why buy taurus=

[Huney1]

"i had a 96 sable with the original transmission that went 245,000 miles."

Please share with us, what did you do to make it last so long?
Undoubtedly you did regular maintenance on it, but how often and what services, changes or flushes?
Coincidentally, a friend has a 96 Taurus with 125K road miles on it and says it runs like a champ. Retired military so he is a preventive maintenance freak like me.

[mwt878991]

I don't believe they drop the pan and change the filter for the $100.00 flush at the dealer. They might but I don't think they due based on conversations I have had with people that took their vehicle there.

I don't think Ford even recommends a filter change until High mileage.

Mike

[mwt878991]

I try to flush mine using the Ford recommended procedure about every 30K.
I use 16 quarts because I have twin tranny coolers and an inline spin on filter that has a FilterMag attached to it.

I also have a pan I put a drain plug in .

16 quarts of Mobil1 which is a full synthetic is 94 bucks and 10 dollars for a K&N oversized filter.

I change the factory filter every other change


Mike

[MyTaurus8AChevy]

That K&N sure looks sexy

I'll have to see if they make a standard tranny filter. Other than Fram (which we won't use anymore) who else makes a good tranny filter? Napa?

[Millermagic]

I'm a little late into this topic, but my experience has been positive with the gen 4 taurus. Flush the transaxle every 10k miles and it will last a long time.

Plus, I think the EPA estimates are rated too low. I've got 34mpg with mine.

[MyTaurus8AChevy]

Originally Posted by Millermagic

Flush the transaxle every 10k miles and it will last a long time.

Did not know about this. Thought it was longer. We looked for a filter today but could not find one. Does a new O-ring come with a new filter, or is it a separate item to replace?

Plus, I think the EPA estimates are rated too low. I've got 34mpg with mine.

I agree. I get close to 30 in the city and 37 on the highway, but it absolutely hates red lights.

[Millermagic]

I'm not sure about dropping the pan and changing the filter, but that's a must also ... maybe not quite so often but definitely should be done.

As far as red lights go I don't stop for redlights. I've managed to be able to learn how to time stoplights so I can just creep up at 15mph and by the time I get to it go through it.

[e_powers]

Originally Posted by Huney1

"i had a 96 sable with the original transmission that went 245,000 miles."

Please share with us, what did you do to make it last so long?
Undoubtedly you did regular maintenance on it, but how often and what services, changes or flushes?
Coincidentally, a friend has a 96 Taurus with 125K road miles on it and says it runs like a champ. Retired military so he is a preventive maintenance freak like me.

my father inlaw was a stickler for car maintenance and most of the miles were from him. and from him it just had maintenance just done to it nothing major like transmission and engine.

[MyTaurus8AChevy]

Originally Posted by Millermagic

I've managed to be able to learn how to time stoplights so I can just creep up at 15mph and by the time I get to it go through it.

That is a true art form I've tried doing this before and it's not as easy as it sounds. If this country wants to save oil, then they should time the lights better.

I asked the Ford dealer about buying a new seal/gasket and they said it doesn't need to be replaced A new one is only around 10.00 and maybe it's just a bad habit but I still feel safer replacing it

[Huney1]

"I don't believe they drop the pan and change the filter for the $100.00 flush at the dealer." Correct. They hook up the fancy-dancy flush machine and it (supposedly) cleans the fliter by back flushing then flushing the other way back & forth and last step rinses out all the old fluid and replaces it with new.

The service writer has been there five years anyway and I know him fairly well and he's a stand up guy. I told him I read on the web that flushing sometimes caused problems and he says none of the vehicles he wrote up ever came back with an after flush problem. All I can tell you is what he told me and that is a BIG Ford, Lincoln, Mercury dealeship and they run a lot of cars through the sevice dept.

Think I told you, I changed 15 qts in mine by siphoning through the dip stick fill tube. Let it cool an hour then take a 1/4" piece of hose and stick it down the tube and start the siphon going into a 5 gal bucket. Let is siphon all night and I got right at 5 qts out. Filled it up and drove it a week then did the same thing twice again and last fill used 3 qts of Mobil 1 synthetic ATF and it shifts slick as possum grease. All that at 35K miles and I figure at 70K or so I'll have it flushed. That is, if I keep it that long because I only put 8K a year on a vehicle and when my financial windfall inheritance comes through I'm getting a Mini Cooper.

[MyTaurus8AChevy]

Originally Posted by Huney1

I told him I read on the web that flushing sometimes caused problems and he says none of the vehicles he wrote up ever came back with an after flush problem.

The only problem that I have with his explanation to you is that these types of problems don't usually occur overnight. That flushing process might be causing an issue, but it may not show up for several thousand miles down the road

I changed 15 qts in mine by siphoning through the dip stick fill tube.

I will try this IF I can find a siphon I would be lost trying to do this at the tranny cooler anyways. This way sounds much easier. I just wish I could find Mobil 1 for less money but I could only find it at Auto Zone. It's almost 7.00 a qt. and I need 14 quarts

Also, we read that Ford says that you don't have to replace the gasket. Does that sound right? I thought everytime you remove something with a gasket that it should be replaced.







.

[mwt878991]

The Oring comes with the new filter. Make sure you get the old one out of the hole it pushes into.

Ford started using a reuseable gasket in 96 or so and they actually do reseal very well.

As far as doing it at the cooler

It is very easy. Pull a line off the cooler and if you dont have any power steering fluid left in your resovoir you pulled the wrong one. Your P/S probably needs chaning anyway.

If you do get the right one off shove a piece of hose the same size as came off of it and put it in a bucket to drain.


Mike

[MyTaurus8AChevy]

Originally Posted by Huney1

I changed 15 qts in mine by siphoning through the dip stick fill tube.

How long does this tube need to be?

I found a hand siphon at Wally world for 3 bucks. It siphons 1.8 gallons a minute

[Huney1]

"How long does this tube need to be?" I guess it's about five feet long, long enough to go from the bottom of the tranny pan to the garage floor. Shove it down gently until it stops then shove it a bit farther until you feel it hit bottom then start the siphoning action and drop the tube in the bucket. Next morning I took a quart can and poured the ATF in it one at the time until I emptied the bucket and that gave me an idea of how much I needed to add. Just make sure it's not real hot so the tubing doesn't melt.

I admit it's squirrely but it worked for me. By the way, Advance Auto came out with their brand of Mercon V and it was cheaper so I used it and it has worked fine. That Mobil1 full synth is good but sure is pricey.

"I found a hand siphon at Wally world for 3 bucks. It siphons 1.8 gallons a minute." Sounds like a wiener to me.

[MyTaurus8AChevy]

By the way, Wally World just started carrying Mobil 1 Mercon V at 5.90 a qt (about a dollar more than regular Mercon V). Much better than the $7.00 a quart that Auto Zone and the other auto parts stores sell it for, especially when you need to buy 13-16 quarts for a flush You'll probably need to go to more than one Wally World though, because they only stock 10 quarts at a time