I'm an automotive student. I get access to Mitchell On Demand for free which is the setup most shops use to give quotes on work. Inside sources m8. lol

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4x4 or RWD?

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Current: 2000 Ford Explorer XLS 4x4 Automatic 4.0L SOHC

Gone but not forgotten ~ "Ghetto Blue" my 1994 Mazda B2300 5 Speed Standard Cab 4x2.

Haha, that's awesome! Must be nice.

Rwd

it is nice.

Doing a quote for you right now.

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Current: 2000 Ford Explorer XLS 4x4 Automatic 4.0L SOHC

Gone but not forgotten ~ "Ghetto Blue" my 1994 Mazda B2300 5 Speed Standard Cab 4x2.

Awesome, thank you very much!

Mitchell says $468.76 but that is only lower parts. thats labor for lower and upper, and an alignment. the joints are about 50 a pop so add another 100 to that and you should have a general idea. Might be worth calling a shop though and see if they quote it a little better since I'm sure not everyone goes exactly by what mitchells says.

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Current: 2000 Ford Explorer XLS 4x4 Automatic 4.0L SOHC

Gone but not forgotten ~ "Ghetto Blue" my 1994 Mazda B2300 5 Speed Standard Cab 4x2.

Ok, kind of what I was expecting. Looks like I'm going to have to be pulling some overtime soon. I've got to replace those now and have my camber adjusted with Cam Washers because of a slight pull. Then to tackle the issue with the engine heating up slowly, hopefully just a thermostat. Its going to be an expensive summer.

THanks again for all your help.

NP man. I wouldn't tweak on the balljoints yet. I would make the engine temp thing a priority over the other two things you mentioned. Overcooling will make it run like poop.

are you sure the engine is staying cold? Is it your gauge that is reading low? Is it the engine or the gauge? mine reads super low. Diagnostic work showed me that the sending unit for the gauge is bad.

Later!

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Current: 2000 Ford Explorer XLS 4x4 Automatic 4.0L SOHC

Gone but not forgotten ~ "Ghetto Blue" my 1994 Mazda B2300 5 Speed Standard Cab 4x2.

I'm pretty sure its the engine because it takes a while to heat up before I get much heat from the heater. Then when I do turn on the heat the gauge drops down to the line below the C. I'm pretty sure its the thermostat, but it was just replaced so I don't know yet. I'm in the middle of midterms though so it will have to wait for a bit. None of the issues I have luckily are immediate threats though.

Nothing like an eternity of "I'll do it later" lol. I know how that goes. IF you have access to a pyrometer (laser thermometer) you can check the temp at the sensor and you can see if it's cold or not. you might be cold. That being said when you turn the heat on the temp is going to drop a little so that is normal.

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Current: 2000 Ford Explorer XLS 4x4 Automatic 4.0L SOHC

Gone but not forgotten ~ "Ghetto Blue" my 1994 Mazda B2300 5 Speed Standard Cab 4x2.

Unfortunately I don't. I just had a new engine put in and is under warranty so it's going back to the shop that installed it to figure out what's wrong with it and hopefully it's something they installed so i don't have to pay anything. And I know that it's normal to drop a little, but it goes from Normal all the way to C. My old engine always got to normal and never dropped at all.

the lower ball-joints from the factory allow a maximum of 0.03 in of play

the uppers 1/32 in

so technically, they are need of replacement

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2004 Explorer Sport Trac XLT premium 4.0L auto 4wd
1995 Ranger XLT ext cab 3.0L auto 2wd
2005 Jeep Liberty Limited 3.7L auto 4wd
2001 Ranger XLT reg cab 2.3L auto 2wd--SOLD
1999 Ranger XLT reg cab 2.5L manual 2wd--SOLD

Ok, thank you for that info. Hopefully they'll hang on for another couple months

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I ended up changing my mind, I scheduled an appointment for Tuesday to have all three problems addressed. I get the feeling my wallet is about to get a lot lighter. I will update the thread with the prices I end up having to pay for the cam washers and ball joints if I end up replacing them Tuesday.

Always better safe than sorry. What made you decide to get it done?

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Current: 2000 Ford Explorer XLS 4x4 Automatic 4.0L SOHC

Gone but not forgotten ~ "Ghetto Blue" my 1994 Mazda B2300 5 Speed Standard Cab 4x2.

I'm just really OCD like that, if something is wrong with my truck it will nag at me in the back of mind until I can't take it anymore.

Update: I took my truck to a friend of mine that's a mechanic and had him look at the ball joints (I looked with him). Only one is actually torn, but most of it is still intact. All the other three have very small cracks which look normal from 11 years of wear and heat. Virtually NO play at all in the tires. So definitely not listening to a shop again. As for the heating problem, took the thermostat out, a clump of mud was sitting inside it, got a brush and cleaned it out, works great now. Don't know how the coolant didn't blast it out though. As for the camber, I am going to buy the Cam kit online and have it installed at a shop that said they'd only charge me an hour plus and alignment.

Woo hoo!

Glad to hear things went for the better mate! It would have sucked to be dropping major coin on your suspension. Glad the shop was full of it, lol.

That's odd about the crap on the thermostat. where did it come from is what i'd like to know. You shouldn't have "mud" in your cooling system.....hmm.

again, glad to hear it worked out for the better!

Cheerz,
Wily

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Current: 2000 Ford Explorer XLS 4x4 Automatic 4.0L SOHC

Gone but not forgotten ~ "Ghetto Blue" my 1994 Mazda B2300 5 Speed Standard Cab 4x2.