I just bought this Excursion, well actually traded my motorcycle for it.

When I test drove it the air bag light was on and there was no radio or 3rd row seat in it. The owner told me that he had removed the 3rd row seat (and seat belts) along with the DVD system with headrest monitors at the request of a buyer that wanted the truck without that stuff. He then told me that the air bag light came on when he removed the DVD system. The truck was also missing the wiper arms.

I explained that I was interested in the truck but ONLY if the above problems were fixed.

The next day he calls me to tell me that everything has been taken care of and we could make the trade whenever I was ready.

So I rode my bike to him. The 3rd row seat had been installed and the wipers were fixed. He had installed a different radio and told me it would have taken him all day to get the DVD back in but he would give me the system and I could install it. I figured ok, I don't mind doing that and I can make sure it is done right. The air bag light was off, so I made the deal.

Driving home I noticed the speedometer was not working and that the truck wandered a lot. I noticed the wander on the test drive but didn't think it was as bad as it now was. About a mile from my house I could smell hot brakes. Before I smelled the brakes I called the guy and told him about the issues and that I would take a quick look in the morning in the daylight. He assured me that he would take care of any problems that I found.

The next day I pulled the gauge cluster to see if there was a loose wire... there wasn't. But I did find that the air bag light wasn't on anymore because the bulb was removed. At this point I was very upset and called him and text his wife and got no answer. Since I couldn't really drive the truck with the dash pulled apart, I put it back together and decided to look at the rear brake where the smell was coming from. Around this time I noticed that the 3rd row seatbelts were not installed. Also that the truck is riding on C load range tires with a bit of dry rot.

I went to pull the rear wheel and the lug nuts were those spline ones where you need a key. Of course the key wasn't in the truck. I was however able to get a 3/4" socket on them to get the lugs loose. I found the brake problem to be a caliper mounting pin was rusted in place not allowing full retraction of the pads from the rotor. I figured this one wasn't his fault as I didn't notice it the day before. So I ordered new caliper mounts and hardware from Rock Auto. It was going to take a couple of days to get the parts so I drove my car to work the work next day.

After work I stopped by his shop. He gave me the key for the wheels and explained to me that he paid a guy $200 to fix the air bag light and that he was going to go over and demand his money back. He also told me that the seat belts were tucked in behind the interior panels and they could be just pulled out and bolted up. I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt and went home.

After my brake parts came in I installed them without issue even though I had to work in the rain to do it. I wanted this truck on the road and my car is having some issues that need me to park it and work on it some. I have been driving the truck for a couple days and haven't been feeling very well.

Today I decided to pull the interior panels and install the seat belts. Well on the driver's side the retracting part was there but no belt coming out of it and the bracket that goes to the other end of the belt and bolts in the floor was broken and part still bolted to the floor. The passenger side was a little better, all of it was in the panel like he said, however the part where it bolts to the floor was rusted and wouldn't unbolt from the floor so it appears that the anchor was just ripped up out of the floor.

Needless to say I am not real happy right now. However I have titled and registered the truck and he has the signed title to my bike and I do not know if he has titled it yet.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

When getting a used vehicle:

Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware!

 

And this is the first used vehicle that I have bought that I actually paid to have a Carfax run on it. It checked out ok there. It just goes to show you that you have to go over EVERY used vehicle with a fine tooth comb.

 

Yeah, a carfax isn't going to tell you about stuff that the PO tore up all on his own.

Sounds like troubles but nothing major yet until you have the airbags checked. Keep your chin up.

 

I didn't see where you mentioned what motor you have in it?

Hope things turn out better for you and these are the only things wrong. We'll steer you in the right direction as far as fixing it up.

 

Sounds like he ripped you off, but I think you came out alright. I would just stay away from him in the future. What bike and what X did you trade?

 

Sorry to hear you got the short end of the stick.

Brakes are a good thing to do on a new-to-you truck, so that was probably good. Given that the fronts do most of the braking though, you may want to do those soon as well. If you notice the brakes shudder when stopping, which is common on these trucks, you'll want to do front rotors too.

I can't believe he took the airbag light out. Here's a test to try- does your cruise control all function like it should? You can even test it at slower speeds like 35. Test all the buttons for function.

The fix is probably the clock spring in the steering wheel. Yours looks like an '00/'01 XLT, so you should have just the cruise control only buttons on your steering wheel. Clock springs for those are much easier to find used too. See here for step by step on how to remove everything. In this case, I made modifications, but to just replace it would be plug and play. Basically, I added a steering wheel with radio/fan controls to an Ex that had the cruise only buttons before:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...xs-how-to.html

I suspect the coiled cable inside the clock spring has broken or just worn out, causing the airbag to not have power to it. When I first modified that clock spring, I had the airbag light on as well because I didn't have everything connected properly. Definitely pop a bulb back in there, make sure it comes on again before you start the repair, and then you can see if it comes on briefly and goes off like it should after the repair.

