Tom’s 2014 XLT 4X4

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ExplorerTom

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I know I’ve said I’d never get rid of it, but the time has come to get rid of my 2000 Eddie Bauer. If you haven’t seen it, you can follow along with my history of it here:

https://www.expeditionforum.com/threads/my-2000-5-4l-eddie-bauer-4x4.26810/

Ultimately, I was going through radiators too quickly. It was frustrating. I know it was a 20 year old vehicle with 262k miles and wasn’t going to be perfect, but it was annoying to see a small puddle under it in the parking lot.


I set a budget of under $20k and under 100k miles for myself. I even looked at other brands: Chevy/GMC Tahoe/Yukon and even Toyota Sequoia. But I didn’t like what I was finding. The 3rd gen Tahoe/Yukon were in my target price range but their interiors seemed to be lagging that of the 3rd gen Expedition: no fold flat 3rd row, dashboards that are known to crack, HVAC buttons that would wear through and of course transmissions that aren’t super reliable. The Toyota Tax on the Sequoia was just too much. I had to break my “under 100k mile” rule and even then I was looking at 2003 models. I’m not spending that much money to get a 3 year newer vehicle.


As you can imagine, I was already predisposed to the Expedition. So my search began. I found the perfect 2012 King Ranch with 74k miles on it for $18,500 about an hour north of me. It had been on their lot for a little over a month. I talked to the salesman and he told me he’d have it ready for me. I couldn’t get up to see it until Saturday morning. About 45 minutes from home, I get a text from the salesman. It sold the night before. I was crushed.


Return home and go look at the local inventory. There’s nothing that measures up. Widen my search a little and I find almost the exact same truck- except XLT about 30 minutes farther than where my King Ranch was.


Head up Monday and buy it. It’s a 2014 with 92k miles and just about all the same options as the King Ranch except for the saddle leather seats and nav radio. It came from North Dakota and I believe it was used in the oil fields somehow. The center console has holes in it (plugged) and the carpet is cut- like it had some kind of work pedestal mounted to it. The backseats are clean like they’ve never been used. The underside has lots of dirt it in. Pretty sure it had some kind of grille guard because the tow hooks were missing yet there is paint worn off the bumper cover coming off where the tow hooks attach.


So anyway...... blabity bla, here are some quick driveway pics.

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JExpedition07

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Congrats!! Looking forward to follow what you do to it. Enjoyed your thread on your 2000.
 
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ExplorerTom

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So right off the bat, it needs a few things- not including oil. I changed the oil just a couple days after bringing it home. Wanted to make sure it had 5w30 in it and not 5w20.

It needs:
Tires
Shocks
Alignment
Wipers
Tow hooks
Does driver’s heated seat bottom actually work? The seatback seems to work.
It’s got a few blemishes here and there (wrinkled rear bumper cover, paint coming off driver door cladding, cracked right front bumper cover and a few other minor things).

Overall it’s in pretty good shape. I’m super impressed by how quiet it rides on the highway. I was surprised to find the tires are Load Range E tires- I figured they were P-rated tires with how smooth and quiet it rides. I’m still getting used to the throttle-by-wire. And it seems like rear visibility is pretty horrible looking over my shoulder- the rear passenger headrest is MASSIVE! My wife has SYNC in her ‘12 Escape but I haven’t spent much time trying to use it. I’m trying to like it in this, but I don’t know..... The extra power of the 3V motor and improved gearing of the 6R80 makes the truck much more lively compared to my 2000.

If you’ve seen my thread for my 2000 EB, you’ll know I like to document what I’ve done. I plan on the same thing here.
 

JExpedition07

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Regarding your drivers heated seat, you likely have a crushed under-seat duct. First verify the TED is operating underneath. Twist the little filter out and watch to verify blower operation. If it is spinning the duct in the seat bottom is crushed.
 
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ExplorerTom

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Regarding your drivers heated seat, you likely have a crushed under-seat duct. First verify the TED is operating underneath. Twist the little filter out and watch to verify blower operation. If it is spinning the duct in the seat bottom is crushed.

Since I have the heated/cooled seats, does that mean each are done via air? I figured heat would be via electric heating elements.

What is the TED?
 

JExpedition07

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Since I have the heated/cooled seats, does that mean each are done via air? I figured heat would be via electric heating elements.

What is the TED?

2007-2014 Expeditions have what are called “Climate Controlled Seats” which have heat and cooling function via forced air through a TED (Thermal Electric Device) or peltier. There is one on seat bottom and one in seat back. It is a blower and peltier in one. The blowers force air through the TED which heats or cools the air as it passes through. No heating elements or heated only seats in general in the 3rd gen. There is an foam duct in the seat that tends to collapse on the bottom and obstruct air flow. I have this same problem on my 2007 EL Eddie Bauer the TED works but bottom doesn’t work as well as back. The cooling function works better on the bottom than the heat does in mine for whatever reason.
 
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ExplorerTom

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This is also my first vehicle with Traction Control (not including the wife’s Escape). Closest I came before was the Controltrac on my Explorer and Expedition.

Today the roads were slippery with snow and slush. The TCS really knows how to suck the fun out of winter driving. Try to get it sideways around a corner- NOPE! Even turning it off doesn’t fully turn it off. But it did do a good job otherwise. I can see how inexperienced drivers can get overconfident and wind up crashing with TCS doing too much for them.

My well worn Grabbers did pretty well with the aide of the TCS.
 

kkelly

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Nice truck, it looks exactly like the 2013 we just bought with 112,000 miles on it.

Same colour interior options etc. Basically we have it's twin lol.

When we run the vin it says XLT King Ranch but like yours it is not badged as a king king nor does it have the king ranch leather.
 
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ExplorerTom

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Unfortunately when I run the VIN to look up the window sticker I get an error message saying that it is unavailable.
 
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