I bought a used 2002 ford ranger with 30,600 from a friend in aug 2004 who bought it to move his stuff to new home up north he retired.I got 4 yr extended warrenty when I bought it after it was checked out and certified ok.1 month later and 250 later the oil sending unit and overdrive both go out.They had my truck for 10 days.Now March 2008 less then 58,000 miles on truck,That means I have only put 27,000 mile on it in 4yrs.I drive over to have brakes done and as I'm driving I see engin lite come on and oil gage not working.Get it towed to dealer.Have them check whole truck out.Results oil sending switch bad, Front end needs all new ball joints both control arms plus 2 tie rod ends.Rear end find tooth broke off and has reamed all the guts of the rear axle needs total rebuilt.Transmission has low presser readings part of main pump is frozen,Dealer gets with ford to deceide should they rebuild or install new transmission.They put in new transmission.After this is all done I still neeeded all new brakes and new rotors which have only been turned 1 time life of truck and they turn out to be the most expensive rotors for that yr and model.I got my truck back after 28 days later in april and threating them that I will get zone rep involved as this is a joke to have my truck for so long,I get it back now here we are in July guess what the oil gage is going bad again which means the oil sending unit is having problems.Well lucky my warrenty is good till 12/31/2008.If it goes out this time I'll let it burn and they can give me a brand new truck.Which I will tell them were to stick it I will only Take cash.In short FORD SUCKS BIG TIME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regards your front ball joints I also had to replace those after 3 years on my 2004. Apparently the original design offers no way to lube the ball joints so they're guaranteed to rust out or something. Had I NOT had extened warrantee I'm informed the replacement would have been about $700.