Zyla's 1999 Ford Ranger - Ranger Adventures

[Zyla]

Mmmkay guys, I got the impression that people were interested in the truck, so I'm giving this a go.

Starting from the top:

It was a chilly, sunny February 18th in northern Utah. My dad and I were cruising around in the Legend after dropping off my niece and nephew at my sister-in-law's workplace. The previous night, I had already looked at the Ranger on the dealer's website. After taking interest in the truck almost immediately, I decided I was going to have a look at it the morning after.

The Legend's V6 murmured into the parking lot with the soft springs cushioning us from the uneven entrance. After looking around whilst crawling through, we finally spotted the Ranger in the back of the lot, all neglected-like. We asked an employee for the keys and trotted back to the leaf-covered fence to look at the dirty, white truck parked alongside it. After squeezing into the cab thanks to an Explorer parked a foot away front the door, I got inside and started to scan everything; wiggling the shifter, feeling the clutch, all that jazz. The hood was popped, and the engine was awoken.

We had to have someone move their van, then I pulled forward to let dad into the passenger seat, and we began our test drive. After taking the first turn and reaching 4th gear, I was in love. The way the interior was so basic made me swoon. Simplicity in vehicles is something that always makes me very happy. Numerous back-and-forth trips were made in order to complete the purchase, but we finally made it happen, and I was on my way to an empty house in my new Ranger. I had the windows down, and the radio off (there isn't one); it was a nice feeling.

February 19th:

Everything starts falling apart. The speedo stops working, the non-functional wipers are discovered, and the engine starts misfiring. I drove down to the nearest Autozone to have it diagnosed, and the scanner detected a cylinder 4 misfire, and injector problem, and something bad with the EGR sensor. How much worse could it get? My dad and I had a look at the engine and pulled the spark plugs after checking the wiring. We also got a can of Sea Foam and Engine Restore to run through the engine, since they're said to help restore compression or clean out gunked-up engine components. The suggested NGK spark plugs that weren't already in the truck were purchased the same day, and a compression tester was rented.

Cylinders 1-3: 120psi.
Cylinder 4: 60psi.

We checked it 3 times. The plugs made a noticeable difference, but it was very slight. The truck still vibrates like mad and has a ridiculous power deprivation. The check engine light went from solid to flashing. I looked up what the difference was, and apparently the flashing indicates that my engine is on the verge of, "catastrophic failure." What a scary thing to read.

So, I'm waiting for my tax return to show up so I can take it to the dealer and find out what the true source of the issue is. Hopefully it's nothing huge or ridiculously expensive.

Until further notice, I'll leave you with these pics I took yesterday:

The panel under the steering wheel was temporarily removed to re-secure the hood release handle.

 

[carracerptp]

Congrats on the truck. I have always wanted a Ranger. I hope you get it back in good health soon.

 

[Ronald6]

"Simplicity in vehicles is something that always makes me very happy."

Aman.

 

[Slash]

Sounds like you have a dead cylinder. Could be a number of things...I would run that motor until it explodes and then just replace it with a junkyard engine.

 

[homeforsummer]

Always quite liked US-market Rangers, and if I ever moved there they'd be relatively high up on the list of vehicles I'd buy to knock around in.

I can also appreciate the simplicity thing. Even better that you've bought a regular white one with unpainted bumpers too. Proper poverty spec. For some reason, I like that they sort of have three seats, when that centre armrest is up. I can't imagine it's comfortable with three people in there (certainly not with the manual, and whichever poor sod has you fish between their legs for the lever every time you change gear).

But your ability to buy cars with near-terminal faults continues to go unmatched.

I'd like to think you'll keep this Ranger, and restore it to rude health, but for the love of god next time you buy a car please scrape together an extra 500 bucks and buy one that doesn't need major driveline components changing within the first month of ownership for more than the cost of simply buying a working one to start with.

After the Isuzu I thought, "oh well, happens to everyone" (it's certainly happened to me). After the Legacy, I thought it was funny. After the Acura, which admittedly didn't look as bad as it did at first, I wondered if you were a glutton for punishment. Now I'm beginning to wonder whether you're just leaping into the cheapest cars you can find without so much as a glance over them.

