Hi, my name is Bruce, 19 and I am looking at buying my first vehicle. My dad said this would be a good place to ask questions as I will most likely be getting a Ranger.

Been looking for a while and tonight went to check out a 2007 FX4 with only 105,000 km and it looks in pretty good shape to me. The truck has not been driven or insured since 2018 and when I checked with carfax it looks like it has not seen much use since 2015. Body and interior look really good but there are questions about the underneath.

There is quite a bit of rust on the drive shaft and the rear differential, the front alignment parts also have quite a lot of rust but the frame looks in good shape and there is almost no rust on the skid plate and most of the underside. We noticed that one end of the sway bar was not attached, a 1" gap between the bar and the top of the rod it sits on?

My question really is, how long is too long to sit unused and what should I be looking for if I take the truck to a mechanic to check out?

Appreciate any help, looking to buy your first vehicle is more stressful than I thought it would be!
thanks, Bruce

 

Welcome to the forum

2007 Ranger was a pretty good year, no real heads ups
2007 will use transponder keys, its part of an anti-theft system call PATS or Securi-lock
Make sure you get 2 working keys with it and try to start engine with BOTH, if there is just 1 key then you will need to get another PATS key and have it added to vehicles memory
There is no "by-pass" for PATS, if you lose your 1 working key or it stops working, vehicle will be stuck where it sits, need a mobile locksmith with Ford software on a lap top to come out and make a new key and add it to memory, well 2 keys should be done at that time, lol

Sitting is not good for any vehicle, especially engine and I assume an automatic transmission
FX4 should have 4.0l SOHC V6, these need the 2 long chain tensioners changed every 100k miles, use Motorcraft only parts, not hard to do, these also had a tendency to get leaky thermostat housings, also not a hard fix

If automatic its a 5R55E model, needs regular service
Manual would be a M5OD-R1HD model, bullet proof, but does use ATF, yes automatic transmission fluid in a manual trans

Transfer case will be a BW1354 model, electric shift, the electric shift motor needs to be used every month to keep brushes clean, just shifting from 2WD to 4low and back to 2WD in the driveway is fine
It has a propeller joint(like CV joint) on the front drive shaft, these wear out, sitting doesn't help

What happens when engines and trans sits is that all the seals and gaskets that would normally have an oil coating from being used, even once a month, get DRIED OUT
If its a seal then when shaft its on starts to spin seal can tear a bit because it was stuck to the shaft, dried out, no oil
Same happens with wheel axle seals and valve guide seals
Gaskets dry out and crack so can start to leak

Gasoline in the fuel system can evaporate, well the part of the gasoline that makes the engine run evaporates, lol, whats left is more a varnish that doesn't really burn well in an engine and clogs up injectors

Tires have an age limit, usually 10-15 years, the "rubber" start to rot and split, there is a date code on all tires(its the law), just have to look up the brand to see how "they" used the date code so you can see when they were made

A "low mile" collector car, that might only be used a few weekends a year and only in the summer is WAY DIFFERENT than a "low mile" vehicle you want to change to a Daily driver, lol

But it is nice to get a clean vehicle, I wouldn't worry too much about "surface rust", as long as the frame is straight and in good shape most other things can be dealt with
A 14 year old vehicle will have break downs, regardless of the lower or higher miles

I can't speak to the front end parts, but you CAN pay for an inspection, usually $100-$150 dollars at Ford dealers or other shops
They will give you a list of what was checked and what was wrong
And you can usually get the cost of the inspection back from seller during price negotiations when you point out what you would need to spend to get vehicle road worthy and safe