New Aviator Owner

[walc]

Hi.
I just bought/financed a 2004 Lincoln Aviator.
After 500 miles of driving, I really think I'm going to love it.
Lee Clarke
Salisbury, MD, USA

[cason1]

Congrats on the truck. I hope you do like it as much as you think you will. At least it's a Lincoln :D. I would take a Lincoln over a Land Rover any day but that is just my personal opinion. Good luck with it and hope it don't give you any troubles.

[pro-five-oh]

Welcome to the Club! These Aviators are fine trucks. The combination of style, luxury, acceleration and handling is pretty awesome!

There is only one problem you need to be aware of, its Safety Recall: 04B15 axle moan or whine. Ford will replace your differential under this recall.
http://www.blueovalnews.com/2004/recalls/explorer.04b15.htm

Make sure you vary your speed during break in(so you can tell that to the dealer if they start to be difficult) to ensure that you get a new axle if you need it.

Axle or not, you're gonna love this SUV! smile.gif

[walc]

quote:Originally posted by cason1:
Congrats on the truck. I hope you do like it as much as you think you will. At least it's a Lincoln :D. I would take a Lincoln over a Land Rover any day but that is just my personal opinion. Good luck with it and hope it don't give you any troubles.

Thanks very much.
This is my second Lincoln. I had a new 1986 Mark VII LSC, for a couple of years, and I liked it.
My wife loves the Land Rover and, since Ford bought LR, the quality is much better.

smile.gif

[walc]

quote:Originally posted by pro-five-oh:
Welcome to the Club! These Aviators are fine trucks. The combination of style, luxury, acceleration and handling is pretty awesome!

There is only one problem you need to be aware of, its Safety Recall: 04B15 axle moan or whine. Ford will replace your differential under this recall.
http://www.blueovalnews.com/2004/recalls/explorer.04b15.htm

Make sure you vary your speed during break in(so you can tell that to the dealer if they start to be difficult) to ensure that you get a new axle if you need it.

Axle or not, you're gonna love this SUV! smile.gif

Thanks very much for the info.
The build date on mine was March 2004. Hopefully, before the March 29 start of the problem.
I've always been a fanatic about varying speed, during the 1,000 mile break-in period, and there was only 2 miles on the odometer, when I bought it. So, no one else had a chance to mess-up the engine.
I've now driven 650 miles and I really love the Aviator. smile.gif

[Nick]

Welcome back to the club. I'm a big fan of both the Aviator and any Land Rover. If you intend on keeping the truck forever, Mobil 1 full synthetic oil will help a lot.

[walc]

quote:Originally posted by Nick:
Welcome back to the club. I'm a big fan of both the Aviator and any Land Rover. If you intend on keeping the truck forever, Mobil 1 full synthetic oil will help a lot.

Nick,
Thanks.
I'm also a fan of Mobil 1 synthetic.
I see you have an LSC. Very nice car!!!
What I loved about mine was it handled like a sport coupe and with ABS and air suspension, it was very advanced for its' time.

[pro-five-oh]

You might hear the whine when the cruise control is on, especially when you go up a hill. Keep your ears peeled, there's probably a good chance yours will have this problem. smile.gif

I'm currently using Ford's recommended salad oil (5w20, semi synthetic) but I change it once between Lincoln's 5000mi free service intervals.

If ours becomes a "keeper" (after the free oil changes runs out) I'll probably switch to a 5w30 Mobil 1. Heavier oils are fine in these motors and especially here in the Texas heat.

[walc]

pro-five-o,
I'll be listening for it. However, here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, we don't have hills. smile.gif

[franco]

Nick said:
quote: I'm a big fan of both the Aviator and any Land Rover.

Also a big fan of Land Rover. Before I bought my Land Cruiser, I looked at nothing but Land Rovers.