 

[Zyla]

But your ability to buy cars with near-terminal faults continues to go unmatched.

I'd like to think you'll keep this Ranger, and restore it to rude health, but for the love of god next time you buy a car please scrape together an extra 500 bucks and buy one that doesn't need major driveline components changing within the first month of ownership for more than the cost of simply buying a working one to start with.

After the Isuzu I thought, "oh well, happens to everyone" (it's certainly happened to me). After the Legacy, I thought it was funny. After the Acura, which admittedly didn't look as bad as it did at first, I wondered if you were a glutton for punishment. Now I'm beginning to wonder whether you're just leaping into the cheapest cars you can find without so much as a glance over them.

Come on, man. I was expecting someone to say something about the issues but you act as if I could foresee the engine pooping out on me. The truck was nowhere near as cheap as the last three cars and ran wonderfully the day I bought it, so I actually did buy something that was thought to be mechanically sound and dent-free. Show some sympathy rather than bagging on me for my so-called failure to glance.

 

[Katiegan]

Come on, man. I was expecting someone to say something about the issues but you act as if I could foresee the engine pooping out on me. The truck was nowhere near as cheap as the last three cars and ran wonderfully the day I bought it, so I actually did buy something that was thought to be mechanically sound and dent-free. Show some sympathy rather than bagging on me for my so-called failure to glance.

I don't think @homeforsummer means it like that. It just looks like, from your purchase history, you seem to have some kind of 'curse' or something in ending up with a car that has problems. I'm pretty sure HFS isn't calling you out for it and saying you've 'failed' to look over the car properly. To me, it looks like he's just pointing out the fact you seem to have bad luck when purchasing cars, and now it's starting to look like you're not taking as much time as you might think.

Try not to be so uptight and defensive. We're not all out to get you.

 

[eiriksmil]

Try not to be so uptight and defensive. We're not all out to get you.

Ding, ding.. Winner winner chicken dinner Actually I don't think anyone is really out to get him.

I did something catastrophic coming though lol. Good on ya for trying to do the right thing tho'. Pro tips; Always take a good long test drive so to see if anyone just pulled the codes/re-did the battery to delete ecu history. Always expect something awful with cars looking 'neglected at the back of the parking lot' (I still think my white 16v will be a future headache based on this) and man up and head back to that dealer for cash versus Ranger.. Buy something else unless you wanna throw energy at making this work the hard way

 

[homeforsummer]

Half and half to be fair, @Katiegan. I don't want to beat the chap up about things, and he certainly seems to have terrible luck with his purchases, but while I don't expect him to divulge how much has been spent on the truck, it's a simple fact of car-buying (and indeed many other things in life) that if you buy cheap, you buy twice.

If the truck's issue is genuinely something that has appeared out of the blue, and is simply inopportune timing that it's happened the day after he's bought it, then that's truly terrible luck, and I am indeed sympathetic. Everybody has crappy luck somtimes.

But sentences like this:

in the back of the lot, all neglected-like

and

After taking the first turn and reaching 4th gear, I had already made my decision

...don't fill me with confidence, certainly not given his well-documented history of falling for cars that turn out to have huge issues. Regardless of how much you love a car on the test drive, it still warrants going-over with a fine-tooth comb. As @eiriksmil says above, a thorough test drive would be a good start. I have a friend in the UK who continually buys seriously cheap cars - in the £150-£300 range quite often - yet he very rarely gets burned. Now that's either luck, or it's because he makes absolutely sure that they're in good working nick before he puts the money down.

I'm speculating here, but I imagine something like that Ranger has probably led a fairly hard life, and I suspect there's evidence of that throughout the vehicle. I'm not a Ranger expert but just from those pics I can see there's a big interior panel suspiciously missing beneath the steering column. That would strike me as unusual.

But to clarify @Zyla, I've no intention to be malicious and if you're just enduring crappy luck then I sympathise. And as I started with, I think you've bought a neat car.

 

[Katiegan]

Ding, ding.. Winner winner chicken dinner Actually I don't think anyone is really out to get him.

