1997 Ford Taurus SHO from North America - Comments

I have a 1997 Taurus SHO that I purchased in April of 2000 with 60k on it. Other than a fuel injector which went out right after I had the plugs changed (you need to be an ASE mechanic to change them), there has been little else wrong with the car since. I had the inner tie-rods replaced at 125k and a good alignment done, but that's it.

Sure, the cars have their quirks, but what car doesn't? These cars are fast and reliable. You can drive them hard, but you have to know how to take care of them and not over drive them, or neglect them. When service is needed on these "sleepers", TLC is needed.

I currently have 135k on this car and love it. Have done a few mods to it, raced it, and will wait for a reliable supercharger to be built for the car. Until then, I love surprising all the kids and their wannabe "fast and the furious" cars they all drive these days.

To the rest of you happy with your SHO's, happy hunting.

To those of you with problems, remember, these cars need extra special care, to prevent some of these problems. Please give it to them. :)

An SHO doesn't have plugs, it has coil packs. So if you paid a mechanic to change the plugs, he took your money.

My 97 SHO has 120K on it, cams welded at 102K, right now needs a whole mess of suspension work (ball joints, tie rods, strut mounts). Had a really hard time getting it to pass Massachusetts inspection, had to sink about a grand into new sensors all over the thing. Right after it finally passed, the S.E.S. light came right back on, spitting out the code for lean bank left (indicating it needs a new MAF, which was replaced TWICE during the aforementioned process). The light finally burnt out, so now I'm just driving it - runs fine, lots of power and pickup. Not a cheap car to maintain by any means, but comfortable inside and a joy to drive.

I have a 1996 SHO and I love it! I have had the dome/map light problem... but the lubricant sprayed into the door trick worked great! The only issue I have had is that the disc brakes get dirty and sometimes will squeak and my turn signal tab broke off inside so I have to manually turn the blinkers off... but that isn't a big deal... I love leaving new cars in the dust when I pull away at a light...LOL.

I bought a 97 with 185K miles and a shot tranny for $500. Rebuilt the tranny for $2000. Now I've got 207K miles on it and I've had all the same problems with the CD changer getting stuck, sunroof jamming, dome lights, SES light going on and off, ABS lights freakin out and gauges bouncing. I always thought it was the car's mileage and age and previous owners that was causing it so I didn't stress about it.

After reading all these comments now I'm not so sure. I've spent about $2500 getting new sensors, belts, brake overhaul and tuneups, but still get the same problems.

What the hell, it still hauls ass even with 207k and it's not like I can expect much for how old and how many miles it came with. For $2500 I get a V8, leather interior, and a 6 disc CD changer. What else would I get with that money? a late 90's 4 cylinder econo sedan? yeah right.

I just bought a 97 SHO a few weeks ago with 99k on it for $400 bucks. All this car needed was a new engine wiring harness because some smuck arced out a few wires and the car wouldn't run.

It has a ton of power and is a great car.

As for the guy above who stated they don't have spark plugs, I think he's mistaken. I believe they are a coil on plug design.

Go Ford.

I am driving my 2nd SHO and love the SHO concept. Where else can you have a "stealth" race car? My current SHO is a 1997 with 90K miles. They are expensive to maintain but the money is well worth the thrill. Do have your cams welded to avoid trashing your engine. The spray lubricant in the door jamb areas fixed my random burglar alarm problem along with faulty door ajar indicators.

It's terrific to correspond with fellow SHO owners. I have a 97 SHO that I recently purchased in Lawrence, Ks for $3850. The car has 10500 miles on it, but it is in mint condition inside and out, and I love the leather... so I bought the car hoping for the best.

I'm amazed at the performance, not knowing initially that I had purchased the Super High Output version. I have to admit that I love the power.

I have experienced the over head light problem, and will try the lubricant. I just hope it keeps running like a top... those things move, and I like having a good solid American car that has power but is not pretentious.

Ummm, an SHO does have plugs. A V-6 has plug wires and a V-8 has coil packs. But they both have spark plugs.

The SHO has spark plugs. It is a coil-on-plug design.

I bought a 97 SHO 5 years ago and it runs strong, it has 132,000 miles now. Top speed is around 140 and gets there quick!

The only issues it has are the tie-rod that makes a noise when parking, and the original coil packs that keep going out. I would advise to replace all 8 coil packs and not just the bad ones. It's a pain to remove the intake to change the back coils.

Other than that, I love the car. Specially when beating a BMW X5 on the highway!!

I have a 1997 SHO. Sometimes it will shift fine, and all at once it will down shift hard. When it is shifting fine it is a fast car, but you never know when it's going to downshift to 1st or 2nd. I don't know how to fix this, can anyone help?

My 97 SHO with 111000 miles has many of the problems mentioned before with a few to boot.

First I have a tranny issue that seems to be getting worse, where it does not always engage from a stop? You can't speed off if the car isn't in agreement 10-20% of the time.

Secondly, I have been experiencing some strange electrical problems lately where the amps/volts (whatever) fluctuate to the point where the flashing of the turn indicator speeds up and slows down, headlights dim as well.

Last of all is the "climate control" the AC seems to not work all of the time and when it does it is usually not for long. Do I need to replace the whole oval dash radio-climate control unit?

Thanks for the fixes mentioned before I will try some of those for my similar other problems.

OK, so I bought a 97 Ford Taurus SHO and I have had many problems right now we don't know what is wrong with it. My RPMs are moving like crazy when in park, and it dies if it is in drive and it is idle, like at stop lights. Now it jerks when it is being driven, so if anyone knows what this could be, could you help?