Top High Mileage Issues 1998-2011 Ford Ranger Truck

In this video, we're going to go over what you should look for on your high mileage '98 to 2011 Ranger. So what I'd like to do is if I have a high mileage vehicle, whether it's something I just purchased or I've never done the maintenance myself and I'm thinking, "Hmm, maybe I want to try to do this myself," or if I inherited it, I'm going to start from one side and work my way around on the engine and I'm going to start with the master cylinder. Now, I could see this fluid looks really dark so I get a lot of people calling me and asking me, "Sue, why do I have to do a brake flush? Someone told me I have to do a brake flush." Well, you really should after so many miles due to the moisture that gets caught in these. They'll get like a tincture, it should be clear, it should be crystal clear, almost like vanilla clear and when they start getting dirty, that is the moisture from the air.

They evaporate, blah, blah, blah but that moisture causes rubber seal problems, and guess what, in your brake system, you have rubber seals from right here in the master cylinder all the way down to the rear wheel cylinder. You got caliper seals and the moisture will cause them to fail. So yes, you should have a record of a brake flush, I would say every 50 to 70k, all depends on where you live. It's good maintenance and if you don't know if it's been done, just do it so you have record of it. Keep a notepad. When I go through my vehicles, I put a notepad down of primary and not so important to do, I'll get to it. Power steering fluid, located right here. I'm just going to use a little coffee stirrer and that way I can see the color of these fluids. Now that is supposed to be vibrant red and that looks like dingy brown. So yeah, should I do a flush? I don't know if I would flush it as much as I would just at home, take a nice plunger turkey baster, maybe clean out the fluid that's in there, put some fresh fluid in, run it, do it twice, you should be good to go down the road.

Battery. I just got this and instantly I know I have to do a terminal end. It's all corroded as you can see, but the metal is actually missing on this side of this battery terminal. So I'll get some new nice universal ones. I'll put them on but I'm going to want to put some shrink wrap because I don't want the weather getting to that cable because cables are just like...they're just like a wick. So water and corrosion actually runs itself down that cable and you can't see it because this is plastic coating. But if I'm going to use a universal end, I'm going to make sure that's nice and sealed so water, try to eliminate it from going down that cable. Oil. Now if it's a car you've owned, you know your maintenance, you know how many times you've done oil changes, but if you don't know the maintenance on it, a good way to tell if someone's done proper maintenance is by pulling the oil dipstick. Now we're going to not just check for level but we want to check for condition. What color does this look like? That is jet black so that tells me, I mean, it is high miles. I'm not going to lie to you, this car has a lot of mileage on it, but she still runs good.

But if I just bought this, I'm probably going to do back-to-back oil changes. Even though I use full synthetic, I'm going to probably do it in under 2,000, 3,000 miles because I want to try to get that block flushed out. Might even do an engine flush in the sense of use a type of oil that can take some of the contaminants out and run it, then put all your good top money oil in it, and then I know it's sound and I'll be good to go. Coolant. So I'm going to check the coolant level because it's part of my fluids that I'm going to check for maintenance, not just the level, but I want to check the condition of it. If you actually have a tester, that's great. Check it for the strength of it, whether it's got too much water in it or it's not too much. Straining and freeze is actually worse than water. So we'll just open it and we'll give it a good look.

See. Now I can see here that it's green, so that means that this has been changed, which I would expect. It's actually kind of clear in the sense that it looks like there's a lot of water in there. This is something I'm definitely going to not even just check and test, but I might just drain and fill it. In that way, I know the strength of it so I know it can handle some nice cold winter New England days. Check your cap over, make sure the seals aren't torn, petrified. These are kind of petrified. It's kind of rubber seal's kind of stiffened. I just got to replace that, a couple of bucks because I want to make sure that it's good for the road. We're going to go down the road. While I'm doing this quick check over, I also look at rubber, hoses, belts, I check for gasket leaks. I'll look on the top of the engine, and see if I see any water leakage coolant-wise like I have thermostat housing here, that is known for the seepage on this. So I'm going to end up putting a new gasket on that, possibly a new thermostat housing, and probably change the thermostat. It's pennies on the dollar while I'm there.

