So my buddy bought a 99 Explorer sport last week and I went over to check it out (made me glad I've got my 4runner). Anyways his leaf springs in the rear have no bow in them and are pretty flat. Upon closer inspection I saw they only have one leaf in them. Is that normal? When I stand on the bumper the whole read end sinks about 2 inches. Weird.

 

Ewwww! Explorer!
With front torsion bars, ever failing ball joints, and don't even ask about the 3 timing chains' guide problems. Well, on the 4.0 sohc, anyway. There was a recall on them before 72,000 miles, I think. There was another recall on it this past spring too. Something that catches fire that they fuse as a fix, can't remember what it was.

 

Good to know. I tried to sell him on the idea of a 92 4runner with a 22re that was rebuilt with 15,000 miles since the rebuild but he went with the ford with 160,000. That's the highest mileage I've seen on a 4.0. The funny thing is that the yota was cheaper too. However the ford had a dual din dvd player. I guess that does add a billion coolness points when you don't know jack about cars.

 

Well who knows, maybe he got one of the good ones. I had a 97 4.0 sohc for a couple of years. Boooorrrinnnnggggzzzzzzzzzzz.....
to drive, comfortable (better seats than the 4Runner) so......numb.
Guess I can't complain, bought for a grand, sold for 3 grand. Helped pay for my 99 4runner.

You know, mine was reliable (under 100,000 miles) and there were only a few problems with it such as the ball joints (common) and the heater blend door (it's common for them to break, do a search to find the $10 fix instead of the $800+ dealer price tag). The recall for the timing chain tensioners on the sohc was done on mine but if it goes out it's over $1000 to fix. Trannys can be problematic, too.

 

Just thought I would update and make everyone glad that they drive toyota's. So he bought the car in Arizona and he lives in California. To get it to pass smog (the PO had straight pipes on it) my buddy had him "weld" a catalytic converter and muffler back into the system. The PO assured him that it would pass CA smog. So the day he decides to get it smogged, the cat falls off. Then he has to wait for 3 hours at the dmv to get an extension while he finds a whole exhaust system because the tech told him that his exhaust had no chance of passing even if they put the cat back on. Then he finds an exhaust and his cel comes on for the camshaft position sensor. They changed the sensor and a bunch of other stuff (their "mechanic" had them they needed to replace plugs, wires, tps, and maf). While the cel light still wouldn't go off, the tranny went out. Then the car sat for a month while he saved up the money to rebuild the tranny. I bought my 4runner a little before him and the biggest problem I've had is I can't decide what front winch bumper to get.