What Have You Done To Your Explorer ST Today

[Freedomvango]

Diff Brace installed!

 

[Caster]

Elective maintenance - About 100 miles away from 10K miles on my 25' ST. I Changed the front diff. fluid and the transfer case fluid on Saturday. Changed the rear diff. fluid yesterday. How nice of Ford to put the rear diff. fill plug and a cross brace just over an inch apart from one another..

I wanted all the "break-in" drivetrain fluids changed since I've made a few trips from Michigan to West Virginia to ride the HMT trails with my ATV's and dirt bikes. I Pull close too, or at the max GVWR and GCWR on these trips in the steep mountains with my trailer and interior totally loaded. When you're going on week long trips like this you take everything including the kitchen sink with you.

The front diff. fluid was pretty black and smelly with the normal fine particles on the magnetic drain plug. The transfer case fluid looked brand new and the rear diff. fluid looked surprisingly clean with not much particle wise on the magnetic drain plug.

 

[Gadgtfreek]

Odd that the front was so different. I am def doing the first 10R60 service at 10k.

 

[Caster]

I'll wait a bit before I change the trans fluid since it has a large filter and a lot of fluid. When I do, I will go with a PPE aluminum pan with more fluid capacity.

 

[Caster]

Odd that the front was so different. I am def doing the first 10R60 service at 10k.

The front diff only holds .6 of a quart and the fluid is a lot thicker than the rear diff. which holds 2 qts. (1.9 but who's not adding the remaining 3.4 oz. left in the container..) The front fluid color and smell were normal IMO because of those factors.

 

[Gadgtfreek]

Interesting.

 

[DSGR]

View attachment 34498

Diff Brace installed!

Looks great! Any NVH?

 

[DSGR]

I finally did a test fit on the Ford Explorer ST OEM Charge Pipe. It was about 1" too long and the diameter in the largest part of the pipe is too wide. It puts a lot of pressure on the pipe behind it from the turbo and it pushes the small end off the inlet tube on the driver's side beside the radiator. As a note, on a 2026 ST, that end of the OE charge pipe is large and has quite a but if white grease around the inside of the end. If it was 1" shorter and about 1" smaller in diameter, it would be a perfect fit. I've requested a refund.