I did something catastrophic coming though lol. Good on ya for trying to do the right thing tho'. Pro tips; Always take a good long test drive so to see if anyone just pulled the codes/re-did the battery to delete ecu history. Always expect something awful with cars looking 'neglected at the back of the parking lot' (I still think my white 16v will be a future headache based on this) and man up and head back to that dealer for cash versus Ranger.. Buy something else unless you wanna throw energy at making this work the hard way

I wouldn't go as far as to say take the Ranger back and get something else @Zyla, but you should definitely take it back to the dealer (as you've said you will already) and tell them the issues it has. They might be able to give you some kind of discount on getting them fixed or something. Did you see the ad for it at all? If you did, did they list it as a good runner? You could be able to get something out of them for saying it wasn't as described.

I'm not a Ranger expert but just from those pics I can see there's a big interior panel suspiciously missing beneath the steering column. That would strike me as unusual.

The panel under the steering wheel was temporarily removed to re-secure the hood release handle.

 

[homeforsummer]

Okay, my bad on that particular point.

 

[Zyla]

I'm very notorious for taking things the wrong way over text.

I guess you could say I have bad luck when purchasing cars, but everyone knows I always end up loving any car I buy. lol. To make things a little more clear, the test drive was longer than just one turn down the road and a few gear changes. I was basically saying I loved the truck that short into the drive, but we drove it for at least 5 miles.

Sorry if I seem defensive, I can be that way, but like I said, I'm not the best at distinguishing casual point-outs from deliberate shaming through text.

 

[Zyla]

Double-post:

Despite my intentions to convert the rear brakes to disk in the future, I did go ahead and replace the rear drum brake shoes on Friday. It seemed that only one side had been changed prior, since only one side was bare.

Old and new:

 

[Ronald6]

"that if you buy cheap, you buy twice."

My father has drilled this into my head countless times. We both fully expected to put as much into my recently purchased SVX as we spent on it.

I got "lucky" because:
1: My father knows what he's doing and gave the car a thorough inspection (as did I, but I can't see as much as he does).
2: The previous owner and the dealers mechanic loved and took care of the car.
3: My current mechanic has simply been amazing with how far they will go for me and still keep the prices mind bogglingly low.

Sounds like you got hit by someonw who knows how to flip a lemon. Fix it just enough and sell it "as-is."

Even if you don't spend the extra few hundred on something more reliable, please, ask to drive it to your mechanic for a thorough inspection. Don't trust them to run the codes for you.

Even if your mechanic charges you 100$ for an inspection (that would be a high estimate) at least that way you will know the true cost of the vehicle.

Good luck.

 

[Joey D]

Double-post:

Despite my intentions to convert the rear brakes to disk in the future, I did go ahead and replace the rear drum brake shoes on Friday.

With a truck you don't need rear discs, even my 2015 Tacoma has drum rear brakes and I don't even notice. The only downside with them is that they can get packed up with mud pretty good when the backroads turn into bog, but a hit from the powerwasher cleans em right up.

Plus with rear drums you can do burnouts easier, so there's that.

 

[Slash]

Joeys spot on. I find with most trucks you can't even tell the rears are drum. Especially if they are massive, like 12"x3" or larger.

 

[Cale]

MY friend has one of these with a rotted exhaust. Love that thing it sounds so sweet.

So run open strait pipe right out from behind the front wheel.

 

[Zyla]

With a truck you don't need rear discs, even my 2015 Tacoma has drum rear brakes and I don't even notice. The only downside with them is that they can get packed up with mud pretty good when the backroads turn into bog, but a hit from the powerwasher cleans em right up.

Plus with rear drums you can do burnouts easier, so there's that.

Very interesting! I would have never thought such a new truck would have drums on it. Thanks for the info.

 

[Katiegan]

Very interesting! I would have never thought such a new truck would have drums on it. Thanks for the info.

You'd be surprised how many new cars still come with drums on the back. The Fiesta does (lower trim models, of course) and a lot of other small hatchbacks like that all have rear drums.

 

[Zyla]

Crazy to think that 3 months have already passed us by since the Ranger arrived at the Zyla residence. I didn't wanna give up this thread, since I enjoy sharing my car with others, so I decided it was time for a basic update.

