HELP!!! My Taurus is acting up!!

[dragon2k7]

Hey all,

I am new here. I have always owned a 90 Grand Prix and I decided to add a 98 Taurus to my fleet. This is a 1998 Ford Taurus LX Fuel Flexible Vehicle with the 3.0 V6 in it.

I am having problems with this car and thought this would be the best place to come for help. What happens with this car is that if the car has been running for 5 minutes or more and you floor the car or try to take off fast, it bogs down really bad, almost as if to spit and sputter, but if you take off with it slow then it is fine. It idles a little rough when this starts happening and the engine also has a little bit of a whining sound to it which I figure is just the power steering. The car does not run hot or anything and there are no other problems except for the erratic idling and the car losing power. We tried to take off in it fast yesterday and it acted like it had no power at all. It had not gotten that bad until yesterday whenever my fiancee had left the a/c running for an hour straight while picking up the kids from school which I am sure could easily screw up the cat if it was not working correctly.

The car is fine if you are on open roads and have gotten going and everything. No service engine soon lights come on, the car doesnt cut off or anything, but the gas mileage sucks. I am thinking it is either a clogged cat or maybe a clogged fuel filter, possibly bad plug wires and/or bad plugs. The car does have unusually high miles on it for it to be a 98, but it is all I could afford at the time. The car has 192,000 miles. Any suggestions would be very helpful? I am kind of lost on this one.

[wrightz28]

Only thing I can really suggest at this time, cause I'm in the same boat getting reaquanted with Ford is since you just bought the car, you don't really know how well it's been treated.

When I get a car, I go through all the preventive maintnance regardless of what the seller said was "just done" to it. So, oil, plugs, wires, fuel filter, test the coolant and depending on mileage and service history the trans filter. By doing these things, you can see, is there gook or debris in the fluids, and if it's been overheated, and read the plugs to see how sound the motor is.

so there's my

Oh, hint-hint on the fuel filter as my hunch.

[shorod]

Well, there are a few things to check. As wrightz28 suggested, check the common tune up items. I might also add that you should put a bottle of fuel injector cleaner into the fuel tank.

Also, the DPFE sensor could be causing similar symptoms to what you describe (you can search the forum for more info on the DPFE sensor). Also, possible plugged catalytic converters is a good thought as well. Probably the only good way to check that would be to drop the exhaust before the cats temporarily, or have an exhaust shop check the back pressure before and after the converters.

If you find an issue with the converters, you'll want to make sure the plugs and wires are good, along with the coolant temp sensors, MAF sensor, and other items that could cause an improper air/fuel ratio so you don't melt down new converters right away as well.

-Rod