Is the Ford Taurus a good car?

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lsd

Golden Member
Sep 26, 2000
1,184
70
91
Why not? if he's able to do it himself and the parts are cheap there's no reason not to do it. Now if your inept and you have to take it to a shop that's a different story.
 
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steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
3,990
6
81
lsd said:
Why not? if he's able to do it himself and the parts are cheap there's no reason not to do it. Now if your inept and you have to take it to a shop that's a different story.
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He's doing it himself. Yeah, I see Ford Taurus with nothing wrong for 500 bucks.
 
nakedfrog

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
59,887
14,642
136
steppinthrax said:
He's doing it himself. Yeah, I see Ford Taurus with nothing wrong for 500 bucks.
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The $500 one states right in the description it needs $500 of work done.
And I'm just gonna put it out there that CL sellers with low cash price cars aren't always 100% forthcoming about the condition of the vehicle, or they may not even know about other issues it has.
All things being equal, if the only thing the guy's car needs is a HG, it makes more sense for him to replace it than it does to drop $500 on another Taurus of unknown condition. If he were paying a shop to do the work, that would change things a bit.


That being said, in general they seem to be pretty decent cars.
 
L

lsd

Golden Member
Sep 26, 2000
1,184
70
91
steppinthrax said:
He's doing it himself. Yeah, I see Ford Taurus with nothing wrong for 500 bucks.
Click to expand...

Even still your going to spend much less than $500 on a HG replacement if DIY and don't go ridiculous on parts. It is a '97 Taurus after all. After it's done you have a car you know rather than a car that may have serious problems hidden.
 
S

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
3,990
6
81
nakedfrog said:
The $500 one states right in the description it needs $500 of work done.
And I'm just gonna put it out there that CL sellers with low cash price cars aren't always 100% forthcoming about the condition of the vehicle, or they may not even know about other issues it has.
All things being equal, if the only thing the guy's car needs is a HG, it makes more sense for him to replace it than it does to drop $500 on another Taurus of unknown condition. If he were paying a shop to do the work, that would change things a bit.


That being said, in general they seem to be pretty decent cars.
Click to expand...

Thing is when a car needs a HG it likely has a high mileage on it and it will need other work. If you are going to take the time to tear down most of the engine to get to the HG your better off doing the whole thing.
 
jlee

jlee

Lifer
Sep 12, 2001
48,518
223
106
steppinthrax said:
Thing is when a car needs a HG it likely has a high mileage on it and it will need other work. If you are going to take the time to tear down most of the engine to get to the HG your better off doing the whole thing.
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Not necessarily. You (generally) can do a head gasket in car for cheap. A complete rebuild adds machine work (plus pulling and reinstalling the motor).
 
postmortemIA

postmortemIA

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2006
7,721
40
91
Taurus 1996-2005 is dirt cheap to fix. It has no fancy electronics. Nothing changed much over the years. You can find spare parts easily because there are so many of them in junk yards.
 
L

lsd

Golden Member
Sep 26, 2000
1,184
70
91
steppinthrax said:
Thing is when a car needs a HG it likely has a high mileage on it and it will need other work. If you are going to take the time to tear down most of the engine to get to the HG your better off doing the whole thing.
Click to expand...

Not at all and it's a big stretch from going to a basic HG r/r to a full rebuild. Your talking about going from a day job to a job that can go on for weeks because you have to wait on the machine shop.
A HG r/r an average mechanic can do with no problem, a full rebuild takes much more finesse and skill, not to mention 10x the cost.
 
E

eng2d2

Golden Member
Nov 7, 2013
1,007
38
91
I have a taurus for work. It was a 2002. 1 1/2 year later the car dump a huge trans fluid on my driveway. The car was uncomfortable too. The lug nut strip when I got a flat tire.
It is not reliable for me but it was work car so I did not pay attention to the reliability.
 
BurnItDwn

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,215
1,696
126
Fiancee has a 2005 Taurus, I hate it.

2013 did o2 sensors to try to get it to pass a fog test.
2014 we had the transmission rebuilt (again), as well as new power steering pump and lines (it was leaking all over the place)
2015. It failed emission test and needs new cat converters.
It still needs ball joints, rack and pinion, engine mounts
She has had transmission rebuilt before
Engine is fine, but body is in bad shape, and everything appears to be breaking or broken.

