Just got a 2006 Ford Escape for $200, Trying to make it a daily driver for cheap

There’s a guy on YouTube that goes by PS that completely redid a Ford Focus; including an auto to manual transmission swap.
New bumper install and all kinds of other stuff.
Might give you some tips on how to.

I do realize that, but to me Mazda bears just as much blame for not standing by their products, and there are plenty of other car manufacturers I like. This wasn’t a cheap car (premium V6), and it’s not like it took 14 years to rust out. Both rear wheel wells were replaced at great expense just outside the 3 year warranty and the dealer couldn’t have cared less.

This thread inspired me to go check out the current status of the rust bucket. I was taking a few photos and decided to have another peek under the front carpets, and well… yeah. If you’re wondering, the car had all-weather mats installed from the day it was picked up. And yes, that is the driveway you can see through the floor.

Wow, the idea of something like that even being possible is foreign to me lol.

You can have your own Flintstonemobile!

Note to self : Take out an insurance policy on Bob .

Getting a little more work done before work today. Changing the oil and good news! The oil leak is not nearly as bad as I feared. After sitting all day yesterday and driving around it lost just a small spot under the car and the dipstick is the same as yesterday. That could honestly be due to the Seafoam in the oil right now.

I am changing the oil now and will see how things progress with fresh oil.

All of the fluids on this thing are shockingly bad.

Also thinking about just getting a whole set of coils for $25 on ebay and replacing them all. Kinda doubt that the ebay ones would be worse then stock since those are so bad already.

This is a fairly if not totally incorrect assertion; I won’t buy any electronics or things that go in a circle from anything other than OEM providers. Cheap ball joints are probably OK, but cheap coils are not.

See the reviews on Amazon of the knock off coils.

lol, I have actually had the opposite experience. Good luck with most electronic items from aftermarket companies but had an aftermarket balljoint fail on my 4runner (got really lucky with that one).

I have used cheap coils in the past with good luck and the reviews on amazon seems to say they are a good buy as well:

In fact the lowest score I saw for the cheap ford coils was 4 star. That is generally good enough for me considering a single coil from the parts store is $40+.

In other news, I am getting close to being able to track down the low power at sub-2500rpm issue (still got to flush the brake fluid and replace the tone ring).

I did a quick test today with brake cleaner to try and find vacuum leaks but even with a vacuum line removed and spraying the cleaner into the hose, I could hardly tell a difference in the idle, so not looking like that will work on this engine.

I might try to adapt my old boost leak tester to this intake to find leaks that way. Any other suggestions?

You mentioned the PCV hose can be an issue, I see what would normally be a PCV on the valve cover with a hose going to the intake. But based on you saying reach under, this is not the PCV I am guessing?

I tried looking under the intake manifold but only saw the oil lines, no vacuum lines?

I did a smoke test.

Back at the interiors shop I used to hang out at, this one guy lit up and I asked if I could have the cig after he was finished with it. Gave me a strange look, like I’m one of those bums who picks butts out of ashtrays for the 1-2 puffs left (I don’t smoke).

Anyhoo, he hands it to me, I started the car, and just went near each hose I could find with the smoke wafting up near it.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Fwoop! Sucked in all the smoke that came by, right near the nipple on the throttle-body. Yep, other end was right near the #1 cylinder.

Figured just tightening the hose might’ve worked for a while, but I wanted to replace it with the Right Hose, so took it to a nearby shop, figure they’d have the right kind of hose (vacuum line, so wouldn’t collapse like a non-vacuum hose would, and the right diameter, etc.). That’s when I got raped.

Pointed to The Hose In Question, said, “I just want that hose replaced, k?”

“Waaaait, waaaait, let’s do this right…”

I was expecting a few bux for 50¢ worth of hose, maybe 10bux or so for “labor” (shouldda just bought the length of hose and did it myself), and that was it.

OBD scanner, all of 10sec to get a reading. (“Engine diagnostic.”)

Smoke Machine… probably had to pay off his investment. Blew smoke into the system and you’d see where it was coming out, vs the opposite (what I did).

Charged me a couple hunnert bux, and I was furious. Never went back there again. Lost a longtime regular customer over something stoopit like that. Practically threw the money at him and got outta there before I said something particularly nasty (but deserved).

