1997 Ford Taurus GL review from North America

Radiator cracked overheated cracked both heads

front drivers side wheel bearing

alternator

water pump

synchronizer, and cam shaft position sensor

shift sensor

shift solenoid.

STAY FAR FAR AWAY IF YOU LIKE MONEY!

I bought this car from my grandfather (74 years old) who had it maintained incredibly well (I got all of the receipts to prove it) and drove it very little.

He never had any problems out of the car, but shortly after I got it it started developing major problems (I am assuming because I commute to work and put an average of 100 mile on it per day)

First I was driving home form work one day and noticed that the temperature was running a little hot, so I pulled over and took a look, the coolant level was a little low so I topped it off. several miles down the road I notice the gauge goes up a little and just stops. I thought it was a little weird but it wasn't going up so I kept going. A few miles down the road the engine starts making all kinds of racket so I pull over and the coolant is GONE, the motor is badly over heated.

$1800 later and lots of scrounging in the junkyard to find some heads to have rebuilt and a radiator to replace the one that cracked wide open (yes they make them out of plastic these days). I have the 2 heads I got out of the junk yard rebuilt and put on and the radiator installed.

Low and behold the damn thing is still overheating! I remove the water pump to find that the blades on the impeller had completely eroded away.

So I do some internet research and find that I am not the only person to experience this issue apparently ford failed to clear out all of the sand blasting medium when they cast the blocks and I had sand blasting sand coursing around in my cooling system. Several fittings had to be replaced due to them being literally worn thin from the inside out.

What happened is my water pump was just bareley working and the last bit of the impeller wore away causeing the temperature to rise, the pressure went up and basicelly blew the side out of my plastic radiator then dumped the coolant out so fast the temp gauge did not register the temperature rising, hence the cracked heads.

I am now fighting with a cam position sensor and synchronizer (completely unrelated to the overheating) and the transmission will not shift into overdrive (another completely unrelated problem).

I will NEVER own another ford car... I had super luck with my 2 rangers I had before this POS, but never again a ford car!