piece of crap.

[dwc928s4]

just bought a 2003 expy, and 2 window regulators are shot, front wheel pinions are shot, vent window motor quit working, and i get loud rumble from tire area's when starting out slowly in turns.
I called Dearborn about the windows, they told me they would help paying for these but i had to take the expy to a dealer, which i did. the dealer called Dearborn, and told them there was nothing they could do.
of, course i had bought the 3 year warranty for the drive train, and of course, nothing is covered by this.
Has anybody else had these kind of problems ? And what did you do about it. It seems Dearborn already knows they have a bad design with the regulators, but are not ready to help fix it .

 

[lakmflx]

Did you check out the truck before you bought it? Keep in mind that its a used vehicle and stuff may be messed up cause you have no way of knowing what the previous owner did.

 

[ExpyBob]

I hate to say it but the 03s especially the older ones and some of the 04s (I owned one of those) were nothing but crap.

I have owned 5 Expys and the 07 EL Limited I just bought seems to be the best yet. My 2000 was the best vehicle I ever owned.

We'll see how this measures up.

03 and 04 total crap.

Read the forums.

Bob

 

[dwc928s4]

i did check out the truck, all this happened just after i bought it. The window regulators really got me mad, it was $750 dollars to fix 2 of them, and Dearborn admitted to me that they knew this was a bad design on them. Then they told me they would assist in paying for them if i took it to the dealer to fix. After they were fixed they then said no. it sounds like a gimmick just to get you to a dealership.
I have gotten an attorney on this one, i plan on trying to let the courts get my money from them

 

[Sawyer]

I also bought a 03 expedition Eddie Bauer in October 2006. Ran fine for one week. No WArranty, 85k miles. I had to have catalytic converter, fuel filter, all plugs and coils, alternater, battery replaced and the engine light just came on again! I am going to get it fixed though, I like the car, I think the owner before me just abused her! I am too far into my loan to take a loss on another car. There is over 3oo postings / complaints on the ntsa.org site. Wish I would've got an older model, but my dogs and kids love the car the few days we have drove it. good luck with yours d..

 

[lakmflx]

If your check engine light came on again, take it to autozone and have them check what code it's throwing out, this way you will know exactly what it is and what to fix/replace so that you dont have to dump all this money. I hit 133k yesterday and my biggest problem to date was that i had to replace an alternator and the air suspension pump.

 

[jsbaker]

That's the chance you take when you buy a used vehicle. My ex is in the shop now for the front end, I have had it two months. The day I bought it the engine light came on and then two days later I also had to have all new shocks put on. My Z71 silverado was in there last week for knock sensors and a water pump and i've had it a month and a half. just for the record the ex is not the only thing those crap ass regulators are used in, I have had 3 replaced in my mom's Grand Marquis and my explorer that was wrecked earlier this year needed one. Next time you have one go out try a local glass shop. We had the ones on the Grand Marquis done for $160 a piece when the dealer wanted $160 just for the part. Do Not try to do it yourself, I can tell you from experience it's just not the thing to do.

 

[ELVATO]

Alot of times when mine threw a CEL, it was because of gas somehow splashing up to the cap, and setting off the sensor. I had the cap and the tank replaced and it still kept on doing it.

Ever since I've put tunes in, it hasn't thrown a code since, though. *Knocks on wood*

 

[pronstar]

$750 for 2 window regulators is outrageous.
Is that the dealer price?

We paid less than $300 to have two done on our BMW, including parts. I buy the parts online and pay a shop to do the work. It pays to shop around for labor as well.

 

[jsbaker]

Lets talk about outrageous, I really have to vent here. Took my Ex in last night for the vibration. Was told today the tires are out of round, mind you all of the tires are almost new (probably less than 10,000 on them) and have been checked by Discount tire more than once. They said the ball joint have excessive play and that is causing flexing in the suspension and causing the tire wear. Ok yeah I can believe that. Then they get to the good part, $1250 for 4 balls joints, alignment kit and alignment. Oh yeah lets not forget about the oil change included in that $1250 or the $600 not included in the price for the michelin ltx tires. Told them hell no do the oil change and i'll be there this afternoon to get it. This is not a dealer it's an independent shop by my house, never used them before but they have a good reputation in our area. trying to salavge the job they try to tell me $155 each for the upper control arms since they are all one piece. Yes they are all one piece but I can go to Autozone and get the same thing for $68.99 so I know they have to be paying close to or less than that. Unless they are using ford parts which I doubt the parts should only be about $400 if that. What the hell is wrong with these people?

 

[pronstar]

Originally posted by jsbaker
What the hell is wrong with these people?

I think it coes down to greed.
For every informed customer who refuses to get taken to the cleaners, there are 10 more who have no idea and just drop the coin without question.

IMHO these are the same folks who then trade their cars in every few years "because it's cheaper to get a new car than to keep fixing mine"...without realizing that:
a) 90% of their maintenance costs were't necessary
b) a little bit of preventive maintenance (before things break) is way cheaper than fixing things AFTER they break

In this regard, web forums are great to help inform people.

 

[jsbaker]

I think it is greed. These idiots obivously think I am stupid. I got it back today with an estimate. They were trying to charge me double down to the penny what the parts cost at the local auto supply. I mean $75 for a ball joint and $154 for a control arm is outrageous. To top it off they wanted $502 for labor, I still have not figured out how it all added up to $1251.00 but looks like I will be pulling out the factory service manual and doing it myself.

 

[pronstar]

Originally posted by jsbaker
looks like I will be pulling out the factory service manual and doing it myself.

A service manual will pay for itself many times over. With proper instruction, you'd be surprised how easy many repairs really are.

 

[DaveS1955]

The window regulators on the 03 control the window and the inside door handle. I had the driver's side replaced approx 250.00 at the dealer and the rplacement broke at the door handle and had to be replaced under the parts warranty when the inside door handle flew off.

I am convinced that the reliability of the 2003 Expedition is as good as the Preventive Maintnenace that goes into it. I have had a few problems with mine but nowhere near the problems I have had with GM or others. BTW, my 03 was purchased within the first three months of the model year so I have one of the early ones.

A perfect example is the tires. After I bought my Expedition with Continental tires everyone I talked to said they had to replace the tires before the vehicle had 25,000 miles. I rotated the tires every 5K and balanced every 10K and my orginal tires lasted over 77,000 miles (I had one flat during the 77K). When I replaced the tires the vehicle had just passed a state safety inspection but since I was going into snow country for a couple of weeks I wanted something better than "good for inspection". Heck, the serentine belt on my Expedition was still in one piece when I had it changed at 103K.

Later

 

[Chris]

On my truck I have also replaced all 4 window regualtors in my truck. Finally a good thing for extended warranty which is a piece of crap!! 100 ded. on each door plus shop fees!

 

[4x4Dude]

my windows up front on passenger and drivers squeek when they roll up and down. is this a sign of bad things to come? or can i fix this with some graphite spray??