[DanF.]

It does seem that these have to be pretty reliable as quite a few people keep them into the high 200 or 300,000 mile categories. Also what is real world mileage as I have heard it’s bad. My expedition has never gotten more the 13 mpg. Is the Armada comparable?

I wrench on my cars myself 99% of the time so I am trying to put a list together of things to worry about. Please feel free to add to the list or correct me if I am wrong.

My 2005 LE has like 219,xxx miles on it, and still seems to work. It's got a bunch of rattles and a few problems, but fires up every day and drives me 70+ miles a day to work and back up here in New Hampshire. It's done well in summer and winter.

I get a little over 15 MPG combined, but it goes up a little once the weather warms up.

If you can do easy/medium jobs (oil changes, brakes, hoses/belts, wheel bearings, etc..) you'll be fine, and save a bunch of money.

I have the leaky manifolds, which are kind of annoying, but whatever. I already have the JBA catback exhaust, and will be hoping to get headers and b-pipes to finish the system off this summer.

 

[DanF.]

New to the forum and wanted to know what are b-pipes?

They are intermediate pipes between the manifolds and "cat-back" portion of the exhaust. They house the 2nd set of catalytic converters.

Several aftermarket companies sell "performance" versions. Ymmv.