1999 Ford Taurus, have several questions

I have a transmission line hooked on the top & bottom of the radiator with a hex bolt that needs to come out but I don't know what size or type of wrench I need to get that out.

1999 ford taurus SES V6 3.0 overhead cam

So I'm told the transmission line pulls out of the radiator, there's one at the top and bottom of the radiator on the passenger's side, I bought a transmission cooler line remover tool, didn't do squat. I am getting so aggitated, I just want to screem! I have the radiator ready to take out except for this one issue here. Female here, first time removing a radiator, so please give me some advice. Couldn't afford the repair at a garage, I know it needs changed, there's all kinds of orange rusty gook in the opening where I took the lower radiator hose off.

Got it out finally. Had to break those stupid clips loose.

Got it out finally. Had to break those stupid clips loose.



G'day,

Sorry no one got back to you yesterday, must be to many people enjoying the sun :icon16:

Glad you got the lines off, how is the rest of the new radiator install going?

I haven't bought the new radiator yet. I'm wondering if I should flush the old radiator or just go with a new one. The radiator itself had no leaks, but water was gushing out of the coolant jug, clumping up inside it, and putting on a new water pump didn't help. The radiator has quite a bit of orange clumps in it. My hoses were stomped up with that orange clump, so I removed all of my hoses and cleaned them out. Should I just get a new radiator?

I want to get my coolant jug cleaned out before putting it back on, it is stained with that orange gook. Could I put vinegar in it and let it sit a little bit, would that loosen the junk out of it?

These ford taurus cars are classic for the heat going out on them and coolant problems. My heat went out but I think it's just because the car wasn't circulating the water properly. I don't know if it's the dex antifreeze that is the issue or the mixing of antifreeze. I was pretty stupid as far as that goes, I would get cheep antifreeze from the dollar store (green) and add to it, my car is supposed to only take the orange color.

I had the car flushed, and the guy told me that I could put in any color of antifreeze I wanted to after that. But I am concerned of using dex antifreeze with the lawsuits that have been out on that. Is there another alternative I could use in place of dex that would still be orange antifreeze?

yes mixing dex cool with the old type(green) anti freeze will clog up the system. at this point i'd replace the radiator unless you have a rad shop to clean the old 1. if you decide
to use dexcool or the old green you'll be ok just do not mix the 2.

I think I'll go with a new radiator since it's never been changed before. Maybe Prestone extended life antifreeze, that way I get the green stuff and it's still compatible with any color.

just make sure you flush the system really well maybe a couple of times.
make sure that you only use the old type green anti freeze when topping off/adding
if your going to use the prestone.
if you mix with the dexcool it will sludge up again.

The new radiator has the plastic retaining clips in them, do I remove those before putting the transmission line through the hex nut?

Finally got that radiator back on!

I see why mechanics charge so much now. That's a job I never want to do again.

Finally got that radiator back on!

I see why mechanics charge so much now. That's a job I never want to do again.



But, don't you feel a great sense of satisfaction having done it yourself? :icon16:


Don't forget to flush the system a few times.
All that gunk that was in the old radiator is likely to also be in the engine.

You can flush it out by running water through the top radiator hose with the bottom one disconnected.
Or, with the engine running, disconnect the top hose, and run water into the top of the radiator.


Also don't forget to bleed the system.
I don't know if the Taurus has bleed points, but you can normally do it by running the car with the radiator cap off and watching for bubbles.

Well the car wouldn't have been fixed if I hadn't done that myself. $200 for my radiator, coolant jug, a new thermostat & gasket, 3 bottles of antifreeze, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, the engine coolant hose, and all that nasty stuff is out of all of my hoses. I can't imagine what a garage would have charged to do all that. Plus I got $90 off on all of my parts. I'm happy it didn't cost anymore than that, and I know it's cleaned out right.

Some of my hoses were so clogged up with orange stuff, it had formed into a rock sediment. Not hard to see why my water wasn't circulating. I was a little afraid to put money into the car, because everyone kept saying it was likely a blown or warped head gasket, but I did not have any oil in the water, and no smoke out of the tail pipe.

I flushed water out of the heater core and intake yesterday. Everything is running out clear now. I plan to flush it a couple of times today, put the coolant & distilled water in it, bleed it, then drive it and see if it's fixed or not. I know how to flush it but I don't know how to bleed it so my nephew is going to help out today. At least I will have the knowledge on how to do this later on and it won't cost anymore than just new antifreeze.