Alright, so, yes, the engine is still in the poor running condition as it was when I got the truck, however, there is a bright side, finally. I have recently been hired into a new job; one that pays much greater than my last and that can support the recovery and modification of the truck. This means I can afford a new engine, and my goal is to have it in by the beginning of July, or the end of June, if we're lucky.

Despite the 4th cylinder contributing literally nothing to the performance of the truck, Kaylie has managed to power up the trickiest hills and propel herself down the longest highways. I've never pushed her harder than I felt was safe, and have never exceeded 4k RPM. The CEL still flashes, and the smell of raw gas can be smelled after letting off the throttle occasionally, but as long as I continue to be circumspective, the engine should be alright; it's all we can really do at the moment.

In case you've missed the several posts in the car pic thread, I made the bed white, and installed a blue tailgate net. The net makes it much easier to see the proximity of impatient drivers, and backing in is a breeze. Also, I transferred the wink mirror that was in the Legend to the Ranger. It needs slight positional altercations made, and an additional windshield mount to hinder vibrations, but other than that, it serves its purpose.

It may have been previously mentioned, but I plan on lowering the truck, and I'll be purchasing a Belltech suspension kit once the new engine is under the hood, since that's my main priority. It's been a slow project thus far, but it's a fun one. I'm enjoying the truck considerably despite its infirmity. The new job should make for some hasty progress from here on out.

 

[eiriksmil]

The dealer didn't cover any of the costs?

Lowered 2wd trucks are dope.. Looking forward to see it..

 

[homeforsummer]

Thought I recognised that building from a photo I'd seen on Instagram. Was going to post it here and say "hey, that looks familiar!". Then I realised the picture I'd seen on Instagram was taken by you Now following

 

[Joey D]

Lowered trucks, hey that's something I know! How much of a drop are you planning on doing? My Blazer was 7/7 and it made it nearly impossible to daily drive without scraping everything.

I also highly recommend a good set of drop shocks and if you are going for anything more than 4 or 5 inches in the back, I'd notch the frame so you are constantly banging on it going over bumps. I had to virtually cut off the bumpstops on my Blazer which made it the rear sound awful when I was driving.

 

[Zyla]

How much of a drop are you planning on doing?

Nothing ridiculous, just a 3/3.

 

[Zyla]

I've been waiting rather impatiently for the past 6~ months to make this post, and the time has finally come around. Those of you who follow this thread already know about the engine and the bad 4th cylinder, and while it's seemed like a drawn-out inconvenience, I'm happy to announce that the problem is finally going to come to an end.

Back when I purchased the truck, the 4th cylinder had roughly half the compression that was needed in order for the engine to run properly. Several weeks after, the cylinder sank down to lovely 0psi, which meant that my engine was pretty much just a 3cyl that had a weight on it. Dad eventually had the idea to unplug the 4th injector so we'd stop smelling raw fuel and wasting it as well. The smell went away, and the power was actually positively effected to a minuscule degree. There was no longer any extra crap in the cylinder that needed to get pushed out, so the brief hesitation upon acceleration was history.

Since my dad has a second job at an auto parts store (NAPA), he gets a fair discount on all products, which means an even more affordable solution to my engine problem - a new cylinder head. The mechanic we took the truck to many months ago who declared the 4th cylinder officially "dead" was led to believe that I either had a burnt/bent valve, or the piston had a hole in it. Apparently the piston thing is much less likely to happen than the valve thing, so we're thinking optimistically on this one and assuming that that's it. The good part is that the head has to come off anyway in order to find out, so when we replace the head with the new one, we'll probably see the issue right away.

Tomorrow (8/8/15), when my dad goes to work, he's going to be taking care of the transaction for all of my new engine parts, and they're said to be here by this Friday or Saturday.

