Got a cheap utility vehicle say hello to my 2004 Lincoln Aviator

[Andrew L 40]

Story time, skip ahead if you don't feel like reading a novel lol

Things in my personal life have been extremely hectic. in 2021 I got a puppy, a Weimaraner to be exact, and at the time my then g/f was the one who took him anywhere he needed to go in a car like the vet, dog store, park etc. Well flash forward to end of last year and we are no longer together, initially she was going to take the dog but when I found out she was having major financial issues and moving into an apartment I couldn't allow her to take a dog that needs a lot of exercise and room. So here I am now with a dog and a nice car that is in danger of getting absolutely destroyed by a hyper pup. I looked into several solutions for carting him around and found a nice cover that goes over the back of the rear seats, the rear seat and covers the doors as well, it has a harness as well to hold him in place. Well it worked for a day till he figured out how to stretch out the harness just enough to get his paws on the center console and start hitting me or fall into the foot-well and choke himself. This wasn't working out. On top of all of that I have been trying to get back into biking and I have a really nice Kuat bike rack that is trailer hitch mounted. I really did not want to put a trailer hitch on my 17 MKZ. My 13 MKZ Hybrid had one and my ex's car had one too so I was SOL on this.

At this point I was starting to look into anything and everything focusing on mid-size SUVs and station wagons. The used car market is absolutely absurd. I reached out to so many ads only to be ignored or flat out told price is firm. Got to love seeing a 25 year old station wagon with almost 200k miles and someone asking 6-7 or even 8k. No joke I saw a 94 Camry Wagon for 8k and it was a base model with cloth and hub caps.. BuT tOyTaS rUn FoReVer. I ended up finding a really nice Subaru Legacy wagon about 20 mins from me for a reasonable price. It had the typical Facebook marketplace line of "I don't respond to is this available". The had ad been up for 2 weeks so I opened with that but added that I was very interested and had cash and wanted to check it out. He saw my message and never responded....

I expanded into SUVs more when station wagons were not working out. Every single Tahoe, Suburban, Expedition was over 200k or even 250k and commanding 6-10 grand. I looked into Explorers and Blazers too but too many were beat up bad and had a destroyed interior. The final thing that broke me from looking was an ad for a 2004 Lincoln Aviator for 5500 and 102k miles but it had issues like a sealed sunroof, torn rear seat, and a broken rear DVD system (not like I needed that anyway). I setup the appointment gave them my number all for them to never get back to me on time or address. I was over it at this point and gave up for about a month or so till I got a notification on another 2004 Aviator in my area...

Now on to the car:

Say hello to this 2004 Lincoln Aviator with AWD. It has 118k miles, 1 owner, a true FL car never left the state (underside is super clean not a spot of rust), and in just beautiful condition. Added bonus is he had all the original manuals including the keyless entry key card that has the combo on it. I shot the guy a message and he agreed to let me see it the next day. Turns out the guy works at a classic car restoration shop. He had some beautiful cars at his shop a nice El Camino, a 50s Impala, 50s Cadillac Convertible (not sure on exact model didn't get close), a 50s Ford F100, a absolutely gorgeous Olds 442, and a Chrysler Cordoba. I ended up talking with him for an hour just about cars and everything. Overall it's in very good shape. No check engine lights, runs great, shifts smoothly. Tune up was done at 106k and transmission was serviced then too. Brand new tires were put on a few weeks ago. Interior is in very good shape leather looks new no rips or tears and as a bonus it has heated/cooling front seats. Some of the trim pieces (typical cheap Ford plastics of this era) are showing some wear. I have already found used trim pieces on eBay for fairly cheap if it starts to bother me and I can replace them. A few minor issues. Tire Pressure Monitoring is throwing an error and it has brand new tires. My guess is the sensors were put in wrong or some issue with one of the sensors. The other the driver's power seat doesn't work he told me about this up front and said it was a bad cable and he could give me the exact part number and where to pick it up at LKQ and showed me where to replace it, lastly rear parking sensors are also throwing a fault. All of these things are pretty minor I was able to talk him down and got it under 5k.

