97 Taurus GL -- ever hear of a frozen balljoint?

[shorod]

Originally Posted by way2old

I work on Fords, so I drive GM. Just a preference.

And I have exactly the opposite logic. I worked on all the domestic brands, and enough GM products to realize I didn't want one. We had a couple of customers with, I think they were Cutlass Calais with the Quad 4 engine. Ever try to change the oil filter on one of those with the filter way up near the intake manifold, standing rightside up? As soon as you loosen the filter, it empties all the oil in it down the backside of the engine. I think they only tried that for one model year, but there were similar engineering "marvels."

Granted, Ford's have issues too, and if I were really looking to buy a car I'd expect to only need to perform routine maintenance on, I'd probably be driving a Honda or Toyota.

When I was still part of our local sports car club, we used to give our president a hard time about having Chevy track cars, but pulling them to the track with a Ford. His rebuttal was, "If you want to make it to the track, you drive a Ford. If you want to have fun at the track, you drive a Chevy." He had a Z06 that later received the Lingenfelter treatment, and had a supercharged Camaro that could go straight and turn.

Well, I'm getting a bit off topic here, so I had better stop rambling (no pun intended)

-Rod

[ilLUMINAteddriver]

I think we can all agree here that if you work on them you see the worst they have, if you drive them you see the best, and that everyone has sold clunkers and junkers and even a lemon or two from a really good production run. Doesn't matter if you're talking GM, Ford, Dodge, Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, whatever.

I had a 1996 Chevy Lumina go 200,000 miles and not need anything but oil changes and new tires and a waterpump and a 94 Taurus with 138k on the clock eat two waterpumps in 46 days, digest a caliper and ABS speed sensor, chew up and spit out a brake rotor... I think you get the picture.

There will always be people who are brand loyal and there are those who get whatever's cheap or fits their needs better. Everyone's opinion is welcome as long as they don't get personal, right?

[steps down off soapbox]

Thanks for all the help, guys, it's really appreciated. I have both outer tie-rod ends and both lower ball joints in hand ($56 for the lot and they only have to last a year so I can get enough money for the good parts if I need them then) and they're going on next week (I'm flying to Long Island on Friday, no chance to get them on before I get back). If that doesn't fix the problem I'll move on from there. First the subframe bolts, then the sway-bar link ends. I have a hunch it's the ball joints making the scraping sound when I turn the wheel and I'm pretty sure at least part of the clunk is from the tie-rod end, so we'll have to see what's left after I get those installed.

I hope that's it. After the sales tax, plate fees, etc at the DMV and the $50 price tag just for the title, and the misc items I've needed to buy along the way (and new rubber I'll need before winter), I'm running out of cash! I don't know if I'll be able to afford the alignment I'll need before I can get the rubber, and with the way snow flies here...

I'll keep you posted on my progress!