I'm so glad I'm finally able to make a significant repair on one of my vehicles. After this gets taken care of, I'll probably do my best to hold on to the Ranger for quite some time. I've gotten so used to the minimal power in my truck and the vibrations of the uneven firing that it will feel like a whole new vehicle after this is done. I'll be honest, several times throughout my ownership, I've considered just giving it up and buying something that runs right. But every time, my interest would gradually recrudesce back to the Ranger. I was really close to having a new vehicle about a week ago, but thankfully that didn't work out. At the time, I was upset, because I was pretty excited to have something new (it's just who I am, that's why I like to sell my cars after a short time, because I can't have more than one at the moment), but after that failed and I was looking around town for other options, I would just keep getting out of my truck and admiring everything about it. I'd start noticing little details about it, like the new tires I got for it last month (did I tell you guys about that?) and how good they looked, and the fact that it was a regular cab with 2wd, and that it was manual. Just all those things that remind you why you bought the vehicle in the first place and why you love it. It even started feeling better to me as I drove it. Seeing those cars in the lot and comparing them to what I already had, it just wasn't worth it. I already had what I wanted, why else would I feel that remorse as I start looking for something to replace it? After several stops at dealerships I began to deeply miss the Ranger, even though it hadn't gone anywhere yet. I said screw it and decided I wasn't giving up on it. And I'll be damned if I come so close to making a major repair on my truck and withdraw from it enitrely. Yeah, she runs rough and she's slow as hell, but with enough time and patience, Kaylie will be back on her feet and ready to fly through any canyon I take her to.

That's another thing, I've recently discovered that "Kaylie" is a very common name in Utah, and I started thinking about how strange it would be to bring that up in conversation, so I've decided a name change is in order. To what, I'm not sure yet, but I'll try to make it something a little more unique or rarely used.

I mentioned new tires in a previous paragraph. They aren't actually new, but they're lightly used, and it's only two of them. The front tires were nearly down to the belts and needed to be replaced as soon as possible, so I got a very affordable set of used tires to last me until I get my new winter tires.

I plan to be making an even larger post in roughly a week or so regarding the revamped engine and how wonderful it feels, etc. Until then, here is my usual pic dump with my latest favorites.

 

[carracerptp]

Glad it's getting fixed! Great pictures!

 

[Doog]

That's another thing, I've recently discovered that "Kaylie" is a very common name in Utah, and I started thinking about how strange it would be to bring that up in conversation, so I've decided a name change is in order.

Introducing Blanqueefa the Ranger.

 

[Zyla]

I've got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that this arrived a few days ago!

The bad news is, there was a bit of a mix-up and only the head was ordered. So tomorrow, I'll be ordering the rest of the parts, meaning the bolts, head gasket, thermostat, and any remaining components needed will be headed my way after that.

Fun fact: The head pictured may look relatively light, but actually weighs about 75lbs on its own, which is more than my pet dog.

 

[carracerptp]

You might also want to do a water pump as well, one less thing to go wrong later!

 

[Zyla]

This post is a story of the adventure I went on today with the Ranger, so it qualifies as relevant to the thread. This post is also very long and I apologize if your browser crashes.

Alright, to start, I'll take us back to circa spring of 2k14 when my pal @Davis and I became interested in finding some sort of long empty stretch of road to hoon around on. Shortly after the interest sprouted, we had the idea to look around for abandoned airfields in the area, being that they're all at least 1/4 mile long and are uninhabited in most cases. Davis managed to find one up near the Salt Lake, as seen in one of his earlier posts in his thread. About a year passed and I hadn't been to an airfield yet. This was mainly because I forgot about the idea as a whole and became focused on other things in life. It was a few months into 2k15 and I remembered that I wanted to visit one. I went online and Googled abandoned airfields in the northeastern region of Utah, and about 5 results came up. Somehow they were discovered and recorded by a pilot from around here. It turns out there was one fairly close to me, in Eagle Mountain.

About a month ago I moved a little bit south of where I lived for the past 4 years, and now I'm just above the other major lake around here - Utah Lake. This also means that I'm closer to the location of the airfield I found online. So, after about a year and half of procrastinating, I decided to utilize the free time of a day off by driving to the airfield.

The overall drive to the airfield was actually pretty short, and the views were decent. It only took me about 20-25 min to reach it from my house. I had to use the Maps app on my phone in order to find it, however, because the last little bit of road that leads to it is sort of perplexing, because the airfield itself is incomplete, and requires a convenient satellite view to avoid confusion.

