undercarriage after each winter storm. Every spring I place the truck on jack stands, pressure wash the chassis and floor pan, scrape and sand any surface rust that has formed over the winter and apply a fresh coat of Rustolium black paint. Open areas are brushed on, and tight spots are sprayed with an old style automotive paint gun. So far this strategy is working. There is no flaking rust, everything is solid and clean. Eventually the rusts Gods will win though.
I keep having thoughts about converting the transmission from an automatic to a manual. I have read a couple of treads on this site where people have done this conversion, and it sounds like a sweet setup. The problem is that I don't have the time, tools, or expertise to do a job this involved. Are there any good shops that will do this conversion? What will be a fair price to pay for this conversion? Thanks.
