Just rolled over 200,000 miles on my 01 duratec today. Hope to get another 200,000. It's been a dependable little truck.

Wow thats a lot of miles on an 01. You must drive quite a bit to put that many miles on an 01. Good luck hope u get another 200k out of her.

wow, what do u do for a living, i thought my 23k a year was quite a bit,, good luck!

Just rolled over 200,000 miles on my 01 duratec today. Hope to get another 200,000. It's been a dependable little truck.

Thats a lot of miles for a personal truck, I put 15,000 on my daily driver a year.......but I am over 40 and don't do much cruising around at $3 a gallon.

I wish I could find out what kind of oil he/she used in that motor...

I have a Refrigeration Service van and I don't put that kind of mileage on it. Kind of expensive to go cruising.

nice. thats a lot of drivin though, and i thought i had high milage on my 98 with 112,000. guess i was wrong bout that. hope you get another 200,000 outta it

damn man, my '01 only has 67K on it

This posting is from May 2006. I wonder what mileage it has on it now. Seems that the original poster disappeared, otherwise I would ask them directly what oil they used.

This posting is from May 2006. I wonder what mileage it has on it now. Seems that the original poster disappeared, otherwise I would ask them directly what oil they used.

He is probably too busy riding around to get to a keyboard!:drunk:

wow, bringing back the dead...

wow indeed. i hope its till runnin....OP's latest post was 10/12/06 guess we will never know.

im lookin at an 02 that has 214K on it, hope to pick it up this weekend :naughty:

yea its too bad..my 02 has just under 82000 miles on it and runs great but only 21 mpg...ohwell

I wish I could find out what kind of oil he/she used in that motor...

I would like to know as well. To me motorcraft or just regular old pennsoil would be fine. I have seen a lot of people run cars and trucks forever on dino oil. I myself have been known to use syththetics but have probably never realized any real world gain other than spending more money. Oils are a crap load better today than they used to be. Just keep the oil changed with a decent filter regularly and anything will go a long way it you dont drive it like an idiot.

My truck is an 04 with 112,135 miles on it and I live on an island 39 miles long. I bought it used and I do not know where they drove it with all that miles.
I've replaced a fuel pump, cross joints, brakes, DJM front suspension kit lower kit (ball joints were shut), MAF sensor ( I washed the engine and shorted it). Those are the only things aside from a regular oil change and I use Castrol Syntech.

yeah 200k in 5 years, he could be well beyond 250k by now. thats a lot of miles to spend behind the wheel.

my 05 is approaching 23k but i've just started driving it as my main vehicle again in the last 6 months. with gas now at 4 bucks a gallon i'm very thankful that i sold my 4.0 4x4 edge in favor of my single cab duratec. it costs me as much to fill up my duratec now as it did to fill up my edge last year. ridiculous!

I sold my Nissan Crew cab v6 before the gas prices went up and kept my Ranger I am so happy I did that it gets very good gas mileage.

Hah, I did the same with my 06 Frontier crew cab.

Hmmm...
I bought my Ranger when gas was in the $2 a gallon range, because I was traveling ~100 miles daily to school and back, and needed a gas-miser that could still help out at Home Depot/Lowe's/Menard's.

I guess I bought right; recently, I've seen similar Rangers, but with more miles and less equipment, offered for sale locally for more than I paid back in February, 2005.

I need to start driving more, my 02 just hit 34k

Hah, I did the same with my 06 Frontier crew cab.

Ha, I read those things get worse MPG than a FS truck. They have good power but man they guzzle. I was going to trade in my Ranger for a Frontier last year since I wanted more space, but when I saw the MPG ratings I walked out. :supergay:

Even with remodeling my house and yard, this truck hasn't really held me back. Still a pretty good size, as long as you don't have any passengers. However, I am getting tired of driving a standard in stop n go traffic, which has gotten worse since school resumed. So I think I'm going to find an automatic car and use this one on the weekends. :blahblah:

My truck is an 04 and rounding 90,000! It would most likely be there by now but since I got the bike three weeks ago I've only been in it four times. My driving usually makes me go about 340 miles a week and I fill up every 7 days.

Ha, I read those things get worse MPG than a FS truck. They have good power but man they guzzle. I was going to trade in my Ranger for a Frontier last year since I wanted more space, but when I saw the MPG ratings I walked out. :supergay:

Even with remodeling my house and yard, this truck hasn't really held me back. Still a pretty good size, as long as you don't have any passengers. However, I am getting tired of driving a standard in stop n go traffic, which has gotten worse since school resumed. So I think I'm going to find an automatic car and use this one on the weekends. :blahblah:

Yeah, I use the Ranger for everything. Actually, the Ranger standard bed is longer than the Frontier CC standard bed. I had a 96 Ranger that I upgraded from to the Nissan. The difference in size (especially in the interior) felt like I was driving a Hummer lol. I had the Frontier a year before I realized it was too much truck for me. (married couple, no kids so the back seat was rarely used, and commuting 60 miles a day w/ terrible mpgs), so my brother bought it. He lives close to work and has a wife and kid (another on the way), he upgraded from a Ranger too, but the Frontier is perfect for him, unlike for me.

My 03 just rolled over 196k... I've used mobile 1 (5w 20) since about 10k miles. Truck doesn't use a drop of oil, over a 5k mile service interval. I bought the truck new in 03. It will be paid off shortly, at which time I'll be looking for (possibly ordering) a new supercab duratec & keeping my existing 03. It's been a great truck & one of the best financial decisions I've made. Hasn't nickle & dimed me to death like my old (1999) F-150 did. Plus I can afford to drive the ranger.

