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Comments
I have a 99 Taurus SE with 60K miles. Does this car have a timing belt or timing chain? And what mileage do I need to change the timing belt at? Thank you.
Yesterday the "Check engine light" came on and stayed on, and later I began to smell a rather strong gasoline odor inside of the wagon. I checked the owners manual and said something about bad gas, gas mixed with water and the gas cap not being properly closed. I didn't experience any hesitation or stalling yet.
Has anyone here experienced the same symptoms in their Sable/Taurus?
When living in the U.K, I had a British Ford with hydraulic tappets. One was always "clicking" for about 3 miles as it would not retain the oil when switching off the engine. It was stuck and took ages to free and release.Synthetic oil cured it straightaway.
Good luck anyway
Ian
They said they had not heard of that happening before. Wonder if anyone has had the same problem. The repair bill was $1,119. Luckily, we had the Extended Warranty. Up till now we have been pretty happy with the car. By the way it's got just under 50K on it.
They may have not heard of that happening before, but Ford certainly has!
There was a factory recall that was performed in 1998 on my car for a cooling system problem. I called the dealer yesterday and inquired as to what the reason for that recall was. He said that the coolant was taking on a "chocolate milk" like appearance and was corroding some of the internal parts. On my old bill I see they replaced two freeze plugs, flushed the system and installed some kind of bypass hose. He said they never figured out exactly what the cause was but one scenario was that machine chips were left in the engine during manufacture.
At any rate, my mechanic says he never saw anything like this gunk coming out of my engine.
He is replacing many, many parts.
My thoughts are that the dealer never performed the recall(although the bill says he did) or did not properly flush all of the original gunk out back in 1998. I had 101000 miles on it then so maybe it was too late?
Does anyone have any idea what this might be or have a similar experience?
Is there a chance you got that brand one time when you got a flush and fill?
I would stay away from it and go with the conventional stuff. I tend to do a flush and fill every three years or 30,000 miles, whichever comes first.
Anyway,it tends to idle at a really high rate when warmed up, and I was hoping someone could tell me which sensor or module is involved in controlling the idle and where it is located on the engine (3.0 liter v6).
I am at the point where all parts required for this vehicle come from the auto wreckers and I do all the work myself, appreciate very much any help you can provide.
This wagon is beginning to annoy me. Every month for the past year it visited the shop with problems.
Maybe I boasted too much about Ford's making a good product.
The car was bought used and did not have a maintenance guide. I downloaded one from Ford but it covers all FoMoCO vehicles.
What I am looking to determine if this is one of the vehicles that is supposed to have the trans fluid exchanged at 30,000 miles. The maint. guide lists 4 transaxles that should - but not what cars/ truck they are in.
Local dealer has a 12 page list of recommended services at 30k - and $800 to do it. Trans fluid exchage is on that list, but I think they are just trying to milk a lot of money out of people.
I believe a fluid change is required for either at 30,000 mile intervals. On my '98 it is (I have the AX4N). I believe all Sable and Taurus models use Mercon V fluid beginning with the '97s or '98s. That fluid is not the same as plain Mercon.
It's cheap insurance to keep the car running well to change trans fluid at regular intervals, even if it's not required. I think in your case that it is required.
Note that there are two ways of changing the fluid. One is to disconnect the fluid line at the radiator and run the engine. The internal pump will pump all of the fluid out (you keep filling the transaxle and stop when it comes out clean). This changes all the fluid, but unless the pan is dropped (letting all the fluid out) you cannot change the filter.
The other way is to drop the pan, change the filter and replace the fluid that comes out. There will still be some fluid in the torque converter that won't come out this way (the pump will pump it out in the other method).
The best way is to change both the filter and all the fluid (drop the pan, change filter, refill, then pump out the stuff to flush the converter). However, if you change the fluid regularly, the amount left in the converter won't be that bad to leave in. To me it's best to get the old filter out of there.
See what the dealer does. It sounds like they use the pump-out method if they call it a fluid exchange.
On the Taurus/Sable, the 30K service also includes replacement of the air filter, the passenger compartment filter, fuel filter (on some years), tire rotation, oil change and filter, and inspections and latch lube. There are a fair number of parts to replace. I do think $800 is excessive though. I think my dealer charges around $300-$350 for this service (and they replace the trans pan gasket and filter in the tranny service).
Bring a list out of the maintenance guide and ask that they do ONLY what's on it. It sounds like they have a lot of other stuff in there besides what Ford requires.
Also, you can save some bucks by doing some things yourself. Changing the air filter is a piece of cake, at least on my 2000 Duratec and you can buy one inexpensively at any auto parts store.
