1997 Taurus G-needs tranny

[BlazerGal2000]

I inherited this car. It has only 40,000 miles. Tranny went out on me while I was passing a semi on the interstate 100 miles from home. Blew fluid all over and smoked enough that I thought it was on fire. It has sat for a few months as it's all about the money. Before I have them(boyfriend and backyard mechanics, with a real mechanic on call) start ripping it apart, I'd like to know what this car is worth as it sits. Anyone have any ideas?

I'm really debating if I want to get rid of it or fix it. I do like how it drives along with the gas mileage. I call it my "Granny Car" as it's not something I would buy, but the price was right! Since I have had it, the soft plugs and water pump have been replaced. The soft plugs were replaced at the local tech school, so I only had to pay for the parts.

Your opinions are greatly appreciated!

[shorod]

You should check www.edmunds.com, www.nada.com, and www.kbb.com to get an idea what the car is worth, when fixed. I'd also suggest you have your boyfriend and neighbor check the car over to see what else has been neglected. It's very unusual for one of these transmissions to fail after only 40k miles, but it's also very unusual for a 1997 to only have 40k miles. I suspect the maintenance schedule has been neglected due to the low mileage. The fuel filter probably has never been changed, and probably neither has the brake fluid. When the water pump was replaced do you know if they also replaced the coolant? I'm not sure what you mean by "soft plugs." I'm guessing you either mean spark plugs or frost plugs which are two completely different things.

-Rod

[BlazerGal2000]

I've had it for a couple of years now and I know that all that has been done. It was the frost plugs that were done, but the spark plugs were done too. It had about 20k on it when I started driving it and I assumed that some of the issues was from it not being driven.

[shorod]

Since you know the history of the car and you enjoy it, it is probably worth putting another transmission in it if you can confirm that that's the problem. Did the car stop working when it blew fluid all over, or were you still able to drive it? The reason I ask is there are a lot of things that could cause it to smoke like it did and you will want to be very sure it's the transmission causing the issue before you replace it. Since the frost plugs were recently replaced, it is possible one of them didn't hold, or that since you fixed those leaks, the next weak link in the cooling system failed (heater hose, water pump, etc.).

If you are confident that the transmission is the issue you might consider purchasing a used transmission from a salvage yard. As you're probably aware, a whole lot of these cars were sold so there are likely to be a lot of them in the salvage yards. Of course quite a few had transmission issues so knowing that you're getting a good used transmission could be a challenge.

-Rod

[Colt Hero]

My Aunt had a two-door 1990 Olds Calais that was bought brand new for around $10,000. When she gave it away about 3 years ago it only had 36,000 miles on it - I know because I was there when it was purchased and I used to drive it when I came home to visit. In fact, I put a LOT of those miles on the car driving around MA visiting friends.

Anyway, if this was your grandmother's car (or you otherwise know the car's history) the 40,000 miles on the odometer could be real - in which case I would be VERY skeptical that the transmission is history. And so I would surely make the necessary repairs and keep the car. But like Shorod said - I'd make sure you didn't just blow out a line, or have a leaking cooler (possibly from a rock). The fluid probably landed on the hot engine and started smoking under the hood. As long as you didn't continue to drive the vehicle for very much longer, your tranny might still be OK.

Keep an eye on that cooling system. These cars are notorious for rust and sludge build-up and need to be flushed a couple of times per year. The fact that your freeze plugs have already rusted out is a good indication that the flushes weren't being performed properly (or often enough). There is a plug on the block where the transmission attaches. If THIS plug rusts out it'll cost you $5 for the plug and $500 in labor. So if you DO end up replacing the tranny, I would have this plug replaced at the same time.

But I would bet that tranny is still good and I'd be doing EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to prove that.

[Willyum]

It might be hard for you but a non functioning 97 Taurus is worth less than $500, maybe much less.