Faults:
Well the tie rod broke at 57,000 miles backing out of my drive way. I replaced them myself along with the ball joints to keep the price down. Then the front rotors warped at 61,000, and were replaced with new pads.
At 83,000, the original Goodyear Wrangler AT/S tires were replaced. Which surprised me because they still had OK tread on them.
At 103,000, the rear pinion seal started leaking, which resulted in the truck sitting from June 2010 until now.
I have replaced the seal, along with new rear rotors and pads since the stock rotors were beginning to flake from sitting.
Today the parking drum brake decided to come apart at highway speed.
Oh, and the exhaust has leaked behind the cat since new. She's always been deep throat-ed.
General Comments:
This is a truck, I want you to understand that right away, it won't handle like a Lambo or 300ZX, but it will plow through everything in its way.
I bought this truck from my mother, who bought it new in 2000. It is a long bed regular cab model with 16 inch wheels, 255/70 tracker 2 tires, four wheel drive, 205hp 4.2 V6, and a 5 speed stick. It has a aluminum topper and is gold. I was looking for a little truck that I could use for getting around, and I happen to notice this truck sitting in my parents pole shed under a heavy dusting of hay dust. I paid 4500 for it.
It needed a new pinion seal and rear brakes. I haven't driven it that far.
It needs a little work still, new tires, fluid change and tune up. I plan on adding these things to it in the coming months.
One thing about tires, on the truck the factory Goodyear Wrangler AT/S went 83,000 miles and could have had a few more thousand put on them before they were truly bald. They were replaced by Goodyear Tracker 2's. These tires have 20,000 on them and need to be replaced. They have worn funny and chunked driving on pavement.
I hope to get many years of use out of this truck. It has been a good truck so far, getting between 18 and 20 mpg daily. I change the oil every 2500-3000 miles with Quaker state 5w30 and a FRAM filter.
The only mods I plan on doing this truck are a cherry bomb glass pack muffler to replace the splitting original, and a K&N air intake.
30th Nov 2010, 16:29
Just a little update on this truck. I recently added a few ounces of Marvel mystery oil to the oil, to see if there was any difference in performance. I drove it about a hundred miles before stepping on it hard.
A massive difference, it spun the tires at 20mph in second gear, which needless to say surprised me greatly. At first I thought the clutch was slipping because of the drastic change in the response.
The trucks always been a good performer, but this was a bonus.
My guess is that it had a good bit of carbon build up, because the oil currently has 2,000 miles on it, and is in need of another change.
I can't say if this stuff will work in other cars, but in mine it sure did.