98 Taurus Se 3.0 Duratec overheating problem

[BIGGD]

Hello guys, I have a question. My (98 Taurus SE 3.0 Duratec) is giving me some trouble. It is over heating on me. I have replaced the thermostat and the o-ring gasket , Put new coolant and checked for leaks. Both fans are working and are coming on when the temp reaches midway of the temp guage like it should. Not sure if the water pump is circulating or not. It is hard for me to tell just by looking into the pressure tank. No oil in water or vise versa. Do you have any suggestions. I'm left scratching my head on this one.. I'm really worried about letting it get to hot do to the aluminum heads and such.

[shorod]

Welcome to the forum!

First thing to check is to make sure you don't have a bunch of leaves or other debris clogging the front of the condensor/radiator. Also, have you read the threads on the disintegrating water pumps? Any issues with poor heat? I realize this is not the time of year you'd normally be using heat in Georgia. You could check for a temperature differential between the upper and lower hose to get an idea if the water pump is circulating. I'm not sure what an acceptable differential would be, but I would expect if both are nearly the same temperature you're not getting much flow from the water pump. Maybe I'll ask this question on the Eng and Tech forum....

-Rod

[BIGGD]

Thanks for the advice Rod. I was thinking the water pump as I have read up on the problem with them. It is going to be done tomm. I will get back to you with the results. Also has there been a problem with the dog bones on the suspension to. I have already replaced the struts and those but they are brok again. I don't remember the actual part name for them. They are plastic and connect to the A arms in the front end and look loike a dog bone lol. Any way just asking. This is the second Taurus I have owned and so far they are leaving a bad taste in my mouth so to speak.. Not really impressed by them at this point. It seems they have alot of issues to be dealt with ALL THE TIME. LOL. Thanks again. Dusty

[shorod]

I think the items you are referring to are the sway bar end links. I'm not sure I'd say they are more prone to wearing out than end links on most other cars in this class. I've also rarely heard of them breaking. It's not uncommon for them to get loose and cause a rattle on bumps. How are yours breaking?

There are some common issues with the early Taurus cars, it's too early to say if the 2010 and 2011 have common issues. Many of the issues are inexpensive annoying issues. Some sadly do get a bit more pricey such as transmission issues. I wasn't gentle on my 1993 Taurus SHO and never had transmission issues. I don't remember having sway bar end link issues on that one either. The only things I remember going bad on that one was the fuel pump and the electronic blower motor controller. The spark plug wells leaked a bit of oil, but that engine was different than in other Taurus cars and was surprisingly easy to fix. When I bought it used the overdrive didn't work but I was able to fix that with a $0.17 e-clip.

I also had a 1998 SHO which needed sway bar end links and had a few coil on plug parts but never anything major like a transmission repair (or the camshaft sprocket issue specific to the SHO V8).

Maybe you just need to drive your Taurii more aggressively.

-Rod