98 Forest Green Expedition

[tcm glx]

Well, I picked up a new to me Expedition
It's a 1998 XLT, 5.4L loaded with Tow package, 3.73 gears with Limited Slip, heady duty cooling package, air bag suspension on all corners. It's green with grey cloth interior.

I bought from the original owner, who was a meticulous guy. When. Emailed him about the purchase, he sent me over 150 documents which covered everything from the window sticker, to every oil change, transmission, transfer case service to every recall. Most of not all being done at the local Ford dealer. Impressive!! Vehicle has been garaged it's entire life. It is BONEbstock, well it WAS. It has 122K miles on it and came with a spare set of wheels and tires (as you can see in the parts area)

The plan, simple.....keep it clean and use it. That's all. I work really far (about 500 feet from my master bedroom is my home office) so I'll use this to pick up and drop off the girls from school. I'd also like to use for some of the lighter off road trips where the Bronco isn't truly necessary. Nora, and the SF races come to mind, where its more of a 5-6 hour hwy drive, and then a 2 mile dirt ride to park and watch!!

Mods in the forecast;
*Replace the stereo, DVD head unit, upgrade the speakers and add a Stealthbox (all done 12/12)
*Modify the height adjustment on the air suspension to get approx 3/4"-1" of additional lift from vehicle
*Replace interior lights and exterior lights with Taylor's LEDS package where possible
*Upgrade headlights to Lightning Style with Projector retrofits
*upgrade to 285/70/17 All Terrains
*replace rear shocks with Bilstein 5100s
*Race Radio and 5" GPS that can be installed for race use, and then removed

Enjoy it!

[tcm glx]

Purchase date


Head unit


Amp and speakers


Door speakers(amazed at how clean this thing is)


Need to take some pics of amp and stealthbox, used a MTX thunderform. Sounds great!

Picture taken today. Began clay bar, was, Teflon process. Did the hood today. Also had the two front window tinted

[otter]

Drive it off a cliff NOW! Always thought I wanted one until I got one for the wife. I would rather smash my toes with a hammer than own another one.

With that said, it sounds like a really nice truck. haha.

[tcm glx]

Drive it off a cliff NOW! Always thought I wanted one until I got one for the wife. I would rather smash my toes with a hammer than own another one.

With that said, it sounds like a really nice truck. haha.

What issues did you have Otter??

[otter]

Where to start.

It was a 2000 XLT 2wd 4.6L

Electrical problems (Windows, locks, speedo, odometer, Radio)
Frontend would eat idler arms and balljoints
Rear end blew up
Leaky windshield and sunroof
Trashed a few starters
Would randomly shut off going down the freeway.
I basically rebuilt the entire suspension front and rear trying to get rid of a shake, rattle, loose feeling ride.

This was all with under 130,000 miles on it.

That's just the stuff I remember, I know there was more. It was a constant issue.
I have never own a vehicle with so many problems and I have own a ridiculous amount of them. haha.

I very well might have gotten a bad one, but boy did it leave an everlasting impression on me. Aside from my kids being born, the happy day off my life was when it drove off under new ownership.

[tcm glx]

Wow!!! That blows. Well I hope I can say the opposite about this one.

The electrical problems, come from the leaky windshield. The water leaks and lands on what they call the GEM, which causes all kinds of electrical issues. I read up quite a bit on it. I checked the floors and no dampness after this whole week of rain so I'm hoping my windows are thoroughly sealed. You can check by looking behind the a-pillar covers.

Any how, sucks to hear you had such bad issues Otter. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Lol

[ChaseTruck754]

Drive it off a cliff NOW! Always thought I wanted one until I got one for the wife. I would rather smash my toes with a hammer than own another one.

With that said, it sounds like a really nice truck. haha.

Hahahaha. Hate to say it but I wanted one til I had one too.

For what you want Tony - it may be fine.

As long as it doesn't blow the spark plugs out the heads...

My issue was the thing was more of an oversized minivan than a truck based SUV - which is what I was wanting.
Mine was 4wd, but I didn't research enough before buying & figured out that meant AWD with a low range button. No part time 4wd like the broncos. Not what I wanted.

The air bag suspension made it tough to find a lift or other parts suspension wise. You may not be going that far or there may be more support now.

I bought mine because I thought it would be a good split between a DD and a tow rig. DD during the week & tow the ranger, etc. on weekends. It was semi ok for both but didn't excel at either. Gas mileage wasn't what I was hoping, but should be on par with the bronco. Other than that it was ok to drive. Had all the power goodies and nice working AC, etc. so not a horrible DD.
For towing the capacity let me down. We hooked a trailer to it one time & the bumper nearly hit the ground. Granted it was a HEAVY load (6' pressbrake on an all steel trailer), but this thing wouldn't even look at it!

That's about when I realized I wanted a full size diesel.


So yeah, you may not have any of the need/expectations I did, so it may be great for you. I sold mine within 6 months of purchase & took a BATH on the damned thing. Lesson learned.


Upside was 3 pit bikes & spares would fit in the back for the Mexico races (back seat down & 3rd seat removed), and we could sleep in the back of the thing when we camped at Pete's or Mike's.
Here's a pic of mine before I sold it. Not a bad looking "truck" I guess.

Exped w skid 2 (9-12-05) small.jpg (93.78 KiB) Viewed 2541 times

[tcm glx]

Yup, I remember yours Steve. Yeah this on has the transfer case with 2WD, AWD, 4Hi and 4Low. I drove some with the AWD a and wasn't a fan. Not looking to do any hard core off roading. Actually, an oversize Minivan sounds exactly right. One that can drive ona. Dry road better than my wife's actual minivan.

[otter]

Haha. I had the same expectations. I liked the same year F150's but needed the room of the SUV. Little did I know they somehow fit an F150 looking SUV on top of a Ford windstar minivan.

Also found out about the windshield leaking issue and figured I had found the problem. Nope mine did not leak. Every time I had an issue and thought I found the culprit during my research, it never ended up being the same cause to my problems.

I do really hope this thing treats you right. No one deserves to go though that much suffering. haha. Good luck and if you happen to run into problems with it, I kind of consider myself an SME(Subject matter Expert) on the Expeditions. HAHA

[otter]

And what is a story with out a picture.

[tcm glx]

Nice! She was a looker!

[otter]

I loved the way she looked. I did think very long and hard about building it instead of my bronco. But realized the only thing that would be left was the body.

[ChaseTruck754]

The more I see those wheels otter the more I like them. I think I still like mine a bit better. I had um polished, but if I were to do it over again I'd save the $ & run um stock. Easier to keep clean that way & they look just as good.

Oh and I didn't have mine long enough to run into any of the issues you did otter. Mine was an '01 5.8L. If I remember right I bought it wth about 65k miles & sold it before it hit 80k. Think it was '04ish when I had mine.

Exped w skid 3 (9-12-05).jpg (180.77 KiB) Viewed 2532 times

[ChaseTruck754]

Looking back at the pics reminds me how cool these things can look pretty much stock. Mine had the valance under the bumper and the running boards taken off & then just a slight tire size up at stock ride height.

I also remember that the ground clearance was way too low for a 4wd in my opinion. This goes back to the minivan vs. a 4wd "truck" thing though.

[tcm glx]

2wd Steve? Looks like 285/75/16s?

[Silverslk]

Well, sounds like the original owner you bought it from took good care of it and was picky if he took to dealer. Here's to hoping you have nothing but great luck and times with it!!

[tcm glx]

Well, sounds like the original owner you bought it from took good care of it and was picky if he took to dealer. Here's to hoping you have nothing but great luck and times with it!!

Thanks Andy!!

[robertcrav]

Looks clean. I had a 2003 F150 Supercrew that I loved...still one of the best vehicles I've ever owned... was a Lariat, tow package, skid plates etc...Every option but front buckets...owned it from 3,400 miles to almost 140k it would eat idler arms tho ever 20k miles...and needed to stay on top of alignment. If I could go back I would have learned more before having it lifted by 4wheel parts although the Procomp kit did good....I wish I would have known about Dixon Bros and H&M

[300]

My wife has one the same year since new with the 5.4. About 250K miles now. Some issues with coils but I have never let anyone else touch the spark plugs except me and the threads are all still original. Just changed the heater core, nice two day job. Air conditioner has stopped working now. Door locks are starting to give fits but she insists on having them auto lock themselves. You can program that out. It will go 60K miles out of a set of tires and it has never been aligned but it does need a pitman arm now. Never had any leaks and at least 3 windshields. It will eat the alternator brushes about every 80K miles.

[cypher]

I had a 2wd '98 with 5.4 Honestly one of the best vehicles I have ever owned. Heater cores leak and are a pain to replace. Changing spark plugs is not fun! Eats brake pads. Otherwise, I loved my expedition. It was a family vehicle and was well maintained from day one. Good luck with your expy!