Long term reliability of the 2.3

[D Fresh]

It's actually 42.

Dammit!


Allright, I'll check my work.

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[MountainGoat]

Well anything can fail and just because it failed in your Nissan doesn't mean it will in the Ranger. My Focus ST had a similar cooler and I never heard of any issues with it.

It never actually failed. I just read a lot of reports online of it happening around 150k iirc so it was a preemptive fix.

 

[D Fresh]

As long as we are being anecdotal....
I used to carpool 30 miles to work with a friend. He bought a new Honda Civic at about the same time that I bought a new Tempo.
The Tempo got about 28 MPG with or without extra passengers.
The Honda got 40 MPG with just the driver and 31MPG when I rode with him.
At 60, 000 miles ,the Honda was burning a quart of oil per week (300 miles.)
At 180,000 miles the Tempo was still running as new when a a kid in a fullsized Chrysler ran a stop sign and totaled the Tempo.
In 2008 we bought a 2.3L Ford Escape, I towed my Travel Trailer for about 9 years, then passed it along to my son, who has driven it for 5 years.
He is about to buy a new Maverick so I am about to get the Escape back, to pass it along to my Granddaughter.
Still willing to compare reliability records of any Pacific Rim vehicle with any one of my 14 new Fords, owned over nearly half a century.

Really miss our old 2009 Escape. Thing was a tank. Until a semi driver decided it was cool to turn right out of the left lane because "he signalled?"

 

[VegasRanger]

I plan to upgrade to a full size truck in the future, so as long as I get 7-8 years and 150K out of this truck i'll be happy. I have 10K on her now, no issues. She's been abused too, a lot of off roading.

 

[ControlNode]

As long as we are being anecdotal....
I used to carpool 30 miles to work with a friend. He bought a new Honda Civic at about the same time that I bought a new Tempo.
The Tempo got about 28 MPG with or without extra passengers.
The Honda got 40 MPG with just the driver and 31MPG when I rode with him.
At 60, 000 miles ,the Honda was burning a quart of oil per week (300 miles.)
At 180,000 miles the Tempo was still running as new when a a kid in a fullsized Chrysler ran a stop sign and totaled the Tempo.
In 2008 we bought a 2.3L Ford Escape, I towed my Travel Trailer for about 9 years, then passed it along to my son, who has driven it for 5 years.
He is about to buy a new Maverick so I am about to get the Escape back, to pass it along to my Granddaughter.
Still willing to compare reliability records of any Pacific Rim vehicle with any one of my 14 new Fords, owned over nearly half a century.

jeez, I didn't mean to ruffle your brand loyalty feathers. It was more about I've also seen trans coolers fail, but I've never seen the oil cooler of that design on a car fail. The brand/model info was just for information as those are the ones I've experienced. No Honda of mine burnt oil at that rate, the worst one was the 86 Si with 220k miles my daughter got, in town it was fine, but on the highway it was burning about 1 qt every 1k miles. I would be interested in the friend's driving habits, maintenance practices or mods. Several Hondas I've seen burning oil the users didn't tune them up or they were modified and trying to get more fuel/power and ended up washing the cylinder walls to the point the rings were wearing too fast or scoring the walls and getting blow by. I've had 1 US built Honda from 98 and was OK. 8+ other Hondas we've owned were also ok and from Japan.

My wife's 2004 Toyota Corolla , a total nightmare, someone at the plant literally used RTV to hold a bolt in the hole where it should have secured the engine mount to the frame because the nut was not welded into the frame. I found this when I went to replace the engine mounts. So the RTV did hole the bolt in place, but I'm sure the bolt was doing nothing at securing the engine mount. There was also and issue a crossmember that secured the rear engine mount only had 2 of the 4 mount points for the bracket to the chassis/subframe, for some reason there were studs already in one of the parts that should have been open for the studs on the subframe to go through. I don't remember the exact way it went together, but instead of removing the extra studs from the upper part so the nut on it could pinch the parts together they just cut the studs on the lower part so the upper part rested the lower part. The nuts were for show at that point. Weight and the rear 2 mount points were all that secured that bracket. I did remove the cut off studs and the other two and then inserted them through from the proper place and secured it. Found that on the same job as the other mount issue. This car was a demo car the dealer got from Toyota and I'm guessing there was a reason they didn't ship it as a retail car.

Her Jeep is also a mess, just parts breaking on it all the time. Just the 3rd radiator in 5 years of ownership. Axle seal issues on the right front that dealer had to keep reworking to finally get it right.

Lastly, I'm not a fan of automotive brand loyalty, they all screw up. It's more about a styling or feature that is offered at the time that I'm interested it. I've had Lincolns, Chevys, Hondas, Olds, Toyotas, Jeeps and Fords. I've taken care of my cars and made sure I understand them. Every car I've owned (note I didn't own the Toyota and don't own the Jeep) I've had the factory service and electrical manuals for. They've already been ordered for the Ranger. The RS is my example of Ford doing it wrong, I should have waiting and gotten the 2018 once they were building them right.

 

[Langwilliams]

My niece's husband had a 4.0 Jeep TJ he used to plow his gas station lot with an a few other businesses his family owned. The divider built in trans cooler in the radiator failed an coolant got into the transmission an trans fluid got into the motor (not sure exactly this is the account he told me) an damaged both an he ended up parting it out. This thing was a rust bucket used only to plow so I don't know how common stuff like this is to fail. On time fluid changes probably prevents most of this an he neglected all his cars, including a BMW 760L.