LOVE the new Range Rover with the BMW engine. If and when my Land Cruiser dies, that will be 1st on my list.
Unless of course a Vortec engine swap is more cost efficient. :D

[pro-five-oh]

quote:Originally posted by franco:
LOVE the new Range Rover with the BMW engine. If and when my Land Cruiser dies, that will be 1st on my list.

I've always wondered if the low customer satisfaction of the RRs is because of the poorly integrated and/or complicated German hardware/software. But yeah, those are sweet trucks.

quote:Originally posted by franco:
Unless of course a Vortec engine swap is more cost efficient. :D

Small block Ford engine swap! ;)

[franco]

The Ford swap would be okay, but the Vortec is a better fit and there's more support for the conversion process.

The German engine is relatively new to the RR.

In the past, poor CS comes from the UK electronics and electrical.

They also used a cast iron Buick block prior to the BMW powerplant.

[Nick]

That Buick engine was never enough to move the truck with gusto, even after Calloway tuned it a bit.

It isn't aluminum? I could have sworn it was. I thought the aluminum contrsuction is what drew people to the cast off GM design.

[Aviator]

Look in your owners manual and find the specification for the oil to be used in your vehicle. Ford recommends Motorcraft 5w20 motor oil but you may use any brand of motor oil that meets Ford's specification requirements (WSS-M2C153-H)API Service level SL. All oils are not created equal so make sure the supplier certifies that it meets the Ford specification.

There are two key factors in engine oil. One is viscosity the other is engine performance. They are both independent. That is you can have multiple performance levels for each viscosity. The performance rating will affect things like sludge, corrosion, varnish, exhaust gas catalyst deposits, and wear during normal running. Viscosity will determine time to full lubrication (start-up wear), fuel economy (parasitic losses), and bearing film strength. Assuming both oils have the API certification mark (Service level SL), they should be of the same performance rating and protect similarly. If not, then the oil likely does not meet owner guide minimum performance recommendations and would give poorer engine performance for sludge, varnish, corrosion and wear, etc.

Many of the NASCAR teams qualify with 5W-20 in their 750 HP engines. Motorcraft 5w20 has been tested at the Arizona Proving Grounds at 120F and can be retrofitted to almost all older Ford engines. The main concern about using 5W30 or 10W30 is that the bearings in many late model engines were not designed to have higher oil film strength at the higher temps in order to prevent wear.

As the oil ages and becomes loaded with contaminants, the viscosity changes. If you start with a 5w30, after a while it starts to look like 10w40 in it's operation and flow characteristics. Be safe - use 5w20 and don't exceed the recommended change interval mileage.

Full synthetic is a waste of money if you are going to change it every 3-5,000 miles.

[franco]

Nick said:
quote:It isn't aluminum? I could have sworn it was.

Yes, it was. Good catch, I forgot that it was an alloy block with cast iron cyl walls.

Reflex to group together American V8 and cast iron, old habits are hard to break.

[purelux]

It's not really a waste if you took apart 2 engines driven identically one conventional 1 synthetic say mobil 1 for say 80-100k. I'm pretty solid you would see a difference. They did just that on nascar garage at 80k and the deposits and wear on parts was obviously different between the 2 mainly there was almost none of either on the synthetic one. No matter how often you change it there is still more addatives, viscosity modifiers silicones etc.. in the conventional to crap up the engine, still an inferior cold and hot tempature performance and inferior wear protection as well as to make a conventional close to a true synthetic would make it cost quite a bit more than normal conventionals. I mean you can do what you want but if you can afford a 40-50k suv i think that its worth the extra few bucks for far superior oil. In fact amsoil and I believe redline (and mobil though they don't recommend it) can go 7-10k amsoil and redline say its ok you just need to either use their filters designed for that kind of life or replace the filter before the oil at i think 3-7K depending on driving habits. If i remenber right amsoil has a longer life filter but i'm not sure about redline oil.

[Nick]

I wonder about those long life filters. What makes them long life? Do they flow more and trap less so they clog more slowly? I would definitely at least change the filter and top off the oil if I were following a change schedule of greater than 5k miles.