I had no idea they even made C-range tires in the Excursion's size. I'm very glad to hear you recognize that these are nowhere near sufficient for an Ex and that you're changing them out for E's.

I'm shocked that the area around the 3rd row seat belt rusted out like that! I tore the '02 in my signature down completely and with 150k all in Indiana/Kentucky, the rust was nothing like that! Granted those seat belt bolts I couldn't get out and had to cut the brackets because I think they rusted in that much, but it was still structurally sound.

 

I had c rated on mine for 3 years until I wore them out.(only use E's now). I also bought a van on time with the air bag light on and sold it like that also. I have heard of people taking out those bulbs because it is very expensive to fix the air bag problem.........don't know what is involved in it though.

 

The bike I traded was a 2004 Aprilia RSV 1000R Factory. A high end Italian rocket. The only reason I got rid of it was because even after back surgery I am still in massive pain and don't think I will recover enough to enjoy the bike. Here it is with my son when I first got it a little over a year ago.


The truck is a 2000 XLT 4X4 with the V10.
I will find new seat belts and weld in plates to bolt them too. I'm not new to fabrication. I have a 67 Mustang that I stripped down to the shell in my garage that I will be doing LOTS of work to.

As far as the airbag, I was thinking about the clockspring. He mentioned something about a loose connector so maybe that is it, if not I will go ahead and replace the clockspring The cruise control does not work at all I had checked that yesterday. I wouldn't mind adding the radio controls on my Ex so I will check out the link.

I really want to get a factory service manual for it. I have had them for just about every vehicle I have had in recent years.

I am sure I will find more problems but will correct them as I go. I have already found so much information here, I will spend countless hours searching for my answers before I ask for help. So if I'm not asking for help it doesn't mean nothing is wrong with the truck or I don't think you guys will help. It is that I have found the fix on here because someone already had the issue and posted it up.

 

Definitely the clock spring then. The airbag and cruise buttons go through the same clock spring, but inside the steering wheel and inside the steering column, they both use different plugs. So unless they were both unplugged, that shared cable is probably broken internally.

I'm not sure you could add radio controls to a 2000 Ex, but I don't know if anyone has tried it yet. The '02 Ex had it from the factory on certain packages, so I just added it to one that didn't originally. I actually didn't have the radio controls working at one point because the radio in it wasn't compatible with the controls. In order to get the fan controls to work, you'd also need the '02+ digital climate control.

 

I doubt if that guy went to the trouble of removing the bulb due to a clock spring. The bag is probably already blown out and I think it is illegal to mess with it and will cost a lot to get back to square one.

 

I could pull the cluster out and unscrew the bulb much quicker and with a lot less tools than pulling the airbag and steering wheel to replace the clock spring. Probably 20-30 minutes to pull the bulb and reassemble vs about an hour to change the clock spring.

 

I just looked and nothing is disconnected under the dash so I will be ordering a clockspring, thanks Sunline

It seems like the fan controls only work on high so I have to look into that anyway. The factory radio has been removed but it originally had the audio controls in the rear seat so I thought I might be able to find that plug under the dash and re-route to the steering wheel.

 

That's actually a great question! I don't think I ever used the console radio controls in my last Ex because I always drove it. But I rode in the back of the '05 a lot in my younger years and did, so I'm familiar with what's there. So I'm not sure if the console controls worked with the radio in the '02 or not. The previous owner had replaced the single disk with a 6 disk from an Escape and wasn't set up for the steering wheel inputs, so it may not have been compatible with the rear ones either.

All steering wheel buttons work by ohms. I put an ohm meter on each wire when I had to figure out what they do. IIRC, only one wire went from the clock spring/steering wheel to the radio, and depending on the ohms received into the radio, the appropriate function changed.

 

I will keep these radio controls in mind but it will have to come at a later time. I wasn't expecting to have to do this much when I traded a perfect condition bike. Oh well
On my list to do FIRST and these to me are all safety items:
replace C load dry rotted tires with new E loads
replace worn springs.... most likely v/b setup
and replace clockspring

I'm not going to do much other than that (other than maybe replace the rusty muffler with one that sounds better) until I feel the truck is safe enough for my lady to drive I won't put money into the things I would LIKE to do ie radio buttons on steering.

I greatly appreciate the information.