I took this car to a radiator mechanic and had it flushed out, with all of the junk that was in it, I know that was a complete waste of time. The car kept overheating. If you want it done right, I guess you have to do it yourself. If he had flushed it properly, all of that crap wouldn't have been clogged up in my hoses!!!!!!!

good to hear you got it,bleeding is a very simple thing to do.if there is a bleeder valve it will be in the thermostat housing.its just a screw that needs to be opened wen the engine is warm/running.open the screw until you see a stream of coolant coming out.once all the air is out close the valve & top off the system.
you may want to put a couple 100 miles in it & refush again.

You need to refer to your owners manual for the proper coolant to use. In your case it's green coolant. From the owners manual:
Use Ford Premium Engine Coolant (green in
color). DO NOT USE Ford Extended Life Engine
Coolant (orange in color). Refer to Adding engine
coolant, in the Maintenance and Care chapter.

Manual --> http://www.motorcraftservice.com/pubs/content/~WOXTAU/~MUS~LEN/41/99tauog1e.pdf

GL :grinyes:

My car takes the orange antifreeze, so I don't know why that site says green. But I have Prestone extended life for all makes and models and the color is like a lime green. I do not want the orange antifreeze in it anymore.

The water is circulating through the car now without problem. The new radiator is working fine. My heat finally works (the whole time I've owned this car, I didn't have any heat).

I've done two flushes so far, and everytime you heat the car up, the water in the jug gets dark orange. Should I just keep flushing it until it becomes clear in the jug when the car heats up? Does the thermostat need to be removed if I am doing the flush after the car is hot? I figure all that stuff is coming from my engine.

Should I take off the engine block drain plug (if there is one) and run water through the thermostat housing to really get that engine clean or will it come clean with just letting it run out of the radiator drain plug? I need to get that stuff out of my engine somehow.

I have no idea where the engine coolant drain plug is. Would it work to take out the back freeze plug on the left side and flush the water through from the thermostat housing, or would I have to remove both freeze plugs on that side of the engine??

Well I have water dripping out from where the transmission pan is, back of motor, gets worse when the car heats up. Any idea what might be wrong?

Well I have water dripping out from where the transmission pan is, back of motor, gets worse when the car heats up. Any idea what might be wrong?

if the water is anti freeze & is coming from between engine & trans the
only thing there is a freeze plug. make sure the leak isnt coming from
above & leaking down. pressure tester would help in locating the leak

It seems to be coming down where the tranmission pan is, when it gets hot, it's pouring from the outer edge of the oil pain too. I need to get a flashlight because it's hard to see up in there.

I found no hoses with any leaks, no leaks around the thermostat gasket, nothing around the head gasket, felt around one side of the water pump, Nothing!!!!!!

With the freeze plugs, there are two on each side of my engine block, are those the freeze plugs your referring to or there some under the car that is tough to see or get to??

Could my engine block be cracked?

there are freeze plugs in the heads,side of block,back of block. the ones i was refering to are in the back of block between engine & trans. you can not see or replace without splitting the two apart. thats why you really need to be sure as this isn't an easy fix!!

I actually saw two freeze plugs back up in there when I was trying to figure out where the leak was coming from. My nephew said he figured those had something to do with the oil. It didn't look like they were leaking but I am not 100% sure. Definetly not leaking from the one's on the sides, 3 of those were already replaced.

Where do the heater hoses etc run?

Is the engine nice and clean?
With a torch and a clean engine it's usually pretty easy to spot coolant leaks.

One goes to the water pump, to the intake, and both go into the heater box I guess. My engine is definetly not clean, but a torch sounds like it is what it needs and a jug of gasoline.

LOL!

Torch = Flashlight in this part of the world :)



Get in there with a couple of cans of degreaser and give it all a really good clean.

It will be something simple, like a split hose that is only showing up now you've cleaned the gunk out :)

Oh LOL I'll try that over the weekend. I hope it's just something simple.

I actually saw two freeze plugs back up in there when I was trying to figure out where the leak was coming from. My nephew said he figured those had something to do with the oil. It didn't look like they were leaking but I am not 100% sure. Definetly not leaking from the one's on the sides, 3 of those were already replaced.

freeze plugs are only in the jackets of the engines cooling system
to help in preventing cracks if the system freezes.
so they only leak anti freeze/water.no oil

You say there is water leaking, do you actually mean water, or is it coolant? Have you checked the radiator and reservoir to determine if the level of coolant is low?