Her brother can do a lot of stuff that doesn't require a hoist, but, it's gotten to the point where it's going to be thousands to get it on the road again

Anyhow, it is a lost cause, she should have junked it years ago. It would be less expensive to buy a brand new car and make a car payment than to constantly keep repairing this one.

That said, she isn't working currently, and she always likes to ride around with her mom who is retired and lives 10 minutes away, so it's not a hurry to replace... (though her mom's explorer has around 190K miles and is likely going to start getting expensive to keep on the road)
 
MongGrel

MongGrel

Lifer
Dec 3, 2013
38,466
3,067
121
They used to be very reliable, a lot of police departments used them at one time. Of course those were probably a bit of a different beast.

If you have the know how and want to fix one up yourself why not if it's something around.

I wouldn't mess with buying one to repair personally these days.
 
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mizzou

Diamond Member
Jan 2, 2008
9,734
54
91
I like the modern Taurus. The old ones were crap.

I'd rather drive a crown vic to be honest, if i wanted an big oldish 90's 00's ford.
 
K

Kris3

Junior Member
Jan 27, 2013
4
3
81
Taurus has two engines that are considerably different to work on: Vulcan and Duratec. Vulcan is OHV and most repairs will be easier than the Duratec, which is DOHC. Head gasket on a Duratec would practically never be done DIY, as a low-mileage junkyard engine swap would be far easier and relatively cheap.

All of this said, both of these engines tend to be reliable and the transmission is a far bigger concern.
 
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deathBOB

Senior member
Dec 2, 2007
569
239
116
I just sold my 2003 with 170,000 miles for $550 at Carmax. My family owned it since it was new and it required the following repairs (other than damage caused by accidents):
-AC compressor replaced
-Power steering reservoir replaced
-Ignition coil replaced
-Transmission rebuilt
-Front control arms replaced
-Rotors were constantly warping

At the time it was sold it needed to have the shocks replaced, an AC leak fixed, and at least one motor mount replaced. The Duratec was solid, but I think it was leaking oil from some gaskets at the end, and the transmission was beginning to exhibit some odd shifting.

It was cheap to buy and we didn't do a great job of taking care of it, so I can't really complain.
 
B

BUTCH1

Lifer
Jul 15, 2000
20,433
1,769
126
lsd said:
Not at all and it's a big stretch from going to a basic HG r/r to a full rebuild. Your talking about going from a day job to a job that can go on for weeks because you have to wait on the machine shop.
A HG r/r an average mechanic can do with no problem, a full rebuild takes much more finesse and skill, not to mention 10x the cost.
Click to expand...

100% agree. I had a '95 Escort that dropped a valve seat, ruined the piston and hammered the head pretty well too. I replaced the piston with the block still in the car and of course bought a set of rings. since they set includes the rings for all 4 cylinders I figured, "why not". Turned out to be a waste of time, when I removed the other 3 pistons the rings had little wear and I added a lot of time to complete the job. The head was salvageable and the machine-shop installed stainless-steel seats to avoid a repeat on another cylinder, the 1.9L and some 2.0L CHV engines did this a lot. Drove it another 25K miles before the second heater-core went out, not wanting to do that nightmare again I traded it in. As for the Taurus it made this list of one of the best cars for under $5K, http://thegarage.jalopnik.com/the-ten-most-dependable-cars-you-can-buy-on-ebay-for-le-1640355343
 
AdamK47

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,637
3,426
136
deathBOB said:
I just sold my 2003 with 170,000 miles for $550 at Carmax. My family owned it since it was new and it required the following repairs (other than damage caused by accidents):
-AC compressor replaced
-Power steering reservoir replaced
-Ignition coil replaced
-Transmission rebuilt
-Front control arms replaced
-Rotors were constantly warping

At the time it was sold it needed to have the shocks replaced, an AC leak fixed, and at least one motor mount replaced. The Duratec was solid, but I think it was leaking oil from some gaskets at the end, and the transmission was beginning to exhibit some odd shifting.

It was cheap to buy and we didn't do a great job of taking care of it, so I can't really complain.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a driver induced problem.
 
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