I bought a 2001 Ford Ranger 4X4 truck last weekend, 106K miles, 4.0L 6 Cyl.
I'm wanting to find out what items I can expect to need to replace within
the next 50k to 100K miles. *Such as sensors, ball joints, U-joints, tie rod
ends, etc. *If I understand correctly, the engine should easily last over
200K miles, maybe 300k. *Just wanting to know what to expect, I'm hoping to
do preventative maintenance instead of waiting for a failure.
I had an 85 2.8L 2wd, my wife had a 94 4L 4wd Mazda that I ended up
driving, and I currently drive a 96 2.3L 2wd.
I am squarely in the rust belt, which slants my repairs to a certain
perspective.
All 3 have had at least one, if not all, of the rear spring hangers
(frame brackets) and/or shackles replaced. If you need to do this, an
air hammer with a pointed tool works great for pounding the bolts out
of the spring bushings. Sometimes you can get them out of the sleeve,
sometimes the sleeve and bolt will drive out of the rubber bushing,
sometimes you will have to eat away at the bushing itself with drills
and sawblades (if there is enough gap where the spring wraps sometimes
you can get a sawzall blade in there). Just buy the pair of bushing
halves, sleeve and bolt when you get the bracket, since only the
dealer will have them anyway (well, or eBay). Grind the bracket
rivets off flush with a cut-off wheel, pound them through the frame
with the air hammer, and fit the new brackets up with bolts. Some
people will tell you to remove the bed to get at the brackets, but I
found it far easier to just work from below. At some point you will
probably end up jacking the spring away from the frame to give you
some elbow room, and a ratchetting strap to move the axle backwards or
forwards to get the eyes to line up can help.
The one time I had to pull a bed to get at a leaking gas tank gasket
was a royal pain, requiring cutting all the bed bolts--one of which is
over the tank. I seem to recall that the tank was a tight enough fit
that cutting the straps and dropping it wouldn't have worked without
pulling the driveshaft or somesuch.
On 2 of the 3, one or more helper or overload leaves has broken,
requiring replacement. On the 96, I left the main leafs in, cut the
eyes off another pair of spring packs, rounded the ends slightly, then
used that new spring pack main leaf as an additional helper leaf.
They've now taken a set and are about down to stock height again after
a number of years of consistent abuse--as much due to potholes as
loading.
On every single one, the two bolt flange (spring loaded or not) at the
center of the exhaust system has given trouble. Every time I have
given up and simply hacked the flanges off (metal blade in a sawzall
will do it in seconds) and replaced them with a simple repair tube (to
convert the diameters) and a pair of u-clamps all that trouble has
ceased. Muffler shops hate it, because they can no longer sell you a
whole system to replace just the bad gasket seats on a pair of
flanges--one of which end s up staying on the cat half anyway. Though
on the 84, whenever the gasket went, it gained a few horsepower along
with that "sportier exhaust note" which made it more fun in heavy
expressway traffic (if you have to be there, more fun is good).
U-joints at somewhere between 100k and 200k is a good guess, I just
did the ones in the 96 at 200k. So is an alternator and whatever belt
idlers you have. The 4.0 had AC which, oddly enough, never gave a bit
of trouble.
The Mazdas are not rustproofed the same as the Fords, and will rust
out faster, especially at the wheelwells. Even outside the rustbelt.
I visited a friend in DFW and he pointed out that even there all the
Mazdas of a certain age were rusted out.
The 4x4 ate a set of automatic hubs at some point, which then caused
the electric transfer case shift motor to be overused and burn out,
and I think the relay. I think that was at about 125k, give or take.
I loved having the low range for pulling overgrown shrubs, but other
than that, didn't use 4-wheel more than once or twice a winter. I
kept it as a yard mule for a couple years after I took it off the road
just for that (had to rent a backhoe the next year). The 96 is geared
for mileage, it could use a lower gear to save the clutch when towing,
particularly when backing loaded trailers.
I've not had a lick of trouble with the Mazda 5-speed in any of them.
Far and away the best resource I have found for information is
http://www.therangerstation.com which is admittedly geared towards the
off-road enthusiast, but all their basic info has been spot-on, is
extensive, and is augmented with additional forums for the essoteric
stuff that crops up. Start at their tech library:
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/index.php
Hope that helps.
--Glenn Lyford