I just bought a 2003 with an extended warranty. Currently it has 70,000 miles on it and it's clean as could be. I love it so far. How many miles can you expect from this truck with a V6. Anybody have a high mileage one? Just curious about the drive train durability if it's well maintained. Thanks.

 

Life of the vehicle depends on the maintance it gets. If you follow recommended maintance and fix things as they start to wear, it could go for a few 100 thousand. My work truck is a 1990, and I know it's not like what you have, but I have over 265,000 miles on it, and it is a daily driver. I keep records ofeverything that has been done to it since day 1. I've spent just over 4500. in maintance and repairs on a vehicle that is 18 years old. Not bad. [sm=mail.gif]

 

Oldtimer35 - I agree with you and those miles are impressive. I've seen some escapes/tributes with 130-140 thousand miles but none higher than that. I'm hoping to hit 200K with this one, and I will be taking care of it. My family has a 93 E150 van for a flower business that routinely gets beat on. The truck gets an oil change maybe every 7-10 K. It now has 296,000 miles on it and continues to run like a top. Can't kill this thing. Everything in the driveline is original. Engine, trans, rear and believe it or not exhaust. Still has power to smoke the tires from a stop light too. I guess it wasn't built on a monday.

 

Hi there. I am one of those with high mileage. I have an 01, V6, with 133,000mls on it. I have had some maintenance issues that I have had to address since i bought her in 2006 (with 113,000ml on it), but that is to be expected. Be sure to take good care of the transmission fluid, and keep it clean. That is the only thing the previous owner did not do, and I'm trying to fix that issue. Other than that my truck looks very clean for the age, & I really like the truck. Best of luck.

BTW, there is another thread that shows some of these vehicles with upwards of 180,000+.

 

my 1995 has over 300k miles on it and runs smooth

 

We bought our 2003 Escape (3L V6 with 4x4) in 2005 with 20K miles on it. It was Ford Certified pre-owned. It now has 193K on it. Other than normal maintenance (fluids, brake pads, etc) we had to replace an A/C line, all 6 spark plugs, all 6 ignition coils, and the drivers side window motor. That's it. Car still runs great and averages 22 MPG. Used to average 24, so the engine may be getting a bit tired. But its been stone reliable the whole time we've owned it. We liked it so much that we bought a certified pre-owned 2009 Escape with 60K miles. But it has 2 wheel drive and the 2.6L I4. Absolutely no problems yet.

 

One thing that happens with high mileage is deposit formation:
1. On the back side of the intake valves: The fuel gets sprayed on the backside of the open intake valves. That vaporizes part of the fuel and cools the valve.
2. Combustion chamber in general.
3. Piston rings. If that happens there will be slight compression loss.
4. EGR plumbing including valve and EGR ports.
5. Catalytic converter and O2 sensors.

As a result the flow rates are being reduced and that makes the engine feel tired.
I used 1 gal of Lacquer Thinner in a half full tank of gas and drove for about 100 miles mostly on the interstate. That woke it up!
Make sure you get Lacquer thinner, not paint thinner, and keep the RPMs below 5000.