Man, i am p%$#ed off. My freaking shifter cable broke on my 00 excursion and now i can freaking drive it. Because you need 2 people to shift the thing. One to lay under the truck and put it in gear and the driver to hold the brake and start the sob. I have no idea why this thing would break, the cable looked freaking mint but nooo it decided to break after i looked a lincoln that was for sale. Im starting to get sick of working on this thing, ball joint, steering stabilizer, door acctuaters, rear hatch light sensor, and quirky 4 wheel drive, and now i have to fix this f'n thing. 63 bucks for a damn cable with a loop set up on each end. And its only 3 years old, i should have to fix anything on it yet. So thats my
p#$%ed off rant and on top of that i have to work tomarrow and get to school monday. And of course the service/parts shop closes at 6:00 right when the thing broke and they are gonna hve to special order the part which then won't arrive till monday if im lucky. (rant mode end)

 

Regarding your new starting procedure, I would prefer to be the guy behind the wheel.
jor

 

I feel your pain brother, I used to own an 89' Chevy Van before I bought an X. It (the van) started to give me some serious trouble. I had it for 12 years and after 12 years of faithful service, the radiator was leaking, the heater core had a hole in it, I had no A/C, the transmission was going south on me, engine oil leaked, transmission fluid probably leaked out somewhere at sometime, and at times, it was no fun to drive, especially during the summer. So I traded it and bought my 01 X. My point here is, if your financial situation permits, trade up and get an 03 X with either the 7.3 Liter Powerstroke (while they're still around) or the 6.8 Liter V-10 if that's your engine of choice. (Avoid the 6.0 Liter Powerstroke if you can, it's still a mess right now.) They're offering great financing right now and they're getting rid of the 2003s to get the 2004s in, so if you want to do this, now is the time. My suggestion is, fix the shifter cable and a few other things that might be wrong with it and then trade it. Although the dealer, and common sense may tell you not to put anymore money into it, you sometimes have to do it to get more money out of it. If anything, you'll get atleast $20K-25K or maybe more for it depending on what kind of condition the vehicle is in overall. Some Ford dealers are even willing to pay off your loan no matter how much you owe, it all depends on where you look and how they (the dealership) feels. But if your financial situation does not permit, you can always buy used. If you do buy used, I would suggest an 02. The 02 Powerstroke comes with 250hp and 525 ft/ibs. of torque and the V-10 remains the same with a few minor improvements. You can pick one up for a decent price, sometimes they're a steal. A word of caution though, always check the maintenance record. A well kept X, is a happy X. These are just my words of advice in regards to your situation. My 01 X has been good to me, so I don't think I'll be trading up. Besides, I like the 7.3L Powerstroke; and for the record, no, I'm not a salesman. No offense, but I don't like pushy salemen who put words in my mouth and try to force a vehicle on me. Believe me, it irritates me beyond belief. One final thing, I wouldn't give you this adivce if I weren't willing to take it myself. I hope my insight gives you a shove in the right direction.

 

Well im pretty sure the lease is up later this year (the truck is really the ol' mans so he knows about that stuff) so im looking forward to something new. And on top of that Our 78 continentals radiator blew out leaving us with the harley as the only mode of transport. Luckily we already had a radiator so i installed it today with a "modified" upper hose. All 7 local shops didn't have any in stock so i cut about 3 inches off a new hose i had for some other vehical. So im Xless till tuesday after school/work, when i'll finaly have a chance to fix the damn thing. But at least the continental is happy again.... i hope.

 

Again, I feel your pain in all this. Earlier at the beginning of this month, the batteries died on my X after 2 years of faithful service. So I took it in to get two new batteries and any other maintenance it might need. The dealership only had one of the two batteries I needed, so it stayed in the shop for awhile. I was without my Excursion for about 3-5 days. Although the dealership gave me a rental, I sorely missed my X more than anything. What kind of X do you have? I'm guessing its a Limited with the Powerstroke option and 4-wheel drive? Either that or it's a V-10 with 2-wheel drive. How many miles do you have on it? and couldn't you get most of the things that went wrong fixed under warranty? Don't get me wrong here, I'm just curious.

 

2000 forest green XLT, V-10, 4x4, grey leather, with 53K on it. Every thing that has gone wrong with it (except for the rear radio shorting out) has had to be fixed out of warrenty which was up after 30,000 i believe.

 

The warranty itself actually ends after 3 years or 36,000 miles whichever comes first. On a different note, I'm shocked to hear that all those problems hit you after the warranty ran out. Your Excursion is actually one of a kind in a way. The leather seats you have only ran until the end of the 2000 lineup of Excursions. Now it's all Medium Parchment Leather without the option of Dark Graphite Leather. It was a nice option to have if you had Black CC, Toreador Red CCM, and maybe even a few colors I can't think of now. By the way, the color you have is actually called Dark Satin green. It couldn't possibly be Estate Green because it was limited to, well, the Limited trim for the Excursion and the Lariat trim for the F-250/350. I know all this because I spent alot of time doing research and studying the Excursion before I decided to buy one. But you can probably get into a more luxurious version of the Excursion easier if you decide to trade up. You'll read all over this forum where people have gone from an XLT to a Limited or whatever the top package is now. So just keep that in mind. Best of luck to you with your X.

 

cool info you have there man, thanks for sharing. Unique things are nice to have until they need to be replaced. Like the rear discs on my 77 continental, sure they stop nice but they suck when it comes time to shell out the cash to fix em up. The X has been used as a work truck quite a bit, hauling tools, hauling scrap, hopping around job sites, and the occasional offroading fun . Thinking about the offroading fun makes me want to change the title of this thread from pissed off owner to "calmed down owner who wishes he had a shifter cable." Damn it, now i don't wanna see her go as much...

 

Well i fixed her the other day, it took about 20 minutes but i couldn't get the rubber grommet back in to the floor that seals the hole. Anyone got any tips on how to get them in easier? I know i'll eventually get it but any tricks would be really cool.

 

pyropig, I'm glad to hear you have your X working again. If you can post pictures of the rubber grommet, I or maybe some of the other users can probably help in getting it back in place.

 

Eh i'll just keep trying to get the sucker in until it goes. You know its crazy how much more engine/exhaust noise i can hear with that 1 grommet out. Thanks for replying all those times though, it helped me feel less angered at my X

 

Until you can 'grease the slide' to get the grommet in...
Duct tape on the underside will help a BUNCH....

(don't ask me how I know !)