Back tire (Firestone) exploded with no reason, on a very good road, at 80 km/h. Dealer said it only happens in Explorers, and thus refused to pay for the replacement.
Required new tires (Goodyear) after just 20000 kilometers.
Sounds ugly when turning. Dealer says it is normal.
The overall design is really bad. The truck is too heavy in the front and too light in the back. When unloaded, it is so unstable that you can't go over 100 km/h. When loaded, it gets pushed down, and the tires touch the chassis all the time.
There are no door locks. A child may open the door by just pulling the handles. It is really dangerous.
Designers have spent lots of time on insignificant details (ten-position wipe control, three-part jack lever, etc.) instead of paying enough attention to convenience and safety.
The bad sound you heard is the power steering unit, seems all Ford products have a whine to them. The unit is strong and reliable, just noisy. How much of a load do you put into truck? I routinely put in 2 motorcycles weighing well over 700lbs. and have never had a problem with the tires rubbing the fenders, I even went to larger rims and tires. Hope this is of help.
There was a recall on the Firestone tires, the dealer should of replaced them for free. This was not a Ford manufacturing defect, rather one from Firestone.
When you turn, do you lock the wheel? You can damage the power steering pump if you hold the wheel to lock for more than a few seconds, otherwise, the noise is probally just the power steering pump bearing.
Also, all trucks, espically "light trucks", are heavier in the front than in the back unloaded, the engine and the cab are in the front, it just makes sense. As for your bed sagging, you probally overloaded the bed and wore out the leaf springs. And with the locks, maybe you should of bought power door locks, and teach your children not to open car doors while they are moving. The Ranger is a great truck, I just bought a 2000 XLT 2.5L 5 spd and I absolutely love it. I think Ford did a great job with attention to detail, and as far as safety goes, the Ranger got full stars for frontal and side crash impact tests.
Comment 09:49 is correct. My vehicle had the Firestone tires replaced free by the dealer. I was even given a loaner vehicle to drive while the tires were replaced (there was a wait due to the high volume of tire replacements being done in my area).
As for the power steering, you definitely do not need to hold the steering wheel all the way into the lock for more than a few seconds. This applies to ANY vehicle with power steering.
I've owned 4 Rangers, and our family's 2 companies use them as service vehicles. They have proven to be the most economical and reliable small truck on the market. None of my 4 Rangers ever experienced ANY problems, and 300,000 miles out of our fleet trucks is common.
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