As I'm rolling past this building surrounded by tanker trucks, and I'm asking myself if the airfield has been removed and the satellite view just hasn't been updated. I looked at my map a little closer, and noticed wider road that also led to the strip. I backed up and took the detour, and I was led down a gravel road wide enough for two cars. The gravel road turned into asphalt with some pretty distinct markings on it. The single yellow line running along the middle that flowed through a turn had me feeling like a little kid following bread crumbs. I looked up from the yellow line and saw that it was now an even wider stretch of pavement. The massive "17" across the road instantly gave it away. It was like meeting the Tinder date you fancied so much online, and realizing that they're so much better in person. I reached the airfield, and this massive piece of moderately recent history was around me. I actually had to stop my truck to take it all in because these kinds of things fascinate me so much. Planes, airstrips, and abandoned things in general. Sadly I only got to see the last two. After everything caught up with me, I pulled the truck onto the runway and angled it for an obligatory photo.

After going down the runway and back, I decided to leave my truck alone and walk off to explore the area. Here's a few things I found:

What is this, some sort of fire hydrant?

At the entrance end, there was a wind sock pole that was missing the actual sock.

At the other end of the strip was another wind sock that was still intact.

After driving down even further, I saw that the pavement actually ended and turned into gravel again, where the rest of the runway would have been. This end was a little more interesting. Here's some sort of oil drum that was made into a grill.

Well, I found the other sock.

Had to snap another pic of the truck while I walked around.

Here you see the reflector/light poles that would have marked the end of the runway for pilots. All of the reflector plates were destroyed and surrounded the area in pieces.

Examining the area a little more, I noticed some tire trails that looked like they led further into the field. Why that was interesting to me, I don't know. There was nothing up there, but I tried anyway.

I got shut down pretty quick.

I backed up to do a three-point turn and managed to back into a nice makeshift parking spot for a nature pic.

I made my way out of the the sea of sagebrush and moseyed back down the gravel section of the airstrip, and something to the left caught my eye.

That thing was what appeared to be an old silo.

Well, it didn't look like something I could drive over, so I parked the Ranger along the side of the runway and started trotting toward the mysterious giant cylinder.

Along the way I saw this black bucket and peered inside. It was full of water, and, much to my surprise, there was a dead field mouse floating in it.

Sorry for the poor quality, the sun made it difficult.

Moving up just a bit further, I reached the silo, and discovered my restrictions.

Well, I decided to work my way around the fence, as a few more interesting things laid along the perimeter.

Here's a collection of some of those things:

Another oil drum that was used for target practice.

Up ahead from the barrel was a massive pile of concrete that looks like it could have been a building at one time.

I should have taken a picture of what it looked like while I was standing in the middle of it, but oh well.

I walked even farther up and discovered an opening in the fence that I thought would keep me from visiting the silo.

Thanks to some bullet holes in the silo, I was able to look inside.

And of course, the second most exciting thing of the trip.

I found an engine!

I also reminded myself that this place wasn't private property and tons of stuff was already vandalized, so nobody would care if I snatched up this rusted old engine. Somebody would have already taken it, or whoever owned it wouldn't just leave it out in the weather. I'm not known to steal things, and this didn't feel like stealing.

I tried to pick it up, and it weighed at least 70lbs. I was too far from my truck to walk with a 70lb engine in my hands. So, I went back to the truck and looked for a path I could drive down as I backtracked. Turns out there was already a path cleared that I overlooked on the way over to the silo.

It was heavy enough to weigh itself down, so I wasn't too worried.

I made my way back out of the field and down the runway, making sure to take everything in another time. I know I'll revisit this place again in the future, but it still felt necessary. As I turned off of the runway, I noticed a few signs I didn't see on my way in.

One last picture of my truck while heading out, and I was on my way.

Overall, the trip was fun. I saw some cool things and I felt legitimate excitement when I rolled onto the runway. All I have to do now is take Davis there in his Porsche.

Edit: If any pictures don't load, I'll take care of them.