94 Taurus - Repair or Salvage

Hi, I'm new to the group and need some advice. I wrecked my 94 Taurus recently and the insurance company said it is too costly to repair and wants to total it. Car is in excellent shape, has 80600 miles, just had front struts replace (broken spring), A/C fixed (new condensor), and tires replaced. Damage to the car: Front - right front fender destroyed, front bumper cover scraped, bumper filler warped, washer fluid tank destroyed, ABS light constant on and side marker light/housing destroyed. Rear - quarter panel dented and rear bumper cover scraped. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the frame (had an independent body man look it over). I had planned to drive it at least another year or so, then give it to my son. Any thoughts or ideas would be helpful.

Chances are the tranny is going to go out on it soon. Get rid of it before you end up putting an ungodly amount of money into it. I've read the the AOXD Transmissions are prone to fail because of a design flaw causing the planetary gears to prematurely wear. Mine's a 93', massive transmission troubles, AOXD, chances are you have one as well. I'd reccomend something with a 5.0L and an AOD transmission, like a T-Bird or something.

Me and my friend had put a 5.0LHO EFI into his 1979 ford fairmont station wagon from a 1993 T-Bird with 140,000 miles. The tranny is very smooth, and the oil is still clean after 3,000 miles when he changes it. It may not be the original engine, but we'll never know forsure. He bought the entire car from a junk yard for $400 and sent it back once we got everything we needed off of it.

Good luck,
Pete

How much did they offer for it?
Mike
:smile:

Pete, Thanks for the information. I was hoping to at least drive the car until next spring or summer and replace on my timetable. I'm not sure what an AXOD transmission is, but I will ask my mechanic if that's what I have. Marte

Mike,
They haven't offered me anything yet, they are still working on it. The first estimate was 2150.00 and they said it was close to total. An appraiser was sent and his estimate was 2500 and change. I had an independent bodyman look over the second estimate and he said the estimate included replacing things that didn't need to be replaced.

It runs fine and I drove it home about 20 miles after the accident. That was after we did surgery to remove the windshield washer tank from the alternator pully and bungeed the coolant tank into place.

Marte

Absolutely take the money & run from the taurus. Had factory rebuild tranny put in at 86000 miles due to failed aluminum clutch piston ($2900). I have heard greater than 25% of the cars have this problem.

Just drove it up to the mountains for the first time after the rebuild and a seal blew. Fluid everywhere. Min of a $1000 to fix it. Wish i hadn't sunk the money in the first place. it was just rebuilt 22000 miles ago, but longer than 2 years so out of warranty. never buying another ford product. They had the nerve to tell me sorry and if i had done it more recently i would have gotten a 3 year 36K warranty on the rebuilt tranny.

Unless you are really attached to that car, I would say get at least 2500-2800 for the car (low miles for a '94) and put it toward a different car. I have a '95 taurus GL and keep seeing people have problems with these cars, from stalling to idle problems to having to replace everything from alternators to water pumps and the problem in mine, bad brakes and an overheating engine. These cars are Okay cars but have many minor design flaws that can come back as expensive repairs.