Only major fixes I've had to do was a new clutch slave cylinder @ 86k, new radiator @ 128k-ish (my fault, I pulled a trailer too hard at highway speeds), new clutch master cylinder @ 172k (still on the original clutch, presently).... I've gone through 3 sets of tires & three sets of brake pads (still on the original rotors, presently with no warping!) Lower ball joints replaced at 185k-ish. Two alignments over the 196k. 1 set of U-joints (might also be due to pulling trailers too hard).

Best vehicle I've owned!

Wow! I guess this shows the Duratec really lasts. It would have been nice if you used some cheapo oil so that I could have reason to save some $$ on changes! LOL

Thanks for the update on maintenance needs too. Surprised you didn't have to do more. The u joints (and the ball joints) are ungreasable so they will wear out no matter what and, from past experience, usually sooner than yours. Probably what helped your parts last so many miles is that you accumulated those miles in such a short time--that's about 40K per year! Time allows moisture in and stuff (like rubber) to break down and rust etc. While a lot of us slower milers will have to change the stuff out with less miles on them this is a good reminder that it isn't that the parts aren't tough, just that they are designed to be used.

And, of course, designed to be replaced! I had a 66 IHC Scout that had loose ball joints and tie rods, etc, and the whole works could be tightened with shims and cotter pins! Unlike IHC, Ford figured out earlier to make much of its $$ on parts sales.

Damn, that's insane. Especially the tires and rotors. I need to have mine turned again for the 2nd time.

It would have been nice if you used some cheapo oil so that I could have reason to save some $$ on changes! LOL

I know it's not the same motor, but our 93 3L Ranger made it to 230k under our ownership using cheap dino 10W30 from day 1. That thing never saw an ounce of synthetic or additives in anything. It didn't burn or leak, either. Still ran great when we sold it. We also ran strictly BP fuel and never had a fuel pump failure, so I'm doing the same there. Running Motorcraft blend in the motor, and should be dumping the tranny fluid in favor of Mobil1 Syn ATF.

Glad to hear these hi-mile stories. I bought my '01 with around 80k+ miles last winter and now over 102k. 100 miles a day. Changed the rotors, pads, oil, filters and trans oil on day 1. Since I have replaced the clutch slave (me), the heater valve (me- towed home), shocks (me) the coil/plug/lines ($hop), and the $14 LMC metal tailgate handle.

I need to replace the rotors- killed them screwing off on a roadcourse keeping up with a Viper. Long story.

I was looking for an '01 with a 2.3 manual knowing the timing chain didn't need service. My rub is that even though fuel prices may be expensive... maintenance can kill the deal... $100/hr rates suck. Parts- cheap and plenty and easy to install myself.

Yeah those old Limas were tough NN. I think I'm going to stick to the syth on these new aluminum jobs though ;)

And yeah JayP I was happy with the easy to find parts from 20+ years of Rangers, timing chain, and ease to work on too. And cheap overall price with 0% financing! Even some old Bronco II parts fit--there's a rear swaybar scavenged off an upside down BII in a field currently under my ride that was a simple remove/install.

Welp.... here's a little update, fellas. It never fails that when I start braggin' about how well my ranger has handled the miles, then it craps out.

It was new clutch time for me this week. 197,700 on the odo. Ran about $800 at the local dealership.

Also, I'm starting to get concerned about the engine. The "normal tick" is starting to get quite a bit louder. I noticed the increase is noise around 180k. Usually the tick would go away after the truck warmed up, maybe 5 min. tops. Now, it only goes away after a half hour - 45 min. trip. I asked the dealership, just for sh!ts and giggles, if they would install a used engine from a salvage yard for me...when it comes time. Surprisingly, they will. Car-parts.com's database have a plethera of 40-70k mile engines for $700-$900. Anyone have any better ideas, for a game plan in the unfortunate event of engine failure?

festiva... have you ever had a valve adjustment? that's probably what the ticking is.

ranger387... I haven't had any engine work done. I didn't know that adjusting the valves was an option (at least on a newer style motor).... Has anybody looked into this as a fix for their ticking noise? With as many people here that have taken their trucks to a shop in order to find out what the ticking noise was, I would have figured some shop would have tried a valve adjustment on a duratec....

Yeah, sounds like a valve adjustment or head rebuild. These trucks don't have hydraulic lifters but the parts transmitting cams to valves will wear over time.
If I was replacing the engine I'd look for one with VVT from a Mazda 3 speed!

Would that be a direct swap? Would it require a reprogramming with a tuner? Has anyone here done that swap, that anyone knows of?

Hmm, good question. Or maybe a way to just replace the head. Its basically the same bottom end I think ecept ours doesn't have a balance shaft, but of course maybe different ECU or electronic dooey of some sort controlling the VVT... Way beyond me sorry. Actually might be good to crawl around on the focus boards as I think the heads are interchagable and they don't have the vvt either.

festiva... have you ever had a valve adjustment? that's probably what the ticking is.


Any valve adjustment on the four cylinder Duratec has to be done with selective fitment of the mechanical buckets (tappets) on the stem ends of the valves. No adjustment is possible.

The Ford shop manual has the procedure, and it's really pretty simple, but you need the correct tools. You check the valve tappet to cam clearance on each cam; remove the camshaft, and replace the out-of-spec bucket (tappet) with one of the proper thickness. Reassemble and you're done. But to R & R the camshafts is tricky and requires special tools.

As far as the VVT goes, you need control from the ECU for it to work.