Looking to buy a used 97 Ford Expedition, it has 112K miles and his firmly priced at $8000.

The truck is very clean and runs real nice with a lot of giddy up and go (5.4L engine).  Has new tires and seems very well taken care of.  The only thing I can see wrong with it, is that the lines leading to the tranny cooler are leaking by the cooler.  I'm going to see if I can get the dealer to throw in the repair.  It seems to have lived an easy 112K miles.

I'm not very familiar with Fords, so I don't know if these issues are normal or not..

1) There is a buzz from around the alternator when the engine is running.  It sounds like it might be a normal, but I'm not sure.  The air conditioner is not running.

2) Of the several used ones I tried, they all had some sort of "grinding" type sound from the stearing column.  What's going on here?  This particular one seems not anywhere near as bad as the others I tried.

3) It's a 4 wheel drive model, with 2H, A4WD, 4H and 4L.  When in A4WD the vehicle seems to handle normal.  When in 4H, the turning radius is severly limited.  Is that normal?  I normally drive Dodge 4X4 trucks, and although the turning radius is somewhat reduced, it's not nearily this bad.  
I'm assuming that on Ford, with the A4WD setting, the 4H setting is for when you are really stuck and mostly need to go straight?

Thanks for any thoughts....

bump...anyone?

Make them fix the lines. If it's just the lines then it should be an easy job that they should do.

Quit trying out the 4wd on hard pavement, you'll screw it up from windup. Only use the AWD option on the pavement, that selection does not lock the front/rear axles together,instead uses as viscous coupling in the transfer case. I would be careful if the AC was bad, alt was buzzing, and you had leaking tranny lines. Sounds as if it was NOT well taken care of, just gussied up for sale. Hell I have a 91 ranger 4wd with 240K miles that, while the body is getting crappy, [thanks mich winter and salt] that does not have as many problems. Expeditions are a dime a dozen and get HORRIBLE gas milage. Try about 13 MPG if you are lucky. Pass on it. Also, whats not to say the tranny has run low some time in the past.$$$$$$  If you guess wrong be prepared to spend a lot of money real fast.

Had a 97 4Wd Expedition for about 4 years.

Never had any of the issues you are talking about.

Sold it at the 80K mark , was a great truck.

Quoted: Quit trying out the 4wd on hard pavement, you'll screw it up from windup. Only use the AWD option on the pavement, that selection does not lock the front/rear axles together,instead uses as viscous coupling in the transfer case. I would be careful if the AC was bad, alt was buzzing, and you had leaking tranny lines. Sounds as if it was NOT well taken care of, just gussied up for sale. Hell I have a 91 ranger 4wd with 240K miles that, while the body is getting crappy, [thanks mich winter and salt] that does not have as many problems. Expeditions are a dime a dozen and get HORRIBLE gas milage. Try about 13 MPG if you are lucky. Pass on it. Also, whats not to say the tranny has run low some time in the past.$$$$$$  If you guess wrong be prepared to spend a lot of money real fast.

+1
Add pulling a trailer in overdrive as a cause of trani problems.
The soccer mom that owned it last may have used 4H or worse L at the hint of snow.
How do the tires look round shouldered

Do you have the $8K in hand?, if so I'd look ot put it down on a 3 year old lease turn in that some dealers still offer financing on.

We bought the F-150 supercrew and will add a cap in the spring...the last 2 seats in the Expedition are a PIA to use and Cargo Area is pretty limited.
YMMV,

A new 140 amp alternater runs about U$250 at the dealer.
Fixing the A/C can cost from U$5 to U$2000 depending on what's wrong.
As said above, don't use 4WD on pavement.
The leaky fittings have a TSB on it and the dealer should replace them for free.  Mine did.
Noisy steering means a new pitman arm at about U$500 along with TieRod ends for U$250.

Adjust your purchase price accordingly.

Fritz

I would look up that truck in Consumers Report at the local library, and see what the long-term reliability trend for that year is.

My father in law traded off an 97 Expedition last fall for a 2004 Tahoe. The Ford had 23K on it. They hardly ever drove it. They hardly ever drive the Tahoe either.

