High Mileage Escorts

[Crash1181]

Since I love reading these stories of escorts that seem to last forever I thought I'd share.

Just crossed 200k a few days ago. I swear this car is going to last forever. It still runs great. A/C blows out ice cold. No transmission problems (manual). I even had a check engine light that fixed itself recently. The error code was EGR pressure sensor related, but I wasn't going to fix it. Then all of the sudden out of the clear blue the light shut off. Haven't seen it in a couple weeks.

Ohh, by the way, I've been getting 37-38 mpg consistently in the summer. This car has forever spoiled me. I know I'll never have something this good again.

If it's still running great in November, I'm going to put quick struts all the way around and a few other odds and ends. I'm wearing out tires faster than usual, but I don't really need new ones until winter.

[AzTumbleweed]

When I started this thread I had 257,000 on my '93 Wagon. Now I have over 320,000! It runs perfect!

[zzyzzx2]

Mine went over 200,000 mile a couple of months ago. Still has the original automatic transmission.

[ajb0009]

I have a 97 sedan with 2.0L. I only have 165k. I have owned it since April of 1999. I have never had such a reliable vehicle in my life. It has been great. Unfortunatly, I live in WI, so the salt is eating it up. Five speed manual, no A/C. I consistantly get low 30's M.P.G. in town driving back and forth to work. What a shame they quit making them. I would love to find a low mileage Escort with little to no rust to replace mine.

[amnslkr]

I bought my 5 speed 97 LX Sport with 207k on it from someone on Craigslist for $800. Body is in great shape (for an upstate NY car). Had to invest a couple of things in it though.

First off, the guy selling it said that the egnine started making a funny noise which pushed him to sell it (it was a 2nd car for them that they didn't need). I go give it a test drive and itdrives and runs perefectly fine. I take a look under the hood and sure enough I hear the noise coming from around the serpentine belt. It begins to get worse and worse and suddenly I see a litte puff of smoke poof out from the alternator. Shut the engine off and see the bearing cap on the alternator is gone with the bearings exposed. With that problem diagnosed, I buy it from him, go and buy an alternator, swap it out, and crank it up. Works like a champ! So I get it home and over the next few weeks I do the following:

-All new strut assemblies (quick-struts)
-New pads/rotors, calipers
-New drums/shoes
-New lower ball joints
-New front and rear sway bar endlinks
-New shifter link bushings and shifter stabilizer bushings
-New blower motor and resistor
-New stereo (had broken Sony XPLOD, replaced with new Alpine CDE-HD137BT)
-New speakers and install 10" Alpine sub w/ amp.

I also "Kemanized" the intake since the snorkel section of the housing was broken anyway. I have also been working on cleaning out the intake mani as I have take the TB off and found it coated with carbon.

It doesn't have the same pick up or punch that my ZX2 S/R did, but it works great and I would trust it on a road trip.

[12Ounce]

It is a swell little engine and will last "forever" with regular maintenance ...IF, it never sees an "overheat" event. If you lose the coolant, or whatever, ... you can expect a valve insert to work itself loose and cream the piston or worse.

[Intuit]

Too bad we can't really update our vote.

[Crash81]

Originally Posted by Intuit

Too bad we can't really update our vote.

Yeah I'd like to change mine. I'm at 262k now. Just had an issue with the A/C.

[Intuit]

>310k now. Idles, accelerates and cruises perfectly but power has been gradually fading over the past 9-12 months. Guessing output may be 55-70hp (62-80%) at this point. No evidence of blowby via the crankcase breather element (a.k.a. air cleaner sponge) and doesn't consume significant amounts of oil but plan to run a compression test before checking for t-belt slippage. (suspect piston compression rings) Intake seems louder which is usually a sign of belt slippage; but could simply be that I'm flooring and near-flooring it far more often. A/C is unmolested and works fine but is rarely used. (not a fan of A/C -- have seven+ months out of the year to be cold)