If you actually mean water, does your A/C work and have you been using it? It could just be dripping from the evaporator housing drain which is perfectly normal when the A/C is used and the air is humid.

-Rod

Clear water drips from it when it's not running, and that is a constant slow drip. When it gets warm, the color of the water turns with that discoloration that gets in the coolant jug. No oil mixed in this.

When you squeeze on the hose that hooks from the intake where the thermostat goes in and into the radiator, it will make the leak in the lower part of my car worse, if that means anything ???

The leak is too slow for the water to get very low when it's not running, but if you get it warm, doesn't take long for the water in the coolant jug to disapear.

My air hasn't worked for awhile, lack of freon. The little bit that was in my air conditioner was removed (unhooked the pipes) when I changed my radiator. So it's empty and I am not going to run my air conditioner until I fill that back up.

Okay, it does sound like a coolant leak. I just wanted to make sure since you said water, but everyone jumped on "coolant" that we were not sending you down an expensive path if you really meant water.

If you can get your hands on a cooling system pressure tester, that should help you find your leak once you get the engine degreased.

-Rod

I can't get my hands on one. Can't clean it up in there, there's no way, I can see better with a flashlight but the leak is at the top of the oil pan, at the engine block, and it does not look like it is coming down from where the freeze plugs are on the back of the head. The freeze plugs in the back don't even look worn. Looks like the leak stops at the top of where that oil pan is. And you can't see back in there to see the leak, it might be in the engine itself, maybe that is why I can't trace it any further than that ????

If the leak is in the engine, what would a garage typically charge to find out where the leak is coming from? I can't get them to price quote me ahead of time.

I stuck a dish cloth up in there by the freeze plugs on the back of the engine block, if it's a hose, or the water pump, or heater hoses or whatever, maybe leaking water down through there, though it's not visible, I figured that towel would get wet, but it didn't.

I stuck a dish cloth up in there by the freeze plugs on the back of the engine block, if it's a hose, or the water pump, or heater hoses or whatever, maybe leaking water down through there, though it's not visible, I figured that towel would get wet, but it didn't.

Do you think it's coming out from the centre V of the engine? Between the heads?

I don't have enough knowledge of vehicles to answer that one. I know that anything above the oil pan, right below the freeze plugs on the back of the engine block, is not leaking down into my car, the leak is down at the bottom of my engine block. That rules out alot of things that could be leaking, and there are no signs of the heater core itself having a hole in it, as I don't have any puddles inside my car, or a problem with the windows fogging, though the heater core was stomped up as much as the rest of the cooling system was. Maybe I could remove the oil pan & transmission pan and get a closer look as to where that leak is coming from.

I don't have enough knowledge of vehicles to answer that one. I know that anything above the oil pan, right below the freeze plugs on the back of the engine block, is not leaking down into my car, the leak is down at the bottom of my engine block. That rules out alot of things that could be leaking, and there are no signs of the heater core itself having a hole in it, as I don't have any puddles inside my car, or a problem with the windows fogging, though the heater core was stomped up as much as the rest of the cooling system was. Maybe I could remove the oil pan & transmission pan and get a closer look as to where that leak is coming from.

All the water lines will be at the top of the block, or heads.

Taking the pan off shouldn't show anything, unless it's a crack in the block (which is a bad thing....)

Whats obstructing your view of where the leak could be coming from?

It looked like the leak stopped at the area between the transmission pan and oil pan, and it's so small up in there, you can't even put your hand through it. So I figured it was the engine block. I knew the leak wasn't sipping down from the back part, where the freeze plugs were. Well the leak deceived me because it's just dripping down over there.

Behind the oil pan toward the driver's side, not passengers side, there is something that looks like metal or aluminum or something behind it that connects to the engine, the water is coming out of that. I took a photo, just look for the silver part on the photo to show where I'm taking about, you can see part of it to the right of the oil pan. Maybe it's some type of engine block plate that goes on the engine?? The leak is on over in between the oil pan and engine, but if I press on that silver piece in between there, the leak stops. Is something supposed to seal that plate to the engine? It doesn't appear that the leak is dripping down from where the oil filter is, I also see a freeze plug beside the oil filter, it looks okay. It just looks like that plate is loose.



http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g349/darkestdays1560/020.jpg


Here's a close up showing what I'm talking about..
http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g349/darkestdays1560/020a.jpg

Got me I'm afraid.


Lets see if we can find someone who is a bit more familiar with the engine layout.

