Picked up a new to me 2002 Excursion XLT with the 7.3 this weekend after looking for a few months. It's bone stock with just a bit of rust in the usual spots. Interior is nearly perfect, inspected quite a few things on the engine after talking to a mechanic, all good so far. 198,400 miles on it, got it for $14,500. Drove 4.5 hours home going 70mph for about 80% of the drive and got 18.5mpg (the mileage indicator said I got 27.5...so I guess I need to ignore that or just assume 2/3rd of whatever it says is correct lol)

I'm going to use this for vacations and for pulling my boat, I don't plan on exposing it to salt. Hoping to use it until I don't, then sell it for at least what I bought it for.

Previous owner only had it for a few thousand miles, but he put brand new tires on it, changed the engine oil, flushed the transmission, changed front and rear differential oil, put in new front wheel bearings, ball joints, bushings, tie rod ends and Warn lock out hubs and put on new headlight lenses.

Here are the minor issues I've discovered:

Slight oil leak somewhere near the rear of the engine, will monitor.
Slight coolant leak on the main hose from the radiator to the water pump, will replace hose
Rear doors need to be shut firmly to get the interior lights to shut off
A few times on slow 90 degree right turns it sounded like I drove over a rumble strip. Any ideas? I could not feel any vibrations, just the sound. Wheel was turned sharp but not all the way.
One license plate light and one running board light are out
Incredibly optimistic mileage calculator - is this a sign of some other problem? How could it be that far off?
A few rock chips on the front part of the hood showing some rust
Previous owner left a Beauty and the Beast VHS cassette in the VCR, when I played it the video screen was fuzzy but the audio was perfect (lol)

Excited to try to make this even cleaner and take some epic trips with it. Planning on pulling my 21' Four Winns to Lake Powell (2800 miles round trip) this summer.

Drove by a Chevy dealership yesterday and saw a Suburban with $72,995 painted on the front window. Made me feel like a THIEF!

 

Actually the thieves are the ones who painted that price on that chevy...

 

Welcome to the EX forum!

For that rumble stip noise check for tire rub on the leaf spring or fender liner, it really shouldn't rub with those wheels and tires but it's something to verify.

 

Nice purchase.

For the rumble strip sound, I know exactly what you mean. Ive had it a couple times. Its the rear end, and it just needs the friction modifier additive put in the rear axle. Both times, that quieted it down. The Ex has a limited slip rear that calls for this little bottle of friction modifier in addition to the gear oil to allow it to work properly

For the rear doors not triggering the lights, spray some WD40 in all the little places where the rear doors and hatch latch to the body. I had that issue too.

Oil leak probably the "non-serviceable plug" in the HPOP, or the fuel bowl drain valve, but could the ICP sensor?

My Excursion had a VCR under the 2nd row when I bought it in 2010 too! Also had a massive aftermarket screen hanging down from the roof, I yanked it all out and pulled the rear overhead climate controls out of a junkyard Expedition, its the same, and it plugged right in and works great.

 

Wait, is that a 4x4? That is a GREAT purchase for that price. Where did you find it? What state?

 

Welcome. That's a very good price for a clean 7.3 4x4. The friction modifier quieted my LS rear diff down. It only occasionally tried to grab and made noise before that. Check the rear doors to see if someone ran tubing into the weather strip to get a better seal. It can cause the door switches to have less reach.

 

Yes, 4x4, although I have to get out and manually lock in the hubs.

I got it in western Iowa, near Sioux City. Lots of Excursions for sale in Iowa given the population. Not sure why, but it seemed like more than half of the Excursions within 500 miles of me (I'm in SE MN) were in Iowa.

I missed out on one that was identical to mine (Silver '02 XLT 4x4) other than it had the 6.8 V10 with 134k miles that sold in Milwaukee last week for $7,000....would have been happy with that one too.

 

Thanks for the tip on the friction modifier additive. Assuming I'd just add that to the rear differential? Genuine Ford Fluid XL-3 Friction Modifier Additive comes in the 4 oz bottle. Add the entire bottle?

I'll hit up the rear doors with WD40 and see if that helps.

 

If you have to manually lock the hubs, the vacuum pump may be out, located on passenger side of engine bay near battery

 

Add the friction modifier 1/2 to 1 ounce at a time until chatter goes away. Too much and it may not grab when you want it to.

 

Rather than just adding the friction modifier you might as well just change the differential oil since it's new to you. Be a good opportunity to check out what the gears look like for proper wear .

 

Update on the new to me Excursion - pulled my 22' boat to Lake Powell and back (3,000 miles round trip with detours, etc). Could not have been happier with the Excursion. Hauled 6 people plus gear, got about 12mpg going 70 mph. Ex did great up and over all the mountain passes. I-70 through Colorado was closed on our way out, so we took Hwy 50 through Southern Colorado. Lots of construction and steep grades, no problems. Can't imagine there is a better vehicle out there for this type of trip, especially for $14,500!

One minor thing maybe people could help me out on. In certain hilly areas where I wanted to have a bit of engine braking going down and more power climbing, I'd lock it out of OD. When I'd lock it out of OD with any sort of load on the engine it would also unlock the torque converter and rev up to around 2500rpm. I'd then take my foot off the accelerator and coast a bit so it would lock back in at around 20000rpm. Is there a simple fix to prevent the torque converter from unlocking when you manually lock it out of OD? 3rd gear with the torque converter locked in pulled 95% of the hills I encountered, without heating up the transmission.

Also this hurts, but if anyone is in the market for a very clean completely stock 7.3, let me know. It was the absolute perfect vehicle for our trip, but I'm wavering on if it makes sense for me to keep it. I don't need to sell, but I just have not been using it as much as I thought I would since the trip.

 

I'm a new to me EX 7.3 4x4 owner too. Had mine a little over a month, but not new to the 7.3. I would not own and drive a 7.3 diesel without a chip. Too much of a dog off the line and the tranny hunts too much in the small mountains on the east coast. On my 7.3 pickup I owned for years I used a Edge Evolution and liked it a lot. It gave me the pickup I wanted and calmed down the tranny. I don't look for fast, just don't want the Grampa look. On the EX I installed a Hydra and after the install, which I found to be a pain in the A.. it runs really great. Much larger selection of stock tunes. I did not buy my EX for what most have them for. I'm 64 and all my kids are raised. We pull a 24' trailer with the Wife's Trike and my Goldwing in it and I use it as a everyday driver. Did not like the selections out there for what you have to pay. Just like the size and reliability and future resale on the EX and 7.3. Good luck in your sale or keeping your EX which ever you decide.