1999 Ford Taurus - Speedometer drops to zero and trouble shifting

[Vilita]

I have a 1999 Ford Taurus.

It runs fine for a while then all of a sudden the speedomoter drops to zero and the car has trouble shifting from low gear.

I first noticed this problem in Staten Island, NY traffic. Entering Staten Island the traffic always comes to a virtual stand still. While crawling, the speedomoter all of a sudden shut off. The car continued on fine however, I was even able to drive at full speed and after a little while of full speed driving, the speedometer even showed up again!

But the problem I guess has worsened with lack of attention, and now the speedometer shutoff is coupled with a difficulty or inability of the car to progress from low gear and therefore a cap on my speed (20 mph maybe? I don't want to over rev the engine, thankfully when this has happened I'm usually within coasting distance of my destination as it takes a little while before it becomes a problem. If the car sits for an hour or so, it will start back fine with the speedometer on and re-do the same process of eventually blanking out again and not shifting.

Anyone know what the problem is, and if so, how much would it cost to fix? thanks!

[Dave_s]

Is your check engine light on?

[shorod]

It sounds like you have a problem with the vehicle speed sensor. You can probably find details on location and how to replace by searching this forum for keyword "VSS."

-Rod

[Vilita]

Originally Posted by Dave_s

Is your check engine light on?

No.

Rod, Thats what I think as well, and to be honest with you I'm not going to pay $95 to bring it to ford so they can confirm it for me only to tell me that they are going to charge me another $200 to replace it when Autozone is selling a replacement part for $15.99?!

Does this sound right?

I ran a search and found how to locate it but to be honest with you I just went outside and couldn't find it. does anyone have a diagram that could help me? Would it help if i took a picture of the area of interest and maybe someone could circle where i should be looking for it?

Thanks

[Vilita]

Though it should be noted, I also seem to be having a likely unrelated problem? Where turning the A/C on results in a bit of what feels like a grind on the motor resulting in the instinctual turning off of the A/C to prevent the car from stalling

[shorod]

Originally Posted by Vilita

Though it should be noted, I also seem to be having a likely unrelated problem? Where turning the A/C on results in a bit of what feels like a grind on the motor resulting in the instinctual turning off of the A/C to prevent the car from stalling

What do you mean by "a grind on the motor?" If you just mean that it loads the engine and the engine speed drops, that sounds like an issue with the Idle Air Control (IAC) servo. This is sometimes referred to as an Idle Speed Control as well.

-Rod

[shorod]

The vehicle speed sensor will have two wires going to it, a Pink/Orange and a gray/black wire. It is located on the transaxle in the rear center location of the engine compartment. Since you didn't mention which engine you have, I'm trusting it's the 12V Vulcan engine.

-Rod

[Vilita]

Originally Posted by shorod

The vehicle speed sensor will have two wires going to it, a Pink/Orange and a gray/black wire. It is located on the transaxle in the rear center location of the engine compartment. Since you didn't mention which engine you have, I'm trusting it's the 12V Vulcan engine.

-Rod

So I went to Autozone and he said what I need to know is not necessarily the engine but the transmission type?

He said theres two types for a 1999 Taurus, a "AXN" and "AXS"

So I crawled under the car, and sure enough, the only thing I could find was the letters "AXOD"

I took a bunch of pictures and I'm about to "Count the Bolts" to try to pinpoint which one it is. Incredible that I'm sitting here counting bolts on a photograph because theres no way to figure out which type of transmission I have otherwise. I even pulled up the VIN and the only thing it listed was the generic type not the specific name. Apparently there is a different speed sensor depending on the transmission type.


And when I count the bolts I keep getting "16"

I was told the AXS would have 17 and the AXN would have 19?
This is wonderful!

Here is the picture, maybe I'm missing a bolt? Its dark out. I'm assuming I didn't miss THREE bolts so surely its the AXS then?

http://race3wide.com/pan.png

Actually, oging through my other pictures I think that one end is squared off so the bolt that appears to be in both the far left of the far right photo and far right of the middle photo is NOT a duplicate, so that would make the count 17, and assumingly an AXS. I'm just confused because it says the old name of AXS was AXOD-E and the old name of AXN was AXOD

As for the back center, this is what I see. Do you see the VSS? Is this even the right place to be looking?

http://race3wide.com/back.jpg

As for the A/C, when I turn the A/C on the car begins to sound as if there is a squeky belt and perhaps a slight vibration. I turn the A/C off immediately so I don't experience it for long. It is isolated to the moment I turn the A/C on, and ends the exact second I shut the A/C off. It has never occured at anypoint when the A/C was off, and occurs every single time the A/C is turned on. I did notice this at the start of summer but never happened before this year.

