What years of Ford Explorer had water pump issues? How hard are the pumps to replace. Would you buy a high mileage Explorer?
What years of Ford Explorer had water pump issues? How hard are the pumps to replace. Would you buy a high mileage Explorer?
Never knew of wp problems. I knew of the 4.0sohc mirror heads and timing chains.
It isn't that they are problematic, it is that the ones with the 3.5l (or 3.7l for the police version) are not as easy to change as the one in a 4.6. I've seen them go 250-300k.
They can be done in-chassis without any special tools other than some small/bent 8mm wrenches to loosen the chain guides enough to get the water pump out, if you don't want to remove the secondary chains. Removing the secondary chains requires special tools.
I can knock them out in about 4 hours if the chains are not being replaced. You're still down 80% of the way for replacing the chains, mind you.
I thought the 3.5EB water pumps in those tended to leak directly in to the oil so that your first indicator that the water pump was leaking was a knock.
In reply to wae :
It's not just the ecoboosts, it's all 3.5/3.7.
That is a possible failure mode, and it has been known to happen, but 100% of the water pumps I have seen fail leaked externally via the weep hole that exits over the A/C compressor. There is a double seal arrangement so that in the event of a seal failure, it will leak into that passage. (It's easier to seal oil than water, as it turns out. If you ever saw a water pump's coolant seal you'd be amazed that it works at all - it's two pieces of flat carbon and that's it)
I strongly suspect that cases of leakage into the oil are in vehicles not maintained by people who notice a drip of coolant over the A/C compressor. The coolant will eventually get past that oil seal, but it's going to take a while.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Sounds like a case of internet over-amplification, then!
In reply to wae :
The Nissan VG/VQ engines (think 350Z/370Z, Infiniti whatever, etc) also have a timing chain driven water pump, that can also fail this way, yet there is no Internet outrage.
I'm seeing indications of a class action lawsuit and a voluntarily recall though which is why I'm asking.
https://fordauthority.com/2023/06/ford-water-pump-class-action-lawsuit-transferred-to-michigan/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20lawsuit%2C%20defective,washes%20out%20the%20bearing%20lubricant.
We bought a 2016 new and our water pump failed in 2021 at 70Kish miles.
I'm super not happy...two independent mechanics didn't want to replace it due to the risk of breaking expensive parts so I paid Ford around $1,300.
When I was a kid, changing the water pump was a two hour - two hundred buck job...now it's 4% of the berking sale price of the berking vehicle.
We bought our 2016 Explorer without cross shopping because our 2005 Explorer was so good. Now, the odds of Ford selling us another vehicle are vanishingly low and I'm spending my Sunday ranting on the internet about being pi$$ed at Ford.
Ford, how much money did you save with your $hity water pump design...still think it was worth it?
There's lots of chain driven water pumps. They are,by design, kinda difficult to service. I certainly understand why engineers do it, but when the bean counters get involved...
Put the highest quality part you can in a place like that.
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