Should I bought it?

I look to buy this 2000 Ford Taurus SE, with just 86,000 miles. It runs well, no abnormal noises except that when I rev up to 2300 rpm on neutral and more, it starts making a dull noise (like a small friction noise or something). And when I drive, power reduce a little bit and make the same noise just before the gear change (2000-2300rpm). But no noise at idle.

It could be just the power steering pump? Because steering is sometime hard and fluid level is below cold mark. And it makes a noise when I turn wheel coming from the pump (smaller noise). So I know the PS is bad.

Dealer saids that they will fix the PS pump if I buy the car.
So the dull noise and intermittent power loss problem can be caused by the pump or the engine? Or the pulley?
I know my description is not very accurate, just want a thought.

The car cost 3000$ and don't have warranty nor mechanic inspection.

http://alex-auto.autoexpert.ca/fr-ca/VehicleImages/vid_868557/Ford-Taurus-2000.jpg?vid=868557&size=fullsize&iuid=396a27caef7bb01f8c3c2a0f973726a0

Buying a used car is always a shot in the dark. My take is to have the dealer address all your concerns. Then it's up to you on purchasing the vehicle. Hope this helps!
Franco

This dealer have no mechanics, so they can't inspect it. The seller know nothing.

So I wondered if someone with great experience on Taurus like shorod or someone else already had a similar issue and know what was the problem.

The dull noise you describe might be the fairly common catalytic converter heat shield, from a broken weld. That of course wouldn't cause a drop in power, but so many times noises can cause your body to subconsciously twitch, maybe you're subconsciously letting off the throttle when your brain registers the noise.

I'm not sure the slight noise from the power steering is necessarily something to worry about though. If you don't see fluids leaking underneath or evidence that the car has been recently power washed underneath, maybe topping off the reservoir and bleeding the air from the system will solve the noise and stiff steering. You might be better off to get an estimate from a local shop to change the power steering pump versus changing out the steering rack, split the difference and see if the dealer will drop the price by that much. Tell them you have a shop that you trust and you would like to have them do the work for you. Or you could visit a site like this one (http://repairpal.com/estimator) to get an estimate for the work.

Have you checked the price out to see how reasonable it is? It seems like there should be quite a few similar cars priced in that range without issues to choose from considering the age and mileage.

-Rod

Thanks for the info, yes a bad catalytic converter's heat shield makes sense. I'll check it.
Maybe I let my foot off when I ear the noise... not sure.

About the PS, I'm sure the P/S pump will fail soon. I already had this issue on my Windstar (and it's same PS part number). The fluid was black also. But they'll replace the pump for free if I buy it. They don't want to reduces the price of the car.

I think that 3000$ for a clean Taurus with just 86Kmi is good.