02' 2.3L Test Drive

Hi guys,

I am going to go test drive a 2002 2wd ranger that has a 2.3L with 143,000 on it. Is there any advice that you have? Anything that I should be on the lookout for??? I need a good reliable truck to get to my job (80 miles round trip). Is the 2.3 a reliable engine, even with 143K on it if it was well maintained? How much longer could the engine last, 200K???

Thank you for any advice!
~Hilltopfarm

Thats what i drive. Theyre reliable engines and will go for a long time. They are known for being kinda noisy little engines though.

hilltopfarm said:

Hi guys,

I am going to go test drive a 2002 2wd ranger that has a 2.3L with 143,000 on it. Is there any advice that you have? Anything that I should be on the lookout for??? I need a good reliable truck to get to my job (80 miles round trip). Is the 2.3 a reliable engine, even with 143K on it if it was well maintained? How much longer could the engine last, 200K???

Thank you for any advice!
~Hilltopfarm

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143,000 is not really bad. How much you paying for it? It would not hurt to look around some more before you decide to buy it. 80 miles a day is a lot after a year or so. If you can go new I would rather do that since you are driving 400+ miles a week. Thats 20,800 miles a year just for a truck to drive to work. If you go other places that adds up really fast. If something goes wrong with it it is up to your wallet to repair it and put you out of a days work to get it repaired if you can't fix it. Make sure you get all the paper work to show it has been well maintained. That is one less worry for you. Then you know you are getting a decent well taken care of truck.

straycat said:

143,000 is not really bad. How much you paying for it? It would not hurt to look around some more before you decide to buy it. 80 miles a day is a lot after a year or so.

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I hope am going to offer $4700 (asking 5299). I have been looking for the past 4 months, and am kinda down to the wire now, since I start my job next week and do not want to drive my 88' ranger on the freeway Good news is it is only 15 days a month I will be driving 80 miles a day (1,200/month, 14,400/year)

Rose2300 said:

Thats what i drive. Theyre reliable engines and will go for a long time. They are known for being kinda noisy little engines though.

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How many miles does yours have on the odo? Been pretty reliable?

hilltopfarm said:

I hope am going to offer $4700 (asking 5299). I have been looking for the past 4 months, and am kinda down to the wire now, since I start my job next week and do not want to drive my 88' ranger on the freeway Good news is it is only 15 days a month I will be driving 80 miles a day (1,200/month, 14,400/year)

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Not a bad price. I am adding up mileage for you based on using the truck every day, and not just for work. I figured since it is newer then you’re older ride and you will be driving this a lot so the mileage will add up really fast. It always adds up fast as you will see. I keep saying I will only drive one of my vehicles 2-3 days a week. later on I see that I added 9,000 miles without realizing how many times I drove it and how far I went……lol

"It always adds up fast as you will see"

Yep you are right! As long as it is in good working order I'll probably put many more miles than anticipated on it...

Search mileage or odometer threads there are guys here with half a million miles on the 2.3 I have over 200,000 IM guessing since the odometer broke at 160,000 but that was yeaaaars ago. When 2 owners prior owned it. As in my father in law got it broken from his brother. So yea probably closer to 250,000 lol runs like a champ

Mine has 324k on a 1996 its still going strong has been well taken care of still has great compression no significant signs of wear

I used to drive a Ranger with one of those engines at work. Last time I checked, it had over 256k miles and still ran like it was brand new. It was poorly maintained and beaten on its entire life too. I probably would've bought one for myself if Ford offered it in 4wd.

killj0y said:

Search mileage or odometer threads there are guys here with half a million miles on the 2.3 I have over 200,000 IM guessing since the odometer broke at 160,000 but that was yeaaaars ago. When 2 owners prior owned it. As in my father in law got it broken from his brother. So yea probably closer to 250,000 lol runs like a champ

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MoToRNecK said:

Mine has 324k on a 1996 its still going strong has been well taken care of still has great compression no significant signs of wear

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You guys have the Lima 2.3, which is a completely differnet engine from the Duratec. Not trying to be rude or anything, but your experiences are not really relevant at all.

This is the new 2.3...140 HP...better than the Lima...haven't heard too many things bad about them...but you might want to read the 4 banger 2000 and Newer thread a bit to see if there is anything to watch out for...

Other than the engine being a totally different animal it's still a Ranger...fairly reliable...look for rust...crawl under and have a look at the frame...

Mark_88 said:

This is the new 2.3...140 HP...better than the Lima...haven't heard too many things bad about them...but you might want to read the 4 banger 2000 and Newer thread a bit to see if there is anything to watch out for...

Other than the engine being a totally different animal it's still a Ranger...fairly reliable...look for rust...crawl under and have a look at the frame...

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Precisely, I was referring to the good lineage. I haven't heard of any horror stories and that's why I said search those other threads you'll find guys with the duratech they have true high mileage as well.

Here is a horror story from a 2.3 Duratec.

Just for funsies.


http://therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94156

hilltopfarm said:

How many miles does yours have on the odo? Been pretty reliable?

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Mine has 77k on it. no problems. its definately reliable, and I get around 27 mpg normal driving (not babying it, but not hotrodding it).

I bought mine for 5200. I wouldn't pay more than around 4200-4300 for one with 140k on it.

killj0y said:

Precisely, I was referring to the good lineage. I haven't heard of any horror stories and that's why I said search those other threads you'll find guys with the duratech they have true high mileage as well.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 2.3 lima and the 2.3 duratec share nothing at all besides having the same displacement? So there is essentially no lineage? haha