I've made the leap from wagon lurker to wagon owner

Unless you're doing a full rebuild, doing a head gasket on a Modular V8 is too difficult without all the special tools it takes to do the job right. You'd be dollars ahead just swapping in a junkyard special before selling it. And I'd like to make an unsolicited suggestion on a replacement: a late '90s Exploder. I have a '97 with the 5.0 V8 and AWD. I tell ya, if driven right, you can go road speed in the rain, even around sweeping curves, without losing traction. Gets up and moves in snow without losing its footing. On dry pavement, it'll get up and go without complaint. I'm 6'6" and about 490 pounds and I only have just a little bit of trouble getting in and out. You should have no trouble at all.

 

When we went from a '96 4-door Blazer to the new 2003 Explorer, the thing that impressed me the most about the Ford was how 'solid' it felt. We drove the new Trailblazer first, and it was a bit quicker than the Explorer (both 6-cylinders), but the T-B felt not as well put-together as the Ford.

Just go out and start test-driving a bunch of stuff off dealer used car lots. Try not to do what we did though and buy the first vehicle we drove..... (in the case of the Edge). Thinking back, I maybe should have shopped around for one with more equipment, or a better price, or both. Still like it, though.

 

Glad your trans is up to snuff again, even though...$ I'm a it shocked about the Marquis though, I constantly read about there amazing MPG and the fact they last over a million miles up hill both ways.

Seriously though, some times you just have to bite the bullet and walk away no matter what kind of car it is... been there done that. keeping the honey happy IMO is a priority hands down, if mama wants a new ride then just do it considering the wagon addiction hobby's we all have and our honeys put up with it ......... 11 more payments and Deb's 2011 escape is paid for....................


Soooooo, should we start PM'n your Honey with "new" car ideas for 'Her"?? We would be more than happy to spend your $$$$$$$$$$$$$$, for her.

 

Thinking about it, my sisters last two cars were Escapes and not Explorers. I've added Explorers to my automated search list to start looking for those as well.
Currently I'm browsing for:
Mercury Marquis
Roadmaster Sedans
Kia Amanti
Hyundai XG350
Volvo wagons
Passat wagons
Trailblazer
Durango

Dunno what I'll wind up with but I've got plenty of time to locate something.

The Mercury was a bit of a surprise to me. It had just broken 250,000kms and gave every evidence that it was running like a dream.

 

Yeah, that's an @$$biter, for sure.

I don't like the Trailblazer due to it's cheap feel and crappy materials. Had a customer who started bringing it to us after the warranty and service contracts expired. I was the one tasked with it's maintenance and repair. The center console latch was busted when she brought it to us; it was utterly craptastic because the hinge was spring-loaded. The damn thing had only 47K miles when the air ride compressor simply stopped working. Damn near $800 to replace it; for less than that we put in a spring kit to replace the air springs and deactivate the compressor. Like a Focus, it's a throwaway vehicle.

 

Interesting insight! I'll definitely keep that in mind. Sounds like the Trailblazer won't be making the short list.

 

One thing I will say about the Ford Escape is.... I didn't even know what one looked like until my honey mentioned getting a used one. I did my homework on it and even asked on this forum about them and got great reviews. The only thing I was told to stay away from was the 4 banger engine as it was said to be underpowered, so we did go for the V6 and it's got excellent power for what it is. I can't recall off hand what the millage is now but we have not had a single problem with it at all. I also don't know what the MPG is, don't care but I can say it's not a thirsty vehicle to operate and very comfortable to drive. I'm 5',11" and the drivers seat goes so far back I have no doubts a guy 6', 6" would complain about lack of leg room. I don't know how old of one you are looking for but when I stated looking, I was looking at 2-3 year old models. After doing the math (financing/taxes/whats left warrantee wise) it worked out about the same to just wait for the 0% financing sales and we got a new one in 2011. However though, if we were looking today, I don't know if I'd buy a 2014.....kinda fugly IMO

 

We had a Trailblazer for several years. We did not enjoy it at all. Underpowered, just wasn't the same quality as our other vehicles we've had. We found it unpleasant for any long journeys - the seats did not fit us well at all.

 

I finally finished the overdue brake replacement that I started last summer. I managed to get the rear brake drums and shoes replaced last time but have been listening to the front pads squealing since shortly after I finished the work. I must admit, replacing the pads, calipers, and rotors was easier than I expected. I didn't realize that I'd have to repack the wheel bearings but that was an interesting challenge. The biggest hassle for me has turned out to be bleeding the lines again. I started out planning to bleed the lines and I drew some of the fluid out of the front partition of the master cylinder. I later discovered that the front brakes are connected to the rear partition of the cylinder. Now I have to bleed all of the lines. :banghead3: On the upside, the fluid is old and the system needs to be flushed anyway. I already had a vacuum gun so I hooked that up to a bleeder container and planned on using that to bleed the lines. I found that the bleeder container wouldn't seal correctly so I had to jury rig a seal for the container. Once I got a solid seal from end to end, I put it all on the caliper bleeder plug but couldn't get a seal tight enough to give me anything less than 50% air. I spent waaay too much time trying to get all of that to work before finally returning to the two-person bleeding method. Like every other day I've spent working on this, just as I was making progress, the clouds opened up and soaked everything. Hopefully we'll be able to finish up tomorrow before the rain hits again. The wagon has been sitting for 3 days now.