I have not changed the cabin air filter yet, but if I remember correctly, my manual has pretty detailed instructions.
I also change my own oil and filters. By watching sales for oil and oil filter, my change cost always works out to less than $9.
You may not want to do this yourself, but it isn't hard, and I dispose of my oil properly at our city recycling facility.
I have not investigated the fuel filter change yet, but it was a bit of a bear on my old 1990 Taurus and if it is set up the same on my new one, I would let someone else do it.
Otherwise, there is almost nothing to touch. Spark plugs are platinum and do not need changing until 100K miles, I believe. As far as tuneups go, as long as your car starts well, runs well, accelerates the same and mileage does not drop off, there is little service required.
Jon
I received a big blast of fuel in my face and eyes...OUCH
I didn't realize the system would maintain
pressure after the engine had been shut down for several hours.
A hard earned lesson, but I won't forget!!
And for fuel running out of the lines, I just use an old 13x9 cake baking pan to catch the gas. Then dump the gas in the lawnmower.
Jon
Original equipment platinum spark plugs are good to 100K miles. Other things like plug wires could go wrong at high mileage but are pretty infrequent these days. I suggest you go to one or two independent garages and get a second opinion. Do you have any oil leakage? If not then you may not need any gaskets. What "oil gasket" are they talking about? The oil pan gasket, valve cover gaskets or what? If you do not know much about maintenance, you are likely to get ripped off on service, thus I would definitely get more than one opinion before spending more on the car.
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Also does anybody else out there only average between 18-20 mpg in city driving with their 89 or older Taurus.
Thanks for your help.
Best bet for you is likely to find a service shop you can trust. Check with friends and coworkers is likely your best bet in that regard.
I would not worry about gasket changes if you are not using or losing oil between changes.
As far as tuneups go, with most cars these days there really is little to tune up. As long as your car starts OK, runs smooth and accelerates OK and mileage is OK, I wouldn't worry about going in for a tuneup until you get to 100K. New air filters are advised every 30K minimum and are usually easy to change yourself and you likely could use a new fuel filter by now also.
I would suggest you get a transmission oil and filter change, however, if this has not been done to date. Use an independent shop specicalizing in transmission service and then have them check out the rest of the transmission as well including the "pin" which I assume is the pin that locks the transmission into the park position. If your car goes into park position OK and does not roll downhill more than a few inches on a slope when in park, then I doubt if you have any transmission "pin" problems either.
Your city mileage of 18-20 sounds about right, based on what my 90 Taurus with 3.0 Vulcan V-6 did. I generally got about 20-21 city (partially freeway speeds however) and best of about 28 strictly highway
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Also does anybody else out there only average between 18-20 mpg in city driving with their 89 or older Taurus.
Thanks for your help.
Thanks for the help
One more strange thing is after the dealer tuned up my car. My millage dropped from 16 MPG local to 14 MPG. I was expecting an increase of millage after tune-up. I think this dealer is really ripping me.
I would ask female friends for recommendations on a small independent shop where you can get to know the people. Then only take it to the dealer when specialized diagnostics or procedures are required, and then to a different dealer.
The easiest way to stop the compressor from turning on is to put a switch in the wire going to the clutch. It would be nicer to find the correct wire under the dash but that would probably require a manual.
Unless you live in a remote area, there are plenty of Ford dealers around if you want to stay at a Ford dealer. I generally avoid dealerships as much as possible, only using them if I have warranty work or recalls.
1993 Ford Taurus, 3.8L
One easy way to check this is to call around and ask other shops what they'd charge for a tune-up on your car. The reputable shops should all be within 10-20% of each other I'd think. As for the oil leak I agree w/the others. Don't fret anything unless you see oil on your garage floor.
Find that good mechanic shop NOW so you won't worry later.
Good luck,
Rob
P.S. By the way, if you DO find that other shops charge SIGNIFICANTLY less than $500 to do a standard tune-up I'd take your receipt back to the dealer that performed the work and demand some sort of refund/credit (you could at least trust them to do oil changes, replace wiper blades, etc...of course I'd WATCH them while they did it!). :-) If they refuse to help you ask them if they can hand you the phone book so you can look up the local a) chamber of commerce b) better business bureau c) Ford regional service rep. d) state attorney general's office, etc.
Additionally removing plugs on motors where they are close to the firewall can be challenging due in part one has to remove the wishbone engine support and wrap a hold down strap with a racheting mechanism onto the motor and front bumper to pull the motor forward in order to access these plugs and replace them thereby esculating the cost factor.