So yesterday I did take my Ranger to the Ford dealer during my lunch break and had the recall for the cruise control problem fixed. Simple was in and out under 10 minutes. I don't even think they drove my truck into the service garage they just did it outside where I parked it. So I drove back from where the dealer is back to the town where I live about 20 miles and everything was fine. Then last night I leave work to go home and I stop at a stop sign and I can't get my truck out of 2nd gear. I sat there for probably 5 mins trying to get it into first so I could drive and finally I killed it and started back up and I put it into first and was able to drive the block or so to my apartment. By then I was really pissed off and frustrated I didn't drive my truck the rest of the night.

This morning I start my truck up and try driving it to work and the same thing. Can't shift gears its stuck in 1st I get it to a stoplight and kill it and then I'm able to get going and drive it to work in 1st gear which lucky for me was only a block from the stoplight. I call my brother who is a trucker and pretty good with fixing cars to come look at it. He checked the brake fluid and it had barely anything in it. So he takes it and drives it and comes back and tells me he had to pump the clutch and was then able to shift and recommends that I put brake fluid in it right away. So we go over to NAPA and buy brake fluid and come back out and now there is a small puddle of fluid under my truck. (truck was parked on a slight hill with the front end pointed down) Now we drive back to where I work and he has to constantly pump the clutch to be able to shift. A friend of his who is also a mechanic and truck driver looked at my truck and said it could be a leak in the brake fluid line or the slave cylinder could be shot, he also wonders if when they were putting on the wire harness at the Ford Dealer if they hit something and now completely my truck. Since I got back to work there isn't any fluid on the ground. I'm not even going to bother calling the dealer and tell them all of this because they would probably assume no responsibility.

Any ideas?

 

sounds like the slave to me

 

Slave. Fluid may have leaked out the front of the bellhousing while you were parked downhill. That has hidden my leaky slave twice now, did not know where the fluid was going until I dropped the trans.
How old and mileage? I have not gotten more than 75k or so out of 3 on two trucks so far.

O yeah, by "checked brake fluid" you do mean the clutch reservoir (which does use brake fluid) right?

 

My truck is a 2002 and it has 124,800 miles on it. And your second question yeah it was the clutch reservoir where he put the brake fluid in.

 

i take it on the original slave?

 

Its most likely the original.

 

yea that sounds like the slave is shot

 

yup slave cylinder is ****ed. you gotta pump the clutch pedal a few times everytime you need to shift up or down. unfortunately the slave is inside the tranny, so pull the driveshaft, tranny and part of the exhaust.

 

Well if this is the case then it sucks. I was just starting to get to the point where I thought "wow Ford Rangers are really reliable". I doubt I will have my brother and his friends attempt to fix it if that's the case because last year I let them fix a blown head gasket on my 93 Civic and $1,500 later the engine still overheated and I had to junk the car. There is a good auto repair place where I live and I'll probably have it fixed there. How much am I looking at assuming it is the slave cylinder?

 

I paid $800-ish several years back when my slave cylinder did the thing they do. They seem to fail much more often when it's cold out. Mine failed on Christmas eve 4 or 5 years ago, and I notice a lot more frequency of issues on the forums when the temperature drops. I was equally frustrated. It seems ignorant to put the slave internally where it ruins the clutch & pressure plate when they gets coated w/ hydraulic fluid. If it would be an external slave cylinder, you could simply swap it out. I even wrote a letter to Ford (like they care). So yeah, I was pissed. I swore i'd never buy another Ford. But it's the only trouble i've ever had w/ the truck, and @ 100,000 miles, it runs and drives like a brand new vehicle. I love my Ranger.

Now I would probably change it out myself, but then, the Ranger was my only vehicle so I let Ford do it so it would get done quickly.

Good luck.

 

Yup, both my slaves went in the winter, one time I paid it ran about 800. While you are at it do the whole clutch job, you are lucky you got that many miles out of it.

BTW, the trans is not a "Ford" trans....though they did decide to put it in the Ranger

 

What else has gone in your truck to make you think they aren't reliable. I mean if the only issue you've had is the slave going after almost 130k miles that's not bad. And from all the reading i did before and after buying my truck, its a fairly common weak part on the truck. Just think if you replace this, and your clutch while you've got the transmission out your truck will be good to go for another 80k miles or more.

 

I'm not totally doubting the reliability of Rangers in general I just wished I had known that this would inevitably happen when I bought it. I still have around $3,800 left on my loan for the truck and I had hoped to spend any extra money on fixing all the small things wrong with my truck instead of repairing something that broke. Right now the truck is sitting at the auto repair place, the owner said he can look at it on Monday. He said if its under $200 he will fix it right away but if its going to be more he will call me with an estimate.

 

Don't feel too bad, it happens to everything. (not related, but . . .) I thought the slave was gone in my Superduty, ended up being a bent clutch fork (weak link for them).

A couple weeks later and only the cost of parts, a few bloody knuckles and excessive use of curse words and I feel my truck is just as reliable as ever. If anything, my old 94' 3.0/auto was the most reliable vehicle I have owned, and the most reliable in my family.

Keep us updated man!

 

The mechanic looked at my truck today and called me and said the slave cylinder is bad and needs to be replaced he said it will cost $150 for a new slave and $500 for labor, he also said my clutch is half used and asked if I wanted him to replace the clutch also which will add another $450. I told him I will call him back today and let him know what I want to do.

I'm really tight on money and obviously if I could leave out replacing the clutch it would really help me. The problem is I know that the clutch could go out anytime and then I would have to pay $500 again to have the truck apart and $450 for the clutch.

I'm going to try calling my banker and asking him if he could add another $1,000 to my truck loan and pay to have the clutch and slave fixed all together.

My question is how long does a clutch on a Ranger tend to last? Could I get another 50k miles out of it? Obviously I want to replace the clutch too but my only issue is money to pay for it.

 

well right now i have 60k on my stock clutch and slave with no problems. Im hoping for at least another 20k.

 

That truly depends on how its been driven. I have a buddy who has his original clutch on his ford tempo (his dd) and has over 180k miles on it. My truck currently has 118k miles on its original clutch. I'm not sure how much life she has left but i know whenever the Master slave or clutch fails i'll replace the whole lot.

 

Depends on many issues, and it depends a lot on the driver, and how much they abuse the clutch. On Rangers, obviously it also depends on an unknown which is when is the slave cylinder going to fail. In one way you are lucky because when mine went it coated the clutch and pressure plate with fluid, basically ruining them, so I had no choice but to replace all of it. I've read of slaves going in as little as 12K miles, and of trucks with well over 100K miles and never having an issue. Mine went @ 38K (2K out of warranty...%$&*#), and it hasn't happened again as of yet w/ 108K miles on the truck. You really never know. Also, that estimate sounds a wee bit high to me, but it's probably not overly convenient for you to shop around for the best price @ this point.

 

I talked to my banker this afternoon. He told me to go ahead and have it all fixed and the clutch replaced and after its done I'll bring him the bill and he will do the paperwork and add it on to the loan. Only downside is he wants my tax return put towards the loan right away, which I'm fine with. Hopefully I'll be driving my truck again by Friday.

 

Got my truck today seems to be running fine. Only thing I noticed is when I press the clutch pedal it goes pretty much to the floor to engage. Before my truck gave me all this trouble it was a lot higher up. I'm assuming this is just because of the new clutch?

 

probably...my car was like that after i had a clutch put in it