Faults:

Starter.

General Comments:

Ford makes absolutly the best work vehicles that you can buy. I've got this E-250 and it has absolutly been the strongest thing I have ever owned. The transmission will move this heavy vehicle up a steep incline without even giving it gas. I have owned a chevy, and dodge, and I am telling you from experience, ford cargo vans are the best. I put down eight as far as running costs. It is not good on gas mileage, but not doing expensive repairs makes up for it.

Faults:

Aside from the usual (Tires, Oil Changes, Brakes, Etc.)

In order of appearance:

The first 80,000 miles were unremarkable, but at about 80,000 miles the engine blew the rings on #7 and #8 cylinders.

This gradually got worse until I replaced the motor with a rebuild at about 100,000 miles.

Around this point the seat springs and back latch started having problems, so I swapped the driver's and Passenger's seats. Bad seat would not latch in the fully upright position.

120,000 miles, left front wheel bearing suddenly goes out. Replacement bearing, rotor, and spindle have to be installed.

Around 140,000 miles, the transmission acted weird, no reverse with reverse making it drive forward!!? I got a bit angry when I was stuck and rev-ed the engine while dropping it into reverse, all of the sudden it worked correctly again. (stuck valve?)

At about 160,000 miles in short order the water pump, alternator, and fuel pressure regulator failed. I am told that I need a new drag-link, kingpins, tie-rods, basically a new front end.

A little later, the steering goes haywire, turn to the right OK, but you have to be He-Man to turn to the left. Solution: New Steering gear.

By about 200,000 miles the engine was once again having a problem with rough running. By this point the transmission (still original) was leaking about a quart of fluid every month.

By 216,000 (present mileage) cylinders 5 and 6 have no compression, and the A.O.D. transmission no longer has a reverse gear. This may be the earlier problem revisited.

Also at some point the back floor rusted through, near the wheel wells. I never noticed this tho, because of the rubber matting that covers the floor.

General Comments:

All in all the truck has been good, and I'm sure that almost any brand of vehicle has it's share of horror stories.

The biggest beefs I had with this truck were:

1 and 2 spark plugs are in a totally inaccessible location, I had to remove the transmission dip stick just to get to them, and then I needs a wrench with 80 universal joints to be able to remove them.

The truck had, for most of it's life, a squeal under the hood, especially in wet weather. Sounding like I had a psycho cricket on steroids in the engine compartment. A new belt would only cure this for about a month or so before it would return.

Faults:

Blower motor at 100k.

Universal joint at 115k.

All tie rods at 130k.

King pins at 130k.

Drag link at 130k.

Front brakes at 130k.

Blower relay at 130k.

U bracket for exhaust 115k.

Battery at 120k.

Very small oil leak from somewhere and it's inconsistent. The only aspect I've been able to attribute it to is at a high RPM when hauling heavy loads.

The van seems to have developed a steering problem. From my research, this is common on Ford trucks. Not only is there play in the steering, but after having the alignment done twice, it still pulls to the right.

The passenger side door does not shut all of the time.

General Comments:

I only paid $1500 for the van. I use it for my band for touring. Putting 8000 miles on it in 4 weeks and then having it sit for a month is pretty common. It has never stranded us. It always starts. It has plenty of power for a 6cyl, even with 6 people in it and all of our band equipment. It even handles pretty good.

I'd like to keep it up to about 200k miles and then maybe the label will buy us something fancy like a bus that someone else can maintain.