2001 ford taurus vibration

bobw82

Whenever i drive at a steady speed my car will start shaking real bad, it will do this on and off the whole time a maintain the speed. It doesnt matter if im going fast or slow as long as the speed is stead. Ive put in new spark plugs and new plug wires had all my fluids checked all filters have been replaced. I just cant figure out what is wrong.

mjengr

Bob W--
It's hard to diagnose without a drive but here are some thoughts:
1) First, how long ago did this start? Any recent changes to the vehicle? (Sounds like you just did a tuneup, so maybe something wasn't reconnected)
2) If you get the car up to speed (like 30-40 mph) and put it in neutral and coast, does it still vibrate? If it does, the problem is probably in the chassis--wheels or tires, because the problem stays with the rolling elements. If it doesn't, it is probably in the powertrain, because when drive torque was eliminated, the problem cleared up.
3) Do you have custom wheels, or have you recently changed tires? Maybe it's simple, like poor wheel/tire balance, or possibly poor piloting of the wheels on the hubs. The on and off comment sounds like you have one or more tires out of balance--when this happens they vibrate in and out of phase and when they add together it can be pretty dramatic.
4) Are you sure the spark plug wires are routed to the correct cylinders? Maybe they screwed up your firing order.
5) Here's a flyer--been near any mud recently? I had mud dry in my wheels and the car felt like it was coming apart--I hosed out the back side of the wheels and it drove fine after that.
6) Finally, an unrelated tip--if the car sees road salt, have someone check your suspension springs at all four corners. These have a habit of breaking on Taurus (and lots of other FWD vehicles), and when they go they will tear up the inside of your tire and leave you stranded. Happened to us, luckily when the car was parked in our driveway.
Post back when you try some of these. Good luck.

sue111163

I have a 2001 ford taurus and my car does same thing. Driving down the road and all of a sudden the car starts vibrating...kinda feels like it's in the tires, like maybe the tires need to be balanced or the axle is bent or maybe something is dragging. It's seems worser when I turn on the AC or when I pick up speed. I have taken my car in to Ford twice for this problem and they can't seem to fix problem. First time they said gear wasn't shifting properly & put some kind of gear kit in (did not fix problem - cost $450.00 ). 2nd time - charged $700 & did not fix problem either. I'm thinking it may be that the transmission was going bad because while driving home yesterday..car was running fine (aside from vibration) then made an exit off highway and transmission locked up. Now car won't move. I can shift car through all gears but it will not move forward, reverse or anything. I don't know if the two are related or not. Let me know if you have found out what the problem is.

irishman69

I have a 2001 ford taurus that was doing the same thing. I changed the transmission fluid and filter and it took care of the problem completely. You can check your fluid level to see if that could be the problem but a lot of people don't know that on fords you need to check it in neutral not park like most vehicles. If your fluid is low it could be causing it to do that to or it might just be burnt and time to change it. Hope this helps you

irishman69

I have a 2001 ford taurus that the water pump went out on. I replaced the water pump and the heat quick working so I replaced the thermostat and that didn't help any. I did have some air in the system but I believe I got most if not all of that out and still no heat. I also checked the heater core to see if that was leaking but no signs of leaks.

giovae

To remove the air trapped in the heater core:
1. Detach the hose from the heater core to the water pump.
2. Detach the hose from the thermostat to the heater core
3. Clamp the loop hose at the heater core.
4. Connect your garden hose to the hose previously detached from the thermostat.
5. Open your house garden water bib to flush the system. Watch the dirty water come off from the heater core. (3 minutes)
6. Connect all the hoses back keeping in mind you don't want air to get in those hoses again, so you have to work fast. Hope this help.