Same crap like one inspection. Cat broke apart internally and ended up being quite hollow. Would ring like a bell if you rapped it. Still passed smog-tests for at least 4yrs ’til the state literally halved the amounts of CO. Odd results coming out, like too much NOx as if running hot/lean, and too little O2 as if running cool/rich, something like that. Guy’s giving me head-shakes, “Ooooh, this can be a tough one to diagnose, let alone fix…” rubbing his hands with glee at a nice expensive job of trying this and trying that (ka-CHING! $$:money_mouth_face:.

“Replace the cat.”

“Uhh, dunno if that would fix it, as there are other things…”

“Replace the cat.”

Rinse, repeat.

Finally got him to just shut up and replace the cat. Passed with flying colors.

Yeah, no cat at all, except the shell, and it still passed smog for multiple years.

B’harni help any Little Ladies who go to shops like these… they probably see a woman dressed in a money-bag like you’d see in a car2n, and just ask for a blank check.

lol, I try my hardest to never take my car to a mechanic after being one for a few years. For one thing I can’t stand other people working on my cars, they might not do it properly lol. For another I know how they can overcharge.

About the only thing I will take my car in for is alignment and tire swaps since I don’t have the tools.

Decided to start flushing the brakes and the first drum I tried the bleeder broke off :person_facepalming:

Luckily it is not leaking so can still be used but not sure what to do now. The fluid is really bad but might just have to go with the turkey baster option since the brakes still work just fine.

That’s my biggest fear, that something’d break off, and the car’d be incapacitated and need to be towed somewhere. And the smaller and stoopiter, the worse.

Yeah, this level of rust takes a different approach to under car maintenance.

I am a massive fan of preventative maintenance but looks like I will need to put the brake fluid off for another time. The brakes work really good so not super worried, just dirty fluid.

With that out of the way, only major thing left that I know the solution to is the tone ring which is supposed to arrive today or tomorrow.

Then I have to start looking for the cause of the low power and the airbag light (assuming the tone ring fixes the 4wd and ABS lights).

Been driving it the last few days, I have to say, it is really nice to drive minus the low RPM issue. The oil leak also does not appear to of returned except for a small drip that I can live with and even that might go away after the next oil change when it no longer has the seafoam in the oil.

It really likes this first oil change.

Ok, spent a little time this evening in the 100 degree weather to finish up the fluid changes. Got the diff and transfer case fluids changed. I had some leftover redline shockproof fluid from one of my past race cars so tossed it in there. I have had great luck with it in other cars, if it works with yours it really is worth every penny. Just doesn’t work with all transmissions but diffs and transfer cases are normally fine.

The transmissions it does work in though it can make a night and day difference. My MR2 for example could hardly shift at 7k+ RPM’s with normal fluid but was like butter with shockproof.

Used a turkey baster to swap as much of the brake fluid as I could.

Changed the transmission fluid, it is actually red now!

Finished flushing the radiator.

Flushed the power steering fluid, it is also now red, it was black before.

Really poked around under the car as well and confirmed that I am really not worried about the rust at this point except the fenders. I think the diesel/oil mix will protect the under car rust fine since it won’t see salt anymore. The door sills are the worst for sure but still have solid metal in most places if you scrap the rust off.

The fenders will be a job for the fall when it is cooler. I have done some body work in the past so that should not be that hard, just time consuming.

Overall pretty happy with the progress, think I am done crawling under the car for a bit.

The tone ring should be in tomorrow I think, so I can swap that out and then focus on the low power. I was googling and someone suggested the MAF sensor. This is quite possible as the old air filter was VERY dirty and oily, so I would not be surprised if the MAF is dirty.

Also got my eye on a limited bumper that happens to be painted the right color on ebay. No bid so far, so might get it for $45.

Gonna have to add up the costs later but think I am around $500 at this point if you don’t count the 50 quarts of oil I got for $2/quart (good oil too, normally $6-$12 a quart) lol.

I am quite happy so far, just want to figure out this low RPM issue. Last major issue to sort out before it can reach daily driver status. It is actually a bit dangers how little power it has off idle but it is not mechanical, so it must be electrical.

Well, got the tone ring in and installed it this morning and good news, it did indeed fix both the ABS and 4WD lights.

At this point it is almost ready for daily driver status except for the low power issues. Which have gotten strange since the tune up and cleaning the MAF.

Now I will get brief moments where it runs like it should, good power even down low and it will switch like a light switch and have no power, then good power then none. Totally random making it hard to figure out.

Even though they checked the coils and replaced them 5k miles ago I ordered a new set and going to get some new plugs as well and see what that does.

