Greetings fellow Taurus owners.

[wrightz28]

Hello to all.

Just thought I'd do a quick meet and greet. My name is Dylan, and will be taking delivery of a 92 Taurus on Friday.

I've owned a few fords over the years,

86 F250 diesel
87 Escort
88 Cougar
85 Marquis

But, I've been involved mostly with GM's over the last 10-12 year, so no doubt I'll be needing some refreshers or tips from the well versed owners.

In looking at the car yesterday, needs a front coil spring to be good.

2 things of notice

1-low fluid whine from power steering pump, owner states a leak near the rack. I'm familiar with the o-rings leaking on the hoses with GMs of the same genre and assume this is the same?

2-The ignition tumbler was a little on the flakey side, one time it turned over perfect, next time it seemed to bind and not roll all the way over. Is there a upgraded lock cylinder to correct this, or is it just a r & r as needed?

Other than that, the motor was nice quiet and smooth ideling, no knocks or ticks with 132K on it. I'm replacing my 87 Buick PA with this car and with my Buick, I replace head gaskets almost ever 30 -35K miles on it and had to rebuild the transaxle. The Taurus has had the head gaskets replaced and nothing else. Should I expect an issue soon? Dosen't seem like it, seems well taken care of but, you learn more through experience o fotheres some times.

[450HP]

Couple of bad things with this year of Taurus...

First, the head gaskets, which you stated that they've already been replaced.

Second, the transmission, which should be checked out... there is an aluminum
piston inside that will collapse, when the tranny is rebuilt, it will get replaced with
a steel one.

We have a 91 Sable wagon that has had it's tranny replaced once, and now it's going
out a second time with only 18K miles on the rebuild.

Can't take it back as it's already past it's 1yr/12Kmile warranty period.

It was going to cost another $2K to replace it again...

We found a nice little 98 Chevy Cavalier with only 24K miles on the clock to replace
the Sable with for only $3K.

Hope you have better luck with your Taurus than we did with our Sable.

Scott

[wrightz28]

Originally Posted by 450HP

Second, the transmission,

Scott,

Thanks, that's the kind of stuff i'm looking for. Funny, the Buick had similar issues with a bad desing in the valve body. Looks like I'm going to be giving myself a crash course in Ford transaxles. Rebuilt an AOD transmission but not an axle.

Thanks again.

[GPFred]

Another thing to remember, the power steering pump in Fords is known to whine, whether it is full or not. I've never owned a Ford that the power steering didn't whine even after a rebuild, replacement, or flushing.

[wrightz28]

Originally Posted by GPFred

Another thing to remember, the power steering pump in Fords is known to whine, .

Thank you, I've noticed this on a couple of Windstars I've worked on.

[450HP]

Originally Posted by wrightz28

Scott,

Thanks, that's the kind of stuff i'm looking for. Funny, the Buick had similar issues with a bad desing in the valve body. Looks like I'm going to be giving myself a crash course in Ford transaxles. Rebuilt an AOD transmission but not an axle.

Thanks again.

One thing that I was told that can really help these trannys out (and others for that matter).

Is to install an external tranny cooler.

The problem with our car's tranny the second time around is the intermediate clutch is
going out.

Our car's tranny was rebuilt by a small mom & pop shop that came very highly recommend
to us.

They look all the parts over really well, and replace the ones that are known to fail,
but reuse a lot of the original parts.

I don't know if you have a Certified Transmission shop in your area, but that's the shop
we should have use, as they replace all internal parts with new ones and dyno test
each transmission before it's ever put into a car.

For what it's worth, this same tranny is still used today in some Ford vehicles, albeit
with a few revisions.

So that should say something about the tranny's reputation.

If you rebuild it yourself, just read up on all the modifications that you can find to make
sure you do the job right the first time.

Oh, by the way, another problem we had was the check engine light come on intermittently.

Usually while accelerating during passing or coming on to the Interstate.

You would speed up, then maintain, then the light would come on for a few seconds, then
go out.

We bought the car from the original owners who told us the car had done that since it
was a month old... they took the car to dealers & mechanics... replaced this & that,
but never found the problem.

We bought the car with 127K miles on the clock, and it still did it... we took it to dealers
& mechanics and never found the problem either.

We even had the engine replaced with a Ford factory refurbished engine at 150K miles
and it still does it (the car now supports 161K miles).

I have talked to a guy that has a 92 Taurus with 40K miles on the clock and he told me
that his car does the same thing.

Seems to be isolated to the early 90's cars with the 3.8L V6 engine.

I'm a pretty good shade tree mechanic myself (my toy is a 74 Nova, 383 Stroker, &
one of less that 5K made with a factory four speed for 74).

I tried my hand at finding the problem, but came up empty handed like everyone
else.

The only codes the ECM would throw was, Bank 1 & 2 - running lean.

It boiled down to either a problem in the wiring harness or bad ECM programing.

Scott

[wrightz28]

Originally Posted by 450HP

It boiled down to either a problem in the wiring harness or bad ECM programing.

Immediately I thought of a data wavelength problem, don't these still use a vacuum MAP sensor? I've heard alot of issues with those being sloppy.

Anyway, did some research and looks like it's going to be a fun afternoon when I get down to replacing the coil springs

Eh well, all praise the garage beer fridge

[450HP]

I was told that they did use a MAP, but I could never find one... maybe the 92 has one?

If you need parts, you can come buy this one off of me here in Omaha NE!

Scott

[Huney1]

Just out of curiosity, why are you buying a 14 year old car anyway? If it was in good condition or belonged to someone you knew took care of it I could understand. However, buying one that old is a definite roll the dice transaction on your part, and IMO, you're playing Russian roulette and they loaded all six.

[wrightz28]

Originally Posted by Huney1

Just out of curiosity, why are you buying a 14 year old car anyway?

A) I'm married with 2 kids and it's $400, simple math there

B) It's in very good shape and requires minimal work, once the spring is replaced, I could probably turn around and sell this car for 2 grand easily

C) It's an upgrade from my 20 year old daily driver

D) I will never buy a new car, even if I had an overabundance of money.

That about covers it. Seriously, there's plenty of life left in this car. The one it's replacing, a Buick Park Ave. I've seen some of them go up to 300K miles before they finally croak. This Taurus only has 139K on it, and needs only $70 in it for new springs.

Although I did discover last night that it has a intake maniolfd leak It's not bad tho, still holding between 18-19 inches of vac. So I can let it go for a little bit.

Cars are expendable. Thus I laugh at our friends everytime when they complain that their car payments are too high, having to deal with full coverage insurance, or mypersonal favorite, the one that has a H2, and it costs them $140 every week in gas Thus I choose to take the ones that have life in them, I maintain them on my schedule, not the manufaturer's, pay $18 a month for insurance, and if it get's hit or scratched, oh well get a replacement piece if the damage is that bad, or replace the car, done.

[Huney1]

A) I'm married with 2 kids and it's $400, simple math there

<Grin> I got'cha loud and clear, many moons ago I've been there - done that.
Sounds like pretty good ride for the money and you get it fixed up and should give good service. Have a nice week end and give the kids a hug for old GrandPa Huney.

[wrightz28]

Originally Posted by Huney1

Sounds like pretty good ride for the money and you get it fixed up and should give good service.

Exactly thef plan

The car it is replaceing, ironically was also bought for $400, but required alot more work in form of a engine and transmission rebuild, but has been the most reliable car I've ever owned over almost 8 years now.