Truth be told I was looking at anything and everything and it's kind of funny how I ended up buying another Lincoln. Of course, I got sh** for it from my friends and family saying "you wouldn't buy anything else" but the stars aligned on this one and it just worked out. I plan on getting those minor things fixed this week when I get back from my business trip (yea I bought this RIGHT before having to leave I have impeccable timing sometimes) and having my mechanic take a look at it and make sure everything else is solid. I've gotten a lot of compliments in other car groups I am in saying this was a great find and the 4.6 DOHC InTech is a great motor and this should last me a while. I don't plan on driving it much just to get my dog around and take my bikes to the bike trail. I already ordered a divider for the rear cargo area so Maxwell won't be able to get up to me and try to sit in my lap or paw at me.

 

My mechanic took a look at it. He said I got a good vehicle everything is pretty solid mechanical wise there are a few things that need to be addressed though and they are mostly on the easy side

1. Rear brakes are shot also need brake fluid flushed it's pretty old.
2. Rear HVAC blend door is clicking he said that it's very easy to get to and a quick job (I didn't have the rear air on till today so I didn't notice this till today)
3. Filters and other fluids need to be flushed he noted the oil filter is pretty bad and wants to get me in ASAP for an oil change to get that swapped out, at some point I am hoping to do my own on this car but for now I will have him do it
4. Injector cleaning he noted a slight vibration and said injector cleaning should resolve that since it just got all new spark plugs not too long ago.

Other than that everything else looks good on it. Side note I drove it at night for the first time because the battery died on it, turns out it was less than a year old but a cheap Wal Mart EverStart battery that had a 1 year warranty. I decided to swap it out for something a lot better instead of replacing it with the same thing under warranty and after it was done was surprised to see it has factory HID headlights. Also some night time interior shots for you guys. I kind of dig the soft white lighting. I also ordered replacement trim pieces for the center stack since they are worn pretty bad and the vents are cracked. They were all very cheap on eBay and look like new.

Next thing to look into is a nice double din head unit with a screen that can do android auto. I'd also like to keep the CD player if possible I saw Pioneer has a headunit that has both. I also want to get a backup camera too. One thing at a time though.

 

Does anyone know if this gen of Explorer/Mountaineer/Aviator needs 2 keys to make new copies?  I only got 1 key with it and the keychain loop is broken off.  I would prefer a flip key or a key with a remote integrated in it so it's just 1 solid unit but not sure how good they are and if I can make my own copies or if I need 2 keys.  I know back in the day my 1999 Sable I was able to make copies with 1 key but since this is a 2004 I am guessing I need 2 but everything I have googled is conflicting info.

 

 

 

Edited March 1 by Andrew L

[akirby 16,596]

Nice!  We had a 2003 Silver to go with my 2000 LS.  It was a great vehicle.  Gas mileage sucked and I think we had a known problem with one of the heads but that should be long sorted out.

 

The manual says you can program your own fobs so give it a shot.

Edited March 1 by akirby

[Andrew L 40]

2 hours ago, akirby said:

Nice!  We had a 2003 Silver to go with my 2000 LS.  It was a great vehicle.  Gas mileage sucked and I think we had a known problem with one of the heads but that should be long sorted out.

 

The manual says you can program your own fobs so give it a shot.

 

Yea I have only filled it up once and I averaged around 15, it got up to 20 on the highway but I have been doing a lot of city driving with it.  I am not too worried about FE though since this will only be used to get my dog to the park and to get my bikes to the bike trail so it won't be used that often.  I kind of knew it was going to be bad pretty much every SUV I was looking at would have gotten bad FE lol.  The only ones that would have been decent would have been like a Taurus or Legacy wagon but I couldn't find one for a decent price and lower miles.  They were all close to or over 200k miles and they still wanted 4-5k for them which was just too much.