I did some quick OBDII sensor snooping and nothing stood out as a possible issue. Although the TPS sensor is showing 17% open even when closed? I know some cars just never show it completely closed but normally it is closer to zero then that. It read correctly the rest of the time so it would not effect the WOT power and throttle does not seem to have any effect on the issue.

It is most certainly electrical, it comes and goes far too fast for anything mechanical since it does not have VVT.

For rust… Ospho or Corroseal.

If you were closer I would happily offer you any bits you want off my rust heap :smiley:

lol, thanks for the offer. Too bad you are so far north.

I did manage to win a limited painted bumper in the right color for cheap on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2002-2006-Ford-Escape-Front-Bumper-Cover-/392366872680?nma=true&si=OC8T4%252BqpBOINwnZXTYv9xrjRXOI%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&\_trksid=p2047675.l2557

That should spruce up the front end, just got to find a grill, the old one is broken and not sure I can fix it.

The coils are supposed to be in later today (got to love living near an amazon shipping center lol). So going to grab some new plugs and hopefully this fixes the low power issue since I don’t know where to look after this.

Hey Texas Ace, any idea what would cause a sporadic miss on # 3 cylinder on a 3.8 Dodge Caravan? All ready changed plugs, coil, and switched plug wires 3 and 6 to no avail. Runs great and then runs terrible. Same code over and over.

That is a strange issue and you already hit all the things I would do first. I don’t know much about that particular engine, I have mostly worked with imports over the years, not by choice so much as happenstance.

Depending on mileage and maintenance the next most common items I have seen for issues like that are injector issues, tossing a few bottles of injector cleaner in the take is a cheap option that sure won’t hurt anything (yes a few, I always overload the tank with cleaners when trying to help an issue like this). Although for a true cleaning you have to pull the injectors out and send them off.

After that stuck piston rings are an issue I have run across quite a bit, particularly on cars that are never driven hard it seems. This can allow excess blow-by and low compression and lead to mis-fires. A compression test can sometimes show this.

Although I still recommend a complete seafoam / marvel mystery oil treatment. I have had nothing but great luck with it.

I have made detailed write-ups on this in the past on other sites but basically.

Add 1/2 to 2/3 can of seafoam to crankcase.

Add 1/2 quart of marvel mystery oil to crankcase.

Drive for a few hundred miles (Generally I just use 1 tank of gas as my rule of thumb).

Once you have let everything work in the crankcase:

Find a good vacuum line that feeds all cylinders (generally one on or as close to the throttle body as possible) and feed 1 gallon of water into the intake while a helper keeps the engine above 2k+ RPM’s with some WOT blips as you are feeding the water to make sure it doesn’t build up somewhere in the intake manifold. I normally do it in 2-3 installments and drive it hard between to get things nice and hot. This can clean out a lot of carbon buildup. Not everyone likes this but ever since using water injection and seeing how clean it keeps things inside the engine, I am sold personally.

It will smoke while doing this, the smoke should get less with each installment which is a sign you are cleaning things.

After water treatment do the same thing with seafoam (basically follow the directions on the can) in the intake. 1/3-1/2 bottle is usually enough for 1 treatment but If the engine is really dirty I will get a second bottle and do it multiple times.

This time though, when you have fed in the seafoam either let the engine die or turn it off so it can soak into everything and work. After ~30 minutes start it up and take it for a spirited drive. If it is working properly you should leave a smoke cloud that blocks out the sun for a few minutes.

Once again it should get less and less with each treatment as a sign it is getting cleaner.

After all of that, drive it to get it nice and hot to get rid of water that made it into the crankcase.

Then change your oil. Technically you can change your oil first before driving it but you can get some leftover water in the crankcase this way.

At this point you have a choice, you can put the other 1/2 quart of marvel myrstry oil into the oil when you refill and drive it like that or jut go with a normal oil change. Personally I put some marvel oil in all my cars all the time. I find it helps keep things clean.

You can also put in a little seafoam into the new oil and drive with it for awhile before changing the oil again. If you do this I would recommend using a bit thicker oil then normal since it will thin it out.

Like I said earlier doing this improved the compression, MPG, power and generally health of my 4runner engine FAR more then I would of imagined and sold me on this treatment.

Might not work for everyone though.

I did this in the escape and it ran noticeable better after. Right now I am on the first oil change and it has both marvel and seafoam in it right now. Gonna drive it for a few tanks of gas and change the oil again.