[ax0n]

My friend is looking at replacing his old early 90's-ish taurus with his mom's 1998 Taurus. his transmission is going out, and it has some electrical probs.

Are there any issues with the newer Tauruses (taurii?) after the revamp in 97? I know the older ones had big transmission problems once you got past 100,000 miles. Was that ever resolved?

 

[Jimmy]

Yeah, they've pretty well got it figured out. The 98 probably has an AX4S transmission, which is a huge advancement over the AXODE (the worst transmission ever to actually hit production).

The bad trannies were pretty much limited to 91-95. 91 was the flatout worst year. That was when they intruduced the electronic shifting. My 89 Taurus has 160k miles on it, original everything. My 93 needed a new transmission at 88k. So the old old ones (AXOD) are ok, AXODE have teh suck, AX4S are pretty good, AX4N (~2000+) are looking like a solid transmission.

 

[Ed]

You've come to the right place ax0n, since I have a 97 Taurus.

No, it didn't replace the Jetta; it's a second car.

These cars are pretty strong - mine used to belong to my dad, and it has 152,000 miles on it. It literally has NEVER needed a single repair. I think Ford was really on top of the quality thing during this time.

The known issue with these cars is, as has been said already, the transmission. It's notoriously weak. My dad drives SLOW, so the tranny on mine is still great, but I hear of people having to replace them well under 100,000 miles.

Oh, and I should mention that there are TWO different trannies on the 96-99 Tauruses. The 3.0 Vulcan motor has the AXOD-E, while the 3.0 DOHC Duratec has the AX4N. I don't know what the difference is, or which is more durable. The easy way to tell which is which is that the AX4N cars have an overdrive lockout button on the shifter, whereas the AXOD-E cars lock out overdrive by actually shifting the lever into the black "D" (as opposed to the white one, which is regular Drive).

Ed

 

[ax0n]

Sweet! I'll pass the info along.

 

[AnythingButAFocus]

It's Tauri, ax0n.

My mom's 2000 is a major POS, sorry to say. I can't comment on the older years, although, at my last house, a neighbor had one, no problems ever. (it was a 97)

Andrew

 

[Fordowner]

Wife a 96 company car Taurus until last year, as did rest of office. Hers had low mileage and no problems. Just slow and not aggressive shifting at all, but I liked it for what it was. Big fan of the Oval theme and the interior was good quality.

one or two other Taurus cars in office had over 100 K and didn't get a new tranny.

Altering an existing platform to trying to remove the oval theme instead of improve it is what killed the Taurus.

 

[SupaCueBal]

just get a SHO manual

 

[Osiris]

If you wanted an SHO you'd have to get one made before '96. But yeah, that would be a fine choice!

The trannies used in the Tauri need to have the fluid changed by the book. Most of the GenIII ( '96-'99 Taurus ) owners rebuild the torque converter when they redo the transmission. Some go out, some don't. A tranny cooler will certainly prolong the life of it. Do you know if it has the duratec V6 or the vulcan? The Duratec's make 200 HP and can pull pretty well. With some mods I've seen a few SLO's run mid 15's with them.

Key signs of tranny issues are shudders between 1st and 2nd, trouble downshifting when coming to a stop and trouble upshifting when the car is cold.

Check TCCOA.com for more info

 

[DangerMouse]

My dad has had a 2001 Taurus for about 1.5 years.

Two problems thus far:

The driver side door FELL OFF one time. It looks liked the screws had come loose somehow

And then one time his A/C started blowing heat.

Minor problems fixed by the dealership (well, the door would've needed work if he hadn't caught it probably)

 

[flat 4]

I bought my Mother's 92 Sable with the 3.0 V6. Currently has 120,000 miles. No tranny probs. I had to replace the radiator last fall...good news was that discount radiator sells them for $107.93. Other than that, and replacing the struts (just got old) and the sway bar links (they rusted through in the MN salt).
When the Taurus/Sable first came out they really revolutionized the US car industry. Then Ford got lazy with the car/design. It was a shame to see what Ford let that car become.
PS. If you ever needs parts for it you can't go wrong they are cheaper than dirt.
Cheers.

 

[Jimmy]

Originally posted by Osiris:

Check TCCOA.com for more info

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">TCCOA? Or TCCA? TCCA used to be a great club, but that changed in a hurry. Never a good sign when 8 of the top 10 posters quit (including the owner of the name) because they've been threatened with banning because some dork webmaster in MD has a small penis.

That being said, any Taurus after 95 should be ok for a while. The truly bad ones were in the Gen 2 (91-95), armed with the AXODE. 1991 was the absolute worst year, they slowly improved after that. In 96 the AX4S was introduced, a vast upgrade to the AXODE design. Sometime around 2000 (not 100% which year) the AX4N came out. Reading the version transmission off the pan isnt a good way to do it...some are mixed. I've seen a 97 with an AXOD pan. The original AXOD (86-90) was fairly reliable. When Ford decided to make it electronically controlled is when they really started to suck (91).

My 89 AXOD has 160k and is STILL going strong. My 93 AXODE lasted til about 85k, then decided to cook itself. A transmission cooler is an EXCELLENT idea. From what I understand, a 24k gvw cooler is perfect.

 

[deezlins]

what about the 91-95 or whenever automatic SHO

 

[Jimmy]

Originally posted by deezlins:
what about the 91-95 or whenever automatic SHO

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">93-95 used the AXODE. I think every Ford that used the Vulcan used it too. Lincoln had a fwd car that got screwed by this demon as well, but I dont know which model.

 

[xdanx]

My parents have a (I think) 98 taurus and it is a pretty solid car, they did have one major problem with it but it was such a fluke i don't think it should be too much of a worry. See