This is my first thread on this site. While I have had numerous topics on the 7.3 diesel site, my wife and I got a new (to us) 2002 explorer xlt. It was very well equipped,4.0 v6, leather, power sun roof. trailer tow, power driver seat etc, etc.etc. It only had 34000 miles on it and best of all some very good friends or ours were the original owners. Now for the good news we only had to pay $15,000 for it and that was from our new ford dealer in town. My wife and I are pretty much sold on the fords, we really couldnt afford the new 05's
soooooooooooo we were really happy everything worked out on the 02. Can any of you give some heads up on anything in particular to watch out for on the 02's. I know I sure learned alot about the 7.3 on the other chat forums
Thanks in advanced

 

I too have a relatively new to us 2002 explorer 4.0, 4x4, 41K miles. My wife loves the truck and we recently took it on a trip and it did very well, but there are some serious probpems with these trucks. The rear ends are prone to leak and whine (Luckily mine had a new rearend put in by the dealer before I bought it), some 2002 models have the timing chain issue and it is not covered under the customer satisfaction program up to 72,000 miles like the earlier year trucks with the SOHC 4.0. (Mine was rattling pretty bad on start-up and between 2000 to 3000 RPM's, but seems to be gone after I changed oil to Motorcraft???). Also the tranny's supossedly had the wrong fluid in them from factory which destroys the shift solenoids, but I have heard several other plausible reasons from this site. Mine delay shifts into 2nd and 3rd sometimes and it seems to "hang" in gear when coasting sometimes and clunks real bad as if it is locked and then frees up. The dealer history shows a valve body or solenoids were replaced in 2003??? The windows make noise after raising like they are creaping down when hit bumps, drives me crazy, but wifey doesn't mind too much. Front bearing are a sealed unit (Not sure about two wheel drive) and they are famous for going bad (Inferior supplier I read on this site) Hope yours is better/ It could be a great truck other than these probs, but these problems make me want to trade it on something else. If the timing chain and tranny issues get worse, bye-bye Explorer.