Right, I jumped into chat, and got the following:

It may still be a hose.
You need to find every hose coming out of the block, and out of the firewall and trace their full length, including any steel sections.

Could be the intake manifold gasket.

Or, it could be a hard to see and reach freeze plug in the back of the block.....

Thank you...

However, lol, there is no leak coming down from the back. The freeze plugs look fine, I felt up in there and did not feel any water dripping from them, stuck a towel up in there and down where the leak was, the towel up by the freeze plugs came out dry, that also proved the hoses to the firewall was not leaking, it's not coming from the back. All coolant hoses have came off, been cleaned out, and inspected, except for the one's on the firewall, and so it's not the hoses. It's coming from that plate or shield or whatever the snot that is. It doesn't appear to be coming from down the front either but it could be possible, I felt up in there, nothing, I saw one freeze plug by the oil filter, felt around it, no water is dripping from it, it also looks fine, no rust. So apparently if this plate is not supposed to be sealed or have a gasket around it, then there is a crack behind it on my engine. Which stinks!!!!!

blah blah blah... Stupid fords!

I saw your chat, haha, I am not a man!! But it's funny, haven't found one yet that knows anymore about this than I do. I've had two look at it, and they don't know..

But you guys have been awesome. I wouldn't have made it this far without your help and encouragement. I may check it out more next week if it quits raining or just relieve myself from the stress and take it to the auto shop, if it will make it there, water goes out pretty fast but the shop is just 4 minutes away.

I saw your chat, haha, I am not a man!! But it's funny, haven't found one yet that knows anymore about this than I do. I've had two look at it, and they don't know..


LOL, I think it an automatic assumption about anyone on a car forum, unless they make it pretty clear in thier user name :smokin:

All the Taurus's sold here have long since gone to the wreckers. We only got the mid 90s models, and they were never very popular or reliable.

Might see if I can find a picture in google and see what that back plate is.
Might be something simple to fix.

And neither are the late 90's models. No wonder they go to the wrecker. I almost took mine there, but decided, what the heck, maybe it's not the engine that's the problem, get my radiator out and hoses off and see how serious that was, thankful I found the problem, get all that fixed, though I never did car repair ever, except for once when I was a teenager, changing a carburetor once, and since I didn't get it back on tight before it got dark, I drove it in the garage and take a wild guess what happened. Caught the car on fire and the garage. There's a reason women shouldn't work on cars!! I should do carb work to this car, it would make me feel better. :iceslolan But pick up some full coverage insurance first. This car might look pretty good, but since it has 160,000 miles on it, isn't worth putting alot of money into..

hey dark, any way to get a clearer/briter picture. i no my eyes are'nt the best but
having a hard time seeing what im looking at. my nieghbor had a 96 now shes got a
01. i work on both, maybe i can see if the 01 is simular

Inafogg, if it makes it easier, darkestdays has the DOHC Duratec motor.

Inafogg, if it makes it easier, darkestdays has the DOHC Duratec motor.

I don't have the double overhead, I just have the overhead 3.0 V6 engine, and I will try to get a better picture.

Car is going to the shop tomorrow. I give. Am so tired of trying to figure out what is wrong with it. That plate/shield looks like it connects to the transmission and maybe it's an oil shield for the tranmission, I don't know, but water is coming out of it like crazy, and still leaking from the top of the oil pan. There appears to be two different leaks..

Car is going to the shop tomorrow. I give. Am so tired of trying to figure out what is wrong with it. That plate/shield looks like it connects to the transmission and maybe it's an oil shield for the tranmission, I don't know, but water is coming out of it like crazy, and still leaking from the top of the oil pan. There appears to be two different leaks..


Good luck at the shop.

Let us know what they say, be interesting to find out where it's coming from.

It made it to the repair shop but I figure he will be a week or so before he gets the chance to look at it, where they are so busy over there. Definetly will let you know what I find out. Someone is going to sell me an engine for $250 if I need one. He bought it for his car and didn't use it, decided to junk the car, and buy a new one. My nephew said he would put the engine in for me for $400. I guess that isn't too bad with pricing to get this car fixed considering what it is that needs done. My income is pretty awful as I am on social security from a disability I am trying to overcome, but I had to sell my puppy (yorkie) to get the money for this engine and it was really depressing. I would give her the money back and give her my car too if I could get him back. I wish I had her number,,, because I miss that little turk like crazy. It wasn't worth it.. I would rather have my puppy back than get that stupid car fixed.. :crying: