A lot of the rusting out while sitting has to do with water vapor coming up off the ground. If you park a vehicle on asphalt, cement, or crushed stone with a plastic underlayment ... they tend to rust less.
Rust isn't the only issue with an older vehicle though. All the rubber and plastic parts degrade over time. Dashboards & seats crack. Seat cushions degrade. All the rubber suspension parts and bushings degrade. Hoses and belts crack and break. Tires over ten years old tend to blow out and shred at highway speeds. Wire insulation degrades and the copper wire inside turns all green and rusty from exposure to air and water vapor.
The wiring is a big thing these days because everything is controlled by the different computer modules built into the vehicle. If the wiring isn't pristine ... that vehicle will give you a hundred kinds of problems that are wicked hard to track down and fix.
I had a 1990 Ford Econoline 150 van that i bought for a grand many years back. It came from an elder gent that spent his winters in Florida. It was a good work truck for a number of years but starting giving problems at about 18 years old. The ABS computer module went out. That was okay. The processor in the ABS module was way too slow anyway. I was glad to be rid of it. Awhile later on ... i got a crank/no start condition. It took a week of working outdoors in the January cold to finally track down that electrical problem. I had to retire it from service at year 20.
I picked up a 2004 GMC sierra with 48,000 original miles with a plow for a grand back in 2018. That was a nice truck. Very little rust for it's age. Everything was tight and it rode like a Cadillac. About a month in ... it started throwing codes and occasionally going into limp home mode. I chased the electrical problems on that one for six months and never did track it down.
If memory serves ... the year 2000 Bronco had still had OBD 2 ? You might want to jack into that and see if it has any stored codes for engine, transmission, and brake system. You can do it with a paper clip if you don't have a code reader. Electrical problems are pretty common with a vehicle of that age. Sometimes the easiest thing is to replace the wiring harness if they are still available to buy.
It tends to draw the attention of the police if you have a loud exhaust or break down on the side of the road. There's hell to pay if you have a mechanical failure that causes an accident.
Bookmarks