New to me 04 XLT or glutten for punishment

[Al Steel]

Ok well I guess 3rd time is a charm. I've had a love/hate relationship with an 08 Exp but I've found that they really fit my family's lifestyle. So after totalling #1 avoiding a deer and striking out on #2 (read the sad sorrid tale here: Never trust OfferUp listings), I finally found a local 04 XLT that was in my price range. Pics to come.

Here's the good:
- Silver 04 XLT 4WD w/ 240k on the clock
- 5.4L that purrs
- New brakes, shocks, tires, AC clutch and other stuff.
- Fairly well maintained
- Interior in fair shape. Clean
- No accidents and some minor exterior blemishes, but cleans up well
- Almost all electronic stuff works
- Decent aftermarket stereo with Bluetooth
- Frame is solid, very little surface rust

the bad:
- Cruise control doesn't work.
- Growling noise from front diff that I need to diagnose. PO said he took it to a shop and that it needed a front diff BUT I don't think it is that bad yet. Gotta do some digging. Leaking a little from the pinion shaft seal.
- Passenger side Rear defroster electrical cable is hanging loose. Broken off at the solder joint.
- Dreaded "clicking" noise from the passenger rear when rear climate control is on.

the ugly:
- Kick panel rust-through... grrr.. it's not severe but it's not pretty either. Going to need to be fixed before it gets real bad.
- Front Driver's side frame has a split about 6" long where it looks like it bottomed out on something. Superficial but might need a patch.
- Badly faded trim panels. Definitely going to paint them but that's way down the list.
- Body mount rot.. can't believe I missed this one pre-purchase. Da%$it FORD! 100+ years of making cars and you can't get one of the simplest parts of the vehicle right? ***?! I have an '01 HONDA with ZERO rust underneath... do the Japanese know something about metallurgy that Ford doesn't??? *sighs*... Zennnnn.... breathe in.. breathe out.. ok... The front body mounts are rusting... BAD. Flaking and deteriorating. The others aren't far behind. Not to the point of failure yet but well on their way. Any suggestions on how to band-aid them (aka. Stop rust sprays, paints, goops)? I'm sure the fronts will need replacing in the next year or so if it's not addressed.

That's about it. Any suggestions or tips on how to address anything I mentioned above is greatly appreciated. Planning to rig it out a bit. Maybe a bull/brush guard, LED lights, roof gear rack, etc. Thanks all.

EDIT: Pics added. That lower trim panel is getting painted black ASAP!

 

[Hamfisted]

The rear actuators are pretty straight forward replacements. The cruise control not working can be either the deactivation switch on the brake pedal, or the switches there on the steering wheel themselves. I would replace the deactivation switch first, it's $10 on Amazon and a 5 minute job. A quarter turn counterclockwise releases it from the bracket. But it's high failure item and kills the whole system. To test the switches hold down the OFF button and turn the ignition to ON. Run through the rest of the buttons ON, COAST, SET, you should get a flash of the green cruise control icon there in the upper right corner of the instrument cluster after each button press. If you only get a green icon after the OFF button, the deactivation switch is bad.














Motorcraft SW5957 Deactivation Switch on Amazon







.

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[Al Steel]

Thanks for that. I get nothing on the dash, no cruise light, during the test so I'm guessing the deactivation switch then?

 

[Al Steel]

Ok.. read up a little more on the CC button test and I didn't know you had to be super quick during the test, hit all buttons in less than a second! Got a light on all button presses so the buttons are good at least.

 

[Al Steel]

Part of my standard new-to-me to-do items is to swap all fluids. Coolant went out yesterday because the old coolant looked deceptively clean, but the bottle was so covered with rusty sediment residue that I couldn't read the level. Pointed to a neglected cooling system. Drained, the coolant coming out looked ok but a little brownish at the beginning, again pointing to a neglected cooling system and a recent coolant change. Flushed with the hose, pulled the bottle and rinsed it out the best I could with high pressure hose and CLR. Really cleaned it up good, chunks of calcium deposits were in the bottom of the tank. Refilled with distilled and Prestone flush. Drove around for about 30mins, drained. Clear went in, brown water came out. I was going to do a second flush round but not enough time. Refilled with Prestone All-Vehicle and distilled to 50/50. Looks MUCH better now and at least I can read the level on the bottle. I KNOW I ran tap water in it, but I drained it, topped with distilled and the flush chemical, then drained it again. Pretty confident it's either all out, or so little remained that it wouldn't create a problem.

Just goes to show that just because the fluid that is in there looks good, doesn't mean that everything IS good. The dirty bottle is a clue that the PO wasn't exactly on top of good maintenance practices and makes me wonder if the radiator, core, pump, etc might hold a few surprises later.

NOTE: Both drains only got me about 4 gals out of a 5.6 gallon (at least on paper) system, even though I propped up the passenger side on a ramp to get any trapped fluid. I'm assuming to get it all I would have to take out the block drain plug, wasn't quite up to that task so I will inspect and flush again if necessary over the next few months.

Clear water and flush went in and THIS came out 30 mins of driving later... ew..

 

[Hamfisted]

Yeah, if you don't do a chemical flush about every 5 years you end up with a lot of rust, scale, sediment throughout the system. If you had that much scale in the bottom of the reservoir I'm willing to bet it has never been chemically flushed. But good job on your part. On to the next project. Make sure you inspect the roof rack track for possible rust in the roof under the track. Water will run down from there and into the rockers and sit till they rust out.