New to me 2004 SEL

This morning I traded in my `01 Windstar with 204,000 miles for an `04 Taurus with 27,000 miles. I've been looking for a long time and finally found one that was just what I was looking for. It's a charcoal colored, 24 valve, SEL with leather bucket seats. I haven't drived it a lot but so far I'm very pleased. Anything I should "look out" for "keep an eye on"?

I would keep my eye peeled for agressive drivers and those young tooties on their cell phones.

I would keep my eye peeled for agressive drivers and those young tooties on their cell phones.

Good advise...

How about anything related to my Taurus?

So far, I've heard nothing but good things about the 03-05 year Taurus. I recently "inherited" one myself, and so far I'm liking it. Only down sides for me are limited storage (cuz I keep a lot of crap in the car). Other than that, it gets hella good gas milage, is fun to drive, and looks pretty damn good, too.

Bought an '05 with the 24V a yr ago with 16k...now have 41k. Car has been great....drive 90 miles to work every day...80 of it on interstate and currently getting 29-31 mpg (no A/+C and 65mph) if I drive it pretty nice. The only issue with the OEM Continental tires....they need to be rotated pretty regularly to avoid cupping. I am about to get rid of them.

I bought our 03 used and the Bridgestone tires that came on it were the absolute pitts. Put on a new set of Khumos and rides and drives like it's on Michelins. Only $50. a tire and I got 'em mounted and balanced for $205. out the door.

I wouldn't blame tire cupping on the tires. I'd blame it on wheel balance and alignment. If you find tires that do much better being rotated, please post their name and number.

Rotations: Like many other maintenance items on a vehicle, I believe it depends on where you live and how you drive. In the mountains with a lot of curves and you drive fast then rotate 'em every 5K mi because the front tires shoulders wear faster. I'm a conservative driver and live in flat country with mostly long straigtht roads and unless I feel the steering wheel shimmying or the car shaking I don't have them balanced. Place I bought the Kuhmos offers free rotations every 5K mi for life of tire but I always went 10K before rotating.

Cupping: "If you see cup like wear in the treads, typically along one side, the possible causes are wheels that are out of balance, worn-out shocks or struts, and loose suspension components. The classic sign of unbalanced wheels is high-speed (50 mph and up) vibration, and it usually surfaces before the cuplike wear becomes noticeable. Suspension problems usually produce shake at lower speeds."
http://boomers.msn.com/articlePM.aspx?cp-documentid=376459&page=2

This morning I traded in my `01 Windstar with 204,000 miles for an `04 Taurus with 27,000 miles.
First of all congratulations on your new SEL :iceslolan We also have a 2004 SEL, It's Black with gray leather interior and of course the 24 valve Duratach engine. You will get spoiled fast with that engine :p It is hands down the best engine we've ever seen in a car, and that includes the one in my cousins Corvette :D As mentioned above the '03 - '05's are very well built. I would focus on good preventative maintence. We use only synthetic oil and tranny fluid with K&N filters. There is a big difference. Use only the factory brand spark plugs. BTW that car has no PCV valve. Hopefully that will save you some time and hassel because it took us 4 days of grief to find that out :D You might want to also replace the cabin air filter located under the hood (passenger side, under the cowl). As far as tires go we couldn't be happier with our Yokohama YK520's. They come standard on many Mercedes and some Lexus, etc. We had Goodyears on the car when we bought it and they were good, but starting to go bald. We heard remarkably good reviews about these tires so we bought them. The reviews were right, and we'd give them an 11 out of 10 stars if we could in every category (handling, ride, traction, etc.). I would also read this (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=691451) thread and clean your MAFS sensor. It made a big difference for our Taurus. Best of luck and enjoy your new Taurus if you can afford the gas :p

Change that trans fluid every 25-30k ... it will save you in the long run.

I now have 57,000 miles on it and it's going great! The transmission fluid was changed at 50,000, I change the oil & filter every 10,000 miles with Penzoil Platinum Synthetic 5w-20 & a Motorcraft filter and I rotate the tires every 10,000 miles. It gets ~28 mpg highway at 70+mph.

Penzoil Platinum Synthetic
That's what we use too. It's incredible oil and you can also get it fairly cheap at Walmart. Infact it's around the same price as non-synthetic oil. I think Millermagic mentioned to us that it's a good idea to add a tranny cooler to the car, so we'll be doing that in the next few months just as soon as we learn about how to find a good one. I'll post here with step by step directions incase you or anyone else wants to add one too. They add a lot of extra life to the tranny. We do not tow anything but we see it more as a preventative maintenance sort of thing since heat is a big reason for tranny problems. Of course we'll be using Mobil 1 synthetic tranny fluid when we do it. Looks like you're taking great care of the car and I'm sure it will give you many, many enjoyable miles of use :D