So now I've worked my way over here to the passenger side of my airbox. I'm going to check the air filter condition, check for like little neighbors, meaning rodents if they've got a nest in there. That's easy to do. The upper hose, I just want to note on these Rangers because of the way they're designed and cut in here. I can tell you through the years, that's why this mesh is on there is because this rubber hose is going to rest on different parts of the engine compartment, and I already have a wear mark right here from the emission tube. I have seen many of these start to leak and it's due to the rubbing and the friction of it and so keep an eye on that, especially if you get a high mileage vehicle. It's worked its way in. Now, right below that hose, conveniently located is the transmission dipstick. Yeah, it's difficult to find it because it's under the hose. So if you're looking someday and you're like, "I don't think I have one." Well, you do. But you just have to manipulate this upper radiator hose. I'll just pull it up over to here and then it's got a yellow handle on it and there it is.

Now, Ford Rangers are notorious for transmission issues. They lose reverse, completely lose reverse. And it just happens like it happens. So I just wiped that clean. See that black right there? that's normal wear and tear, especially on a high mileage vehicle automatic transmission. But I'm also going to check it. I'm going to dip it one more time here and now I want to check...I'm not checking the level because the vehicle's not running. On automatic transmission, the vehicle has to be running to check the level but I'm checking the condition of the fluid. I want to look to see if someone's been in here and has cleaned it and touched it. The fluid looks really good. Now does it smell burnt? No, it smells new. So if I'm thinking of buying this vehicle and haven't bought it yet, that might be a flag. Like do they know something I don't know? Why do they have brand new training fluid in a vehicle with high mileage? If you get a chance with a warranty or a 30-day come back, then take your chances if it's something you like, but that sometimes is a flag that you don't want to deal with.

So tune-up wise, you know, if you don't have any record of it or maybe you have driven this vehicle and you've owned it and you know you put the spark plugs in once or twice, well, I'm saying this thing has high mileage. When I mean high mileage, I'm talking pretty high. And this thing is an '06 Ranger and it still has the factory plug wires on it and how I know is because it says Motorcraft and it has the number six on it. Now, you might be able to get Motorcraft plug wires but you're not going to get a plug wire with a number on it, that always comes from the factory. And then after that, no way. You only get the word Motorcraft. This is straight factory '06 and we've still got the original wires on it. So I'm going to start looking underneath my car because I want to see what kind of maintenance has been done to it or what I might need to fix. So I'm going to jack it up. If I don't have a lift, then I'm going to use jack stands. I'm just going to check my tire front end. I'm going to do it on both sides, the same as I'm going to do it right now. 3 and 9 o'clock, I'm just going to shake it back and forth, then 6 and 12 and I'm going to go like this checking ball joints, tire rod ends, and the wheel bearing.

From here, I don't have to take the tire off so much if I'm just going to check real quick to see if the brakes have been done. And I know the car has been sitting a long time. I've got brand new pads but these rotors, that isn't surface for rust from sitting, that's got some high spots on it. So this car is going to pulsate when I apply the brakes. Rotors are inexpensive. I'm going to go to new rotors and new pads start from the beginning. Now let's raise up and look underneath. One thing that a lot of people overlook is inside the grille here. I'm going to look at the radiator fins and the AC condenser fins if it has AC. And think about it, this is in the front of the vehicle. Boy, does it get a lot of abuse, right, going down the road. So these fins are designed to cool the system down. I have an extra external transmission oil cooler here and then that right there is my AC condenser, those fins. And then if I come down a little further, I might be able to see the radiator or does the condenser go all the way? The condenser goes all the way through. But I can tell you from looking at this condenser, it's original, I would say and it's filled with dirt and sand. So a quick way to help prolong the life of your AC, take your garden hose, put a little pressure, clean up that sand, and everything. You'll watch the temperature drop and it gets colder and it won't overheat on the AC part.

So now we've got it raised up and we can check the front end out. I'm going to be looking for rubber bushings on the control arm, sway bar link, balls joint boots, tie rod end boots, bellow boots. Look for fluid coming out of the power steering rack if you have one, that means the inner seals are no good, that's a pricey fix. Sway bar bushings, things that I know I'm going to need after a high mileage vehicle. So now I'm going to check my front differential fluid condition. I can see that there's really no leaks. There's a couple of seepage here and there but with this kind of mileage, that is completely acceptable. So on this, it's just a little square like a 3-8th drive, and I'm just going to fit her in there and break this free. Now, this is the fill and the checkpoint. You fill it here and you check the level here. It's just the plug on the side. This does not have a drain and fill, unfortunately, you would have to take the cover out or a mechanism that goes in there and sucks all the fluid out. So here is the plug. There's no dirt or magnet metal on that, which some of them are magnetic ends. So I'm going to just put my finger in there and I'm going to check the fluid level. It's full, but it is dirty and I can tell by the smell that it smells old. It doesn't have a clean differential smell to it.

So not major leaks. I really don't want to take this cover off because it's a major job. You have to take the mounts off, drain it, pump the axles out. So I'm going to get what we call like a siphoning tool, and I'm going to bring that tube and then I'm going to siphon that fluid out the best that I can, and I'm going to put clean fluid in. And then that way, I have a record of it. Now we can work our way down, look at the exhaust, look for any major oil leaks on the engine transmission and we'll just work our way right to that transfer case. Front driveshaft, check your U joints, just grab it and give it a good shake to make sure that the caps aren't...no damage, exhaust, no leaks. So here's my transfer case, I see seepage signs. There's a little bit of a leakage over here and that could be caused by this front driveshaft seal or the gasket in between. For something like that, you know, I didn't spend a lot of money on this so I'm going to just keep an eye on that. But let's check the fluid level and that way we can tell. And once again, there's a little 3/8th notch right there. I'm going to put that in there. I'll break it free.

Now we can check the level and the condition. Wow, that's real dark. So this fluid is dirty on this transfer case and on this Ford Ranger, it is a drain and fill but the only key here is I have to dismount the four-wheel-drive motor plate. This weight right here. This is a counterweight for shift weight. I've got four bolts right here. Don't need to touch that center one, take this out of the way, and then you'll see, just like that, looks just like the fill and it's right there. You're going to take that plug out, drain the fluid, and then you can put clean fluid right in here. Just leave it about an eighth of an inch below the fill, and you should be all set. So now that I'm underneath, I'm also checking out brake lines and fuel lines in the frame. So I went from the beginning, as I follow down, I follow the lines, the nice factory coated lines, the fuel lines of the plastic nylon, you have your mission tubes here. So these are all things I'm looking at. The filter, I'm going to change that because it's kind of worse in that it has the frame spray on it that they put on on the factory. It looks like it's still the original. Wow, I hope not but it could be.

So I'm changing that, that's going to be priority. And I'm looking for leaks like in the gas tank. I checked my differential. I mean, I checked my driveshaft and look at that play. So here we have a U joint that has play in it. By just grabbing it up and down like that, I could see the play. But it's been replaced and it's greaseable. So I'm going to put grease in that and see the play is still there. So now that we're at the backside of the vehicle, we're at the rear end. We're going to check the rear diff. Once again, the 3/8ths drive. Just put a 3/8ths drive socket or a 3/8ths drive ratchet in there and sometimes you can use an extension, break it free. We're looking for condition. Now, I can tell you there's no fluid leak on this rear diff. The seal, the pinion seal part of it is fine, the cover is dry, so it should be full. But I'm expecting with the way the other two looked condition-wise that this fluid's going to be dirty. Oh yeah, see, nice and black. That should be a gold color. And it smells old, burnt, not a lot of metal. So this plug has a magnet on and that's normal wear and tear. You can just take that, there's no big chunks in there. And when I drove this down the road, it was not howling so I know I have no gear or bearing howling internally. So that's pretty good.

Overall, while I'm back here, check my shocks, my flex hoses which have to do with the brake fluid. If there's moisture in them, you're looking for flex hoses that have swelling on the metal part, the coupler. You want the brake cables themselves not to have tears on them. Brakes, you have one main one back here. Look for your diff vent, make sure that that's attached and good. Now, look what I found here, a nice inexpensive repair that I'm going to have to do. The shock has come dismounted from the rubber bushing. It's turned over to one side but that's an easy repair. Cheap and easy. Anyone can do that. You can do it yourself. So that's good to go. We have drum brakes here. So what we're going to do is we're going to give it a visual here. I know there's no seal leak, that axle seal's not leaking because this would be all wet back here. But I will take the tire off, take the drum off, and I'm going to look for the wheel cylinder and conditioner of the shoes and hardware. So the last thing that I want to look at on this Ford Ranger, if you know anything about Rangers or ever owned one, you will know that they have shackle problems. So this looks like it's been replaced, both of the shackles. I can tell because they're colored, they're in a black metal. But the bushings, not so good. It'll be tolerable for a while but I'm going to put that on my list. Could do a car wash in here, get all over the old mud. And that way I can decide whether I want to take the leaf springs out and put bushings in.

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