[shorod]

My purpose for asking which engine you have is because I can pull up the electrical wiring diagram for the particular engine, then use the component locator that way. Going the route of the transmission strangely did not list the VSS for me.

I have since found the VSS section based off of transmission since you didn't provide the engine info, but it doesn't show physical location. For the AX4N transmission it says you need to get to it from underneath, after you remove the dual converter y-pipe and VSS shield. There's also 1 retaining bolt that holds the VSS into the transaxle. It appears that if you have the AX4N transaxle, the transmission pan will say AX4N where yours shows AXOD. The AX4N has 19 pan bolts. The long straight end of the pan will have 4 pan bolts.

The AX4S transmission has 17 pan bolts according to the factory service manual. The instructions to remove the VSS from the AX4S are similar to the AX4N, but the VSS appears to mount horizontally with respect to the transaxle housing rather than vertically for the AX4N. It appears to be towards the end of the transaxle housing which would place it near the center of the vehicle. The long straight side of the pan will have 3 bolts.

-Rod

[Vilita]

The only thing it says on the engine is '3.0 V6'

I couldn't find anything else bar a sticker on the side that said 'DR', or anything further about the engine. The guy at Autozone also asked me about the engine, but then said it "didn't matter" the only thing it depended on was the transmisison

[angus10]

Just go to your local Ford dealer and give the guy at the parts counter your vin# and ask him for a build sheet.

[Vilita]

Originally Posted by angus10

Just go to your local Ford dealer and give the guy at the parts counter your vin# and ask him for a build sheet.

As (I believe?) I have already said, I already gave the vin# to Ford and the only thing that they were able to tell me was that the transmission was a 4-Speed Transaxle (or something to that effect) nothing more specific about which actual type of transmission it was.

The flat side has 3 bolts and I counted about 16 So I'm fairly sure it has to be the AXS.

[angus10]

Well thats BS! Go to a different dealer then! The vin# provides every detail about your vehicle down to the lug nuts.

[jjimmybt1]

Originally Posted by Vilita

So I went to Autozone and he said what I need to know is not necessarily the engine but the transmission type?

He said theres two types for a 1999 Taurus, a "AXN" and "AXS"

So I crawled under the car, and sure enough, the only thing I could find was the letters "AXOD"

I took a bunch of pictures and I'm about to "Count the Bolts" to try to pinpoint which one it is. Incredible that I'm sitting here counting bolts on a photograph because theres no way to figure out which type of transmission I have otherwise. I even pulled up the VIN and the only thing it listed was the generic type not the specific name. Apparently there is a different speed sensor depending on the transmission type.


And when I count the bolts I keep getting "16"

I was told the AXS would have 17 and the AXN would have 19?
This is wonderful!

Here is the picture, maybe I'm missing a bolt? Its dark out. I'm assuming I didn't miss THREE bolts so surely its the AXS then?

http://race3wide.com/pan.png

Actually, oging through my other pictures I think that one end is squared off so the bolt that appears to be in both the far left of the far right photo and far right of the middle photo is NOT a duplicate, so that would make the count 17, and assumingly an AXS. I'm just confused because it says the old name of AXS was AXOD-E and the old name of AXN was AXOD

As for the back center, this is what I see. Do you see the VSS? Is this even the right place to be looking?

http://race3wide.com/back.jpg

As for the A/C, when I turn the A/C on the car begins to sound as if there is a squeky belt and perhaps a slight vibration. I turn the A/C off immediately so I don't experience it for long. It is isolated to the moment I turn the A/C on, and ends the exact second I shut the A/C off. It has never occured at anypoint when the A/C was off, and occurs every single time the A/C is turned on. I did notice this at the start of summer but never happened before this year.

Hello..I am Having the same problem..Axs 99 ford taurus 3.0...17 bolt Part cost 15.95 its located On the Back side of Tranny..Its a Bear to get to But if you can get a person to help guide youto the Bolt It shouldn't be bad..Speed sensor..Anyhow that should Elimate the Speedo and shifting problem.. Hope this Helps Jimmy

[jjimmybt1]

Oh Yes AXOD The OD Is Overdrive...fords Gor to love em LOL