1998 Ford Taurus SHO from North America - Comments

Alignment problems:

- Ball joints and other steering parts are special SHO parts so they cost me more to replace when they wore out.

Electrical problems:

- "Football" console (stereo and climate control) goes dead sometimes.

- Climate control goes dead sometimes and shuts off air conditioner.

- Cassette player whines with engine RPM noise (this is a known defect with a Ford technical service bulletin) Oddly enough, the radio and the CD player do not make this noise.

- "Door Ajar" light stays on when doors are all firmly closed and this keeps the interior lights on. The map lights cannot be turned off when the Door Ajar light is on.

- Headlight lens covers are plastic and they get dull. You can't just replace the clear plastic lens cover, you have to replace the entire headlight assembly which is over $200 apiece retail. Shop around the web for this.

Engine problems:

- Some missing at idle and high speed. These are known defects with a Ford technical service bulletin.

- There is a known defect with the camshafts. I do not know if this has been fixed on my car.

This car is very fast once it gets up to high revs, but not so fast from a standing start. Once the secondary intake manifold runners "kick in" at about 3500 rpms, it howls like a banshee and goes like one too.

This car has a serious known defect with the camshafts. Since it is a 32 valve V-8 (made by Yamaha) it has 4 overhead camshafts. All of these camshafts have multiple pieces and they can come apart while the engine is running. Many 1996-2000 V8 SHO owners have their camshafts welded or drilled and pinned to keep the camshafts together. Ford has a technical service bulletin that recommends using Loc-Tite on the cams, but serious SHO owners think that's a joke. If any of the camshafts falls apart, it destroys the motor. The motor is up to $10,000 to replace, if you can find one.

The SHO has upgraded steering and suspension and is fully loaded with lots of electronic stuff that likes to go dead on you.

I also drive a regular Taurus company car and it has less problems than the SHO has. The regular Taurus has heating and air conditioning knobs instead of a computerized climate control so I think it is less likely to die on me.

The 1996-2000 Taurus body has a weird "guppy" look to it... you either love it or hate it.

If you'd ever looked at the engine you'd notice fairly quickly that there is no V8 in sight. It's a Yamaha V6.

Just in case you were wondering where those 2 spark plugs disappeared to...

That's not true starting in 1996 to 1999 the SHO had a 32 valve Yamaha V8.

I have a 97 taurus sho with the yamaha all aluminum V8 (which IS A FULL 8 CYLINDERS) and don't have any of the problems you are pointing out here, it is obvious you went to every web site you could and collected all of the sho problems and called them your own. Sho taurus are a great car mine has 180k and is still running strong!

I had a '96 SHO and loved it until someone ran a red light and ended it's life. Regardless, the cam problem is real, but not a guarantee to all of the engines out there. I had mine fixed at a specialty shop and saw first hand that the timing chain gear was loose, but only on one of the cams... it only takes one bad cam to wreck this engine. $500 to have all four of them welded and all was fine. Other than the cams, it was a trouble free car that provided a LOT of smile time for the driver! Loved it and miss it. Handling was incredible for a car of it's weight and size. The sound of the aluminum V8 at wide open throttle to it's near 7,000rpm red-line was exhilarating. And yes, the 1989 through 1995 had an aluminum v6 from Yamaha. The 1996 through 1999 had an aluminum v8 with Ford designing the bottom end and Yamaha designing the top end of the engine.

I have a 1998 Ford Taurus SHO that I have owned over five years. Overall, it has been a good car, with one or two of the glitches you mentioned.

The car is a 4.3 V8. The motor is a Yamaha BOAT motor. It has coil packs, not just spark plugs.

The "door ajar" issue has popped up on me a few times--usually in rainy weather. The best thing we have found that works on it is a spray drying agent. This problem usually means the door sensor has gotten damp / has moisture in it. I haven't had this problem in a long time, and I live in a very humid environment.