I have a 97 Expedition XLT 4X4 with the 5.4 engine, it is up to 125K miles last I checked, it is my wifes vehicle. It is the best truck/SUV I have ever owned (previously two different Bronco II's, Explorer, Mazda B2000, Jeep Cherokee, Ford F-150). Good power with the big V-8, gas mileage is good on the highway, I average an honest 17 mpg on the interstate at 75 mph. In town not so great, maybe 11-12 mpg. I have never had any of the problems mentioned. I plan to keep this one at least another 75-80K miles. I will replace it with another Expedition. Also, I have never had any repair issues, no major work done at all. I did have one of the electric windows repaired and a new OD switch installed, had the brakes reworked once. That's it in 125K of use. Of course I do change the oil regularly. YMMV

Thanks for the responses....This thread has certainly turned interesting.  3 questions turned into a laundry list of problems and suddenly the AC needs replacing which I never even mentioned?!?!

This truck is for a little old lady (my mom) who drives 3K miles a year, I'm certainly not going to tell her to spend 15K on a truck and have her send her SS payments to the bank.  

This truck is extremely clean for 112K miles.  We must have looked at a dozen vehicles and most of them had gooey dirty upholstrey and rattled going down the road.   They were obviously soccer mom trucks driving put hole infested city streets.  This truck is very tight and runs excellent.  It is at a name brand franchised dealership in the front row, if the dealer's mechanics thought it was crap, they would have sent it to auction instead of risking their reputation, and let Joe's Used Cars'N Shit in Itchy Poo county deal with it.

My mom has always had used vehicles and understands she might have to spend $1000 on repairs.  The previous owner was the lot manager who traded it in on a new one.  He said he had just put on new BFGoodrich tires, a new 4WD vacuum switch, and spent $500 on a tuneup within the last 6 months.  He said took it in on trade from a woman who had just done the brakes and about $500 of rac and pinion work.  Seeing as I've owned many vehicles in this mileage range, I didn't consider any of that unusual.

Fritz: Thanks for the info on the hoses.  I wasn't sure if they could put new fittings on (cheap) or if they had to replace the entire assembly (expensive).

"This truck is for a little old lady (my mom) who drives 3K miles a year"

Is she sure she wants an Expedition?  

Quoted: "This truck is for a little old lady (my mom) who drives 3K miles a year" Is she sure she wants an Expedition?

Yup.  She's driven full size 4x4s for the last 20 years and won't consider anything else.  She currently has an 87 Ram Charger that needs to be replaced.  I took her to drive an Explorer which she thought was too small.  Then a Durango which she thought was fine, but we couldn't find a decent one in her price range.  They were either pretty beat up, or  too expensive.  And given the ball joint issues with them, I couldn't recommend one to her.

The wife has a 99 Dakota that had the ball joints done at 50K, then came loose and had to be readjusted again at 57K, then replaced again at 80K.  Unfortunetly, the recall only goes down to 2000, so these were out of pocket at $500 each.   When I called Chrysler to bitch stating that these parts should last at least 100K miles, not 50K or 30K, they told me to F-Off.

I looked at a Tahoe for her, but they didn't seem to be as well constructed as the Expedition.

Quoted: Quoted: "This truck is for a little old lady (my mom) who drives 3K miles a year" Is she sure she wants an Expedition?   Yup.  She's driven full size 4x4s for the last 20 years and won't consider anything else.  She currently has an 87 Ram Charger that needs to be replaced.  I took her to drive an Explorer which she thought was too small.  Then a Durango which she thought was fine, but we couldn't find a decent one in her price range.  They were either pretty beat up, or  too expensive.  And given the ball joint issues with them, I couldn't recommend one to her. The wife has a 99 Dakota that had the ball joints done at 50K, then came loose and had to be readjusted again at 57K, then replaced again at 80K.  Unfortunetly, the recall only goes down to 2000, so these were out of pocket at $500 each.   When I called Chrysler to bitch stating that these parts should last at least 100K miles, not 50K or 30K, they told me to F-Off. I looked at a Tahoe for her, but they didn't seem to be as well constructed as the Expedition.

You know what kind of mileage you will get, right?  12 around town, 16 on the highway, and you need to use at least midgrade to make it run right.