High Mileage Escorts

[RL2000]

Well guys, I'm getting ready to sell my prized little Escort ('91 Pony). She's got 204,000 miles on it, and acts like she wants to go another 100,000!

Sadly, these Michigan roads (salt in the wintertime) has eaten the frame of it to the point of only being safe for a few more years.

She's been a real gem of a car, and I'd buy another one in a heartbeat!

[FordMan59]

Originally Posted by RL2000

Well guys, I'm getting ready to sell my prized little Escort ('91 Pony). She's got 204,000 miles on it, and acts like she wants to go another 100,000!

Sadly, these Michigan roads (salt in the wintertime) has eaten the frame of it to the point of only being safe for a few more years.

She's been a real gem of a car, and I'd buy another one in a heartbeat!

If it's been taken care of it would probably make another 100K. My '88 Pony has 503K and still going strong.

[Thumper700]

I've got a 1995 Escort wagon that I bought in 2005 with 16,000 original miles. Right now I have 82,000, and all I've had fixed was the head gasket at 25,000.
I have to ask FordMan59, are you adhering to any special maintenance schedule, or using special oil or additives? Also, is yours a 1.9?

[FordMan59]

Originally Posted by Thumper700

I've got a 1995 Escort wagon that I bought in 2005 with 16,000 original miles. Right now I have 82,000, and all I've had fixed was the head gasket at 25,000.
I have to ask FordMan59, are you adhering to any special maintenance schedule, or using special oil or additives? Also, is yours a 1.9?

I've been using a bottle of Slick 50 or similar product every 50K miles ever since the car had 150K miles on it. I also use a bottle of STP or similar product in the crankcase at every oil change and for the last 30K miles I've been using http://lubecontrol.com/lube.htm and letting the oil change interval go their recommended 10K miles. I thought a car with 500K miles on it was a good one to test new products on to see how they work. If they don't work as described I haven't lost a lot, if they do I'll use them in my better cars.

[Thumper700]

Well I just had a wreck with my Escort. It's up to just 82,600 miles and I fell asleep at the wheel going about 65mph. It slid sideways on the highway for a ways, then caught the snow in the ditch and rolled 1 1/2 times, landing on its side. I was the only one in the car and I don't even have a scratch on me from the incident. There's a few dents here and there, one front quarter panel is pretty smashed, and I have a nice birdbath on the roof. I'll push out the roof, and it's perfectly driveable. I never did take full coverage off it, because liability was only 5 bucks a month cheaper, so I lucked out there. Especially when the insurance company valued the car at $2800, and I got to buy it back from them for $300.

[theresamauser]

1999 escort se 2.0 sohc..died last week at 165k.number 4 valve seat dropped....now what to do with it?

[denisond3]

theresamauser; My advice would be to rebuild it. You would need to dismantle the engine as well as just replacing the head - to check on how much damage there was to the piston (or pistons) that got hammed by the chunks of broken inlet valve. If the pistons are damaged, it can result in a broken con rod in the new few months. I would probably get a JY engine, and rebuild that, then put it into the car.
Or you can put it on craigslist.org, and sell it for a few hundred to someone like me, who will rebuild it and drive it for another decade. Too bad I am so far from you -- Im in N. VA in summers, but can always find cars nearby me, with a dead engine; when I want to fix one up.

[Intuit]

Do we get to change the vote once we've reached a different "class" of mileage ?


Update: Found the cause of below some time ago...

Originally Posted by Intuit

My '94 1.9L - charcoal cannister vacuum hose dry-rotted at the charcoal cannister. (length was excessive causing it to sway & jiggle and eventually break) Simply cut the dry-rotted end + excessive length off. Cold engine spark knock under load, that was a problem through all last Fall & Winter is now gone in recent cool weather.

Idle problem that was an issue during the hottest weather, has seemed to disappear in this cool weather though. My running theory is that the PCV valve might've been leaking. (diaphragm could be weak) PCV Valve can be manually opened with a hand-operated vacuum pump. But I never took a chance to test that theory out. But at idle, whenever I allowed the engine to run for a really long time and heat up enough to run that fan for a short time, the idle problem would disappear for the time that the fan was running. Reduced exhaust temperatures may have reduced backpressures against that PCV diaphram and prevented it seeping exhaust back into the intake. I've been told that the PCV is not supposed to open except for at highway speeds. If open or leaking at idle, that extra, unmetered intake may cause rough idle or kill the engine. Problem was kind of intermittent and only occurred when the engine was warmed up. Oh, and the only other change I did beside the vacuum hose, was cleanup the battery terminals. (not dirty before, but worth mentioning anyway)

... simply bought some MAF cleaner (a.k.a. electrical cleaner) and hit both the ACT/IAT + MAF after reading the instructions. Been great ever since. (not that it was bad before) Couldn't sense airflow properly so it had the same or similar affects of having vacuum leak(s).

[denisond3]

I think the term PCV in the above quote should be changed to EGR in every instance.

I have a 92 LX Escort. One of its nice features is Not Having any EGR setup at all. Its kind of a mystery to me, since the 91's and the 93's did have EGR systems.

[Intuit]

Yep, you're right. PCV valves don't have diaphrams hehehe. Should've noticed that but didn't really reread it.

[zzyzzx2]

Originally Posted by Thumper700

Well I just had a wreck with my Escort. It's up to just 82,600 miles and I fell asleep at the wheel going about 65mph. It slid sideways on the highway for a ways, then caught the snow in the ditch and rolled 1 1/2 times, landing on its side. I was the only one in the car and I don't even have a scratch on me from the incident. There's a few dents here and there, one front quarter panel is pretty smashed, and I have a nice birdbath on the roof.

Pics?

[eddiej88]

I have a 1998 Ford Escort 5 spd with 189,500 miles and running strong.Very reliable 31-35 mpg.

[eddiej88]

I have a 1998 Ford Escort LX 5speed with 189,600 miles. Runs like a top

[702VegasLife]

Only 78,000 on my 02 Escort S.E, starts up fine everytime, only thing is that it idle's a little rough and shakes a bit at idle and cold start.

[Intuit]

Originally Posted by Intuit

............ Cold engine spark knock under load, that was a problem through all last Fall & Winter is now gone in recent cool weather. ...........

Idle issue when warm was dirty MAF sensor.

Cold engine spark knock was bad heated O2 sensor. (suspect that it's heater went bad) Picked up a Motorcraft part.