 

[Floyd]

.

"would be interested in the friend's driving habits, maintenance practices or mods."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


He was a fuddy duddy behind the wheel. I was constantly afraid of being run over by a rapidly overtaking semi truck.
He was a Machinist by trade and conscientious about maintenance.
His last work car before retirement was a Chevy Chevette which he drove for many years at 50(yes 50) MPH on the rural Interstate highway.
Everything still worked up until the day before his retirement.
On his last work day, he rented a stretch Limo to bring him to work and take him home.
He said the car still ran OK but it deserved retirement too, so he drove it 30 miles to the junk yard the next day.
Trust me , no mods or hard use... just scheduled maintenance and repairs.

BTW, no feathers ruffled "brand loyalty" or otherwise. I just learned that I lived too far from work to drive anything other than a Ford.
Today, if I want to drive SOB...At least I can carry a good pair of shoes and a cell phone.
BTW Love the original CRX and NSX ...[/QUOTE]

[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

[HTX1811]

I've got just over 30,000 miles with 25,000 while having a 5Star agressive 93 octane tune and high flow SPD catted DP. I drive fast every where I go mashing the skinny pedal often.
I change my own oil when the truck tells me to.

Zero issues at all.

 

[Floyd]

Lastly, I'm not a fan of automotive brand loyalty, they all screw up. It's more about a styling or feature that is offered at the time that I'm interested it. I've had Lincolns, Chevys, Hondas, Olds, Toyotas, Jeeps and Fords. I've taken care of my cars and made sure I understand them. Every car I've owned (note I didn't own the Toyota and don't own the Jeep) I've had the factory service and electrical manuals for. They've already been ordered for the Ranger. The RS is my example of Ford doing it wrong, I should have waiting and gotten the 2018 once they were building them right.

To me styling is not as important as reliability, its not brand loyalty so much. I am picky as to which Ford I choose.
I have owned something like 90 vehicles of various makes, I even had a Studebaker....
It was...Wait for it... wait for it... It was a Lark to drive!

 

[Superdannyboy]

I've got just over 30,000 miles with 25,000 while having a 5Star agressive 93 octane tune and high flow SPD catted DP. I drive fast every where I go mashing the skinny pedal often.
I change my own oil when the truck tells me to.

Zero issues at all.

I'm going this route. Did they disable your rear oxygen sensor or did you put a spacer on it to avoid a CEL?

 

[Cabose-1]

Will amsoil help

 

[ControlNode]

He was a Machinist by trade and conscientious about maintenance.
His last work car before retirement was a Chevy Chevette which he drove for many years at 50(yes 50) MPH on the rural Interstate highway.
Everything still worked up until the day before his retirement.
On his last work day, he rented a stretch Limo to bring him to work and take him home.
He said the car still ran OK but it deserved retirement too, so he drove it 30 miles to the junk yard the next day.
Trust me , no mods or hard use... just scheduled maintenance and repairs.

Could still be a driving style issue, some "hyper miler" types will shift way too early and actually lug the engine and stress the rings. That could lead to oil consumption issues over time. Again, I'm curious to the failure reason of any engine, and I don't leave out operator habits.

I like my 4cyl engines to stay over 2k rpm while cruising. I drive the Ranger in Sport because in Drive it goes almost down to 1k rpm and if I need to accel it feels like it is starting to lug the engine and takes way to look to down shift.

To me styling is not as important as reliability, its not brand loyalty so much. I am picky as to which Ford I choose.
I have owned something like 90 vehicles of various makes, I even had a Studebaker....
It was...Wait for it... wait for it... It was a Lark to drive!

Reliability is important to me too, but if it's is super reliable but looks like a Aztec or a Juke I'll keep looking. The Ranger from what I've seen looks solid. The platform as the T6 has been around about 10 years and the engine is close to RS' engine in design and aside from the head gasket issue that has been a great car.

 

[HTX1811]

I'm going this route. Did they disable your rear oxygen sensor or did you put a spacer on it to avoid a CEL?

I got the tune before the crackdown and therefore it was tuned for the high flow cat. I don't know what they did as far as the tune goes. I have yet to get a CEL and I did the wrench work myself. I did not put a spacer on the O2 sensor.

 

[103]

I got the tune before the crackdown and therefore it was tuned for the high flow cat. I don't know what they did as far as the tune goes. I have yet to get a CEL and I did the wrench work myself. I did not put a spacer on the O2 sensor.

I would presume they just changed the range the O2 sensor works on or entered some kind of constant value. We were doing that on Mustangs with much more basic tuning back in the day.

 

[FunInTheSun]

I have a 2.3L in my 2011 Ranger. Ford didn't even offer it in 4WD. Only 145Hp. You have to have the Manual Tranny so you can keep it in its power ranger. Cast Iron Block. The original architecture came from the Pinto.

The 2.3L Ecoboost has nothing to do with the previous 2.3L I4 except having the same displacement. It is a clean sheet design. Smaller bore, longer stroke. Different engine. Designed from the beginning as a turbocharged motor.

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