We prowled around the other day hunting for a replacement car for my Marquis. I took a look at some Buick Allure's but discovered my gargantuan cranium doesn't fit in there correctly. I quite liked the Nissan Murano but the back headrests fill up way too much of the rear window for my liking. I found a Cadillac SRX that I loved the look of but didn't care much for a rust hole I found in the back fender. The Lincoln Aviator we tried out was at the top of our list for a little bit but, surprisingly, I found the cockpit a little cramped and the seats really uncomfortable. I was in love with pretty much everything else about it.

Believe it or not the favourite of everything we test drove was another Grand Marquis. I have another test drive scheduled for next week to try out a Buick Rainier but if that goes bust, I think I'll go back for another look at the Grand Marquis. It's several years newer than my last one and a little more richly appointed so we might have a winner.

 

On the Lincoln Aviator.....

At one time, I was going to try to convince the Mrs. to sell the '03 Explorer, throw in a bit more money and find a very nice '04/'05 Aviator. Same basic vehicle, but a lot more 'goodies' in the Aviator. Then I found out how dismal the 32-valve 4.6 was in the gas mileage area. The V8 in the Aviator is not the same one that was optional in the Explorer - it's the complicated one that came in the Mark VIII.......
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Have you checked out a Dodge Magnum?

 

Yeah, but some of the underhood parts are Aviator-specific, instead of just using the entirety of the MK VIII powertrain. Damned little pieces are priced like they're cast in gold.

As for the vacuum bleeding, it's the threads of the bleeder that leak the air. Pardon the pun, but it sucks. Remove the valve, put the hose against the hole, do the suck, then put the bleeder back in. It's about the only way to do it fast.

 

I was astonished at the lack of headroom and how cramped the Aviator felt. When I put the seat bottom down as low as it could go, and the seat back where I wanted it my head was brushing the ceiling causing me to tilt my head slightly into the sunroof. When I put the seat back a little further down to give me some headroom, I was reclining a bit too much. The seat bottom was power, but the seat back was not. I had great difficulty reaching the adjustment lever for the seat back. It was difficult to get my arm in between my body and the door panel. Since the Aviator had a memory that accommodated two users for the drivers seat, it made me wonder why the seat back wasn't power operated even though the lumbar setting was. By the time we finished up our 10 minute test drive, my lower back was screaming and remained pretty painful for the rest of the day.

I had a co-worker with a similar build to mine who found that he had difficulty seeing out of the rear windows in the Magnum. The blind spots were too large for him. Ultimately he had to get a 300 instead. Based on that, I've stayed away from the Magnum.

We'll see what the Rainier is like but if it's less that perfect, I'm betting I'll wind up in a Grand Marquis again. We test drove a black on black 2004 with it's air ride system still intact. It made my other Grand Marquis seem like crap by comparison.

 

I figured that's what it was. I pulled the bleeder out and connected it to the vacuum and it held vacuum when I put my finger over the hole. I had some luck with putting a bit of teflon tape on the threads but not enough to make it worthwhile doing. I've seen guys on Youtube put a hefty amount of grease around the bleeder to maintain the seal, but that was pretty fiddly to maintain.

 

Well I resorted to the old two-person method and had The Mrs sit in the wagon to help me bleed out the brake lines. I had a brake line replaced a couple of years ago and apparently they only bled out the one that was replaced. The fluid was a mess! I drained it, wiped out all of the sediment and bled fresh fluid into all of the lines. The test drive went well and the brakes feel much better. I hadn't realized that they were as bad as they were. I obviously knew they were squealing but hadn't expected them to feel so much better after the work was done.

Strangely, this felt a little more challenging to me than when I replaced the rear drums and shoes the summer before last. For my first disk brake job, I enjoyed it. I haven't decided yet if I enjoyed it enough to want to do it again.

I polished up the rims and took the wagon over to my parents' place today for a visit. They just came back from a drive to Fredericton and I haven't seen them for a few weeks. I park behind Dad's fancy new Lucerne and he gets quite a kick out of having two Buick's in the driveway. When he was a kid, driving a Buick was a big deal and both of us driving Buick's really tickles him. He and my Mom got a kick out of the fact that we've done a full interior swap in the wagon and spent a fair bit of time ooh'ing and ahh'ing over how good that tan interior looks in there. They're the first one's who've really seen the interior since the swap so I was pleased that they thought it looked good. Now I'm a little more motivated to move ahead with some other work.

 

Oh, jeez, that's certainly something you do not want to do. Grease and brake fluid hate each other; once, when I was working up to 80 hours, I accidentally poured P/S fluid into a master cylinder. I saw what I did, grabbed the vacuum sucker and sucked all the fluids out, then sprayed brake cleaner onto a rag and wiped the insides clean. Just pull the valve and put the hose right up against it; you don't need to have 100% fluid going into the catch unit.