Living in southern California, driving an 85 bronco, I'm getting killed paying for gas, being that my truck doesn't get 10 miles to the gallon. I didn't make some desert trips because i couldn't pay for gas, so it's time to upgrade. I'm looking at getting a 1998 4.0L Ranger with the manual 5 speed. The only thing, its got 85,000 miles. Now, i know some trucks go for ever. My bronco has over 250,000 miles, but a new motor, original tranny. How long will those year rangers go for before catastrophic failure? And if i don't get that truck, from that year and newer, what years are better, and what should i avoid.

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Die_trying said:

Depends...

How far can ya push it before ya get tired?  

I dunno which years are the good ones, but I can tell ya to avoid 91 and 94's... my brother in laws 91 made it 56,000 miles before it started self destructing, and my dad's 94 came from the factory with various electrical gremlins and didnt have enough power to get out of its own way.

Some can and will last for ever, some won't. Seems like with this particular truck its the luck of the draw. I know of some that have gone half a million miles and I know some that practically fell apart at 130,000 miles

the 4 bangers absoluetly refuse to get out of their own way.

I have around 220,000 miles on my 97 Ford Ranger XLT 4X4, the only work I had to do was the heads I let it get low on coolant one summer...My fault. Other than that the 4 wheel drive system needs some pampering but that can be cured by going to manul locking hubs.

I've got a ford Ranger for a work truck and it has over 160,000 miles.
No major problems......yet.

My personal truck is a '96 Dodge ram and it has over 270,000 miles on the odo.

Yes I drive allot.....

The company I work for has a whole fleet of '03 Rangers and almost all of them have over 100,000 on the odo with no major problems (some are closer to 200,000)....thats not saying that they don't have problems, just nothing major.

It should easily make it right to the point of the breakdown.

toyota_mdt_tech said:

i had a 95 4 banger with 170k when i sold it ran strong

Chevy_Cowboy said:

Hmmm . . . I have a '91 with the 4.0L and it has 243,000 miles on it. I haven't done a thing to the engine. I had the tranny rebuilt at 187,000 because it would stick in 1st until it warmed up.
It's been a great truck for me. The '90 model year had problems with head cracks. I heard they fixed that for the '91 models. I still haul a camper and pull a trailer with it.
It's the luck of the draw with any year. You could get a good one or a bad one.

my 90 2wd ranger with a 2.9 v-6 ran to 187,000......then on the way home with a brand new 07 crf450r in the back----it let a rod go....i was doing 80mph on the turnpike----i paid 2200 for it back in 98 and put 80,000 mi on it......man i will miss that piece of shit

and also a cracked head

I've got a 98 2.5L 2w drive with 30" BFG's on it.  It has about 154,000 miles on it and the only problem i had was the brake light switch fried(i'm pretty sure it was a short do to some faulty wireing on my part). It still runs very strong... for a 2.5L.

I have a 1996 Ranger 2WD Supercab with 3.0L V-6 4AO trans. It has 155,000 miles and runs fine, never burns oil. The scuttlebutt is that the 3.0L, at least, is solid as an anvil. I just put new tires on it...I guess that means it will blow next week:>).

Seriously, I've had it since new and broke it in carefully with frequent oil changes. It has run Mobil1 all its life (after break-in). The worst that happened was replacing original shocks two weeks ago (they had rusted through!) the stud on the radius arm for the shock snapped off when wrenching. That required major surgery to the front end to replace. Apparently it happens a lot on the beam axle type (up to '97). You could do worse.

Rangers are actually pretty reliable.  The 4-banger was also a good engine and the only V6s that were really ever problem were the 3.0Ls.  They had issues with oil sludging which sometimes would plug up the oil galleries and starve the engine of oil causing it to sieze.
The 4.0L V6 was a great engine.
Ford's automatic trannys are bulletproof, but the Mazda 5-speeds did have some issues.  Ford put a rubber plug in the side of the tranny and over time that plug will rot out.  This will causes the tranny to leak fluid while you are driving it, but not while it is park.  You wont see a puddle under the vehicle, so you will have no idea its leaking fluid and if you dont check the fluid level regularly it will run itself out of oil and basically burn itself up.  You can easily replace the rubber plug with a metal one and fix the problem though.
Ive seen quite a few Ranger will over 200,000 miles on them that ran fine.  If taken care of, Id say that you should be able to expect 150,000-200,000 miles out of a Ranger.

i will miss my danger ranger----i had the r's ripped off mine and then it was anger......raaaahhh

I had a 99 Ford Ranger and ended up selling it for $3,000 last year.  It had round 94,000 miles but it was the best choice I've ever made. Now I have a 95 Nissan Sentra I bought for $200 and it runs better than my truck ever did.

I had two Rangers, an '86 and an '88, both 2.9L V-6 4x4's.  The motor was designed in Germany, to be a water pump which would run 24 hrs a day.  Ford took the motor and created the Ranger V-6 motor, and it is a great, dependable german made motor.  But, it is the little things that get you....epecially with age.  

Chevy_Cowboy said:

I dno man, my beater '95 Ranger is pretty quick, 2wd long box, reg cab 4.0 v6. It's on like 75k right now and hasn't failed me yet, still runs strong.

MxBaller621 said:

I was talking about the 4 bangers when I said they're gutless.  Dads 94 wouldnt accelerate with the air conditioner on, and ya had to downshift on even the slightest of hills.  Granted, 4 banger S-10s arent much better, I wouldnt recommend one of them either.

Rangers come in 2 varietys... 4 bangers that are gutless as hell or V6's that burn almost as much gas as a V8 fullsize... which kinda defeats the point of a minitruck.

I have a 94 regular cab 2wd 3.0L 5 spd. has 250,000 km's on it and has never gave me any trouble, it's gutless but not as bad as my sunfire was with towing a trailer.