Hello!

I just got the bad news that my rod bearings are toast on my 2002 Exploder XLT.

Looking through these forums, it seems to be a common problem. Has anyone here ever had Ford give them help, or an opinion of WHY this happens?

I am going to try to reach a Ford engineer I knew 15 years ago when I was a Ford tune-up tech to see what he thinks.

My mechanic said there is no sign of why it happened, other than slightly too much play in the crankshaft from front to back, which he said MAY be related. The oil has been changed frequently, was clean except for bearing flakes, and the oil pickup was "immaculate" in his words. The oil pressure has never been low on the gauge, it has never been overheated.

Can someone make a large bowl of soup for me so that I can cry into it?

Gregg Hill

 

Well, that's a real pisser. How many miles on your Explorer? Is there a design deficiency with the motor such as poor lubrication? Or did Ford put out a batch with quality problems? Maybe the motors weren't machined correctly?

Back when I started my search for an Explorer, I hadn't heard of this problem. The consensus was to get a V8. I picked up a '98 4.0 with the pushrod motor. I may pick up another Explorer in the future, but if this a somewhat common problem with the 4.6, then this confirms my belief that pushrod motors are the way to go. On the other hand, if you have 200k on the motor, maybe this isn't so bad.

What kind of soup would you like?

 

Hmm, I forgot to mention, that it has only 146,000 miles on it. Honestly, it has been the worst Ford I have ever owned, starting with my screaming orange Ford Fiesta, which ended up being a dang good car.

Even as a Ford tune-up tech from 1981 to 1999, we thought of the 4.6L as bullet-proof. Maybe someone made better bullets!

So, I wonder if the Ford Edge is a POS or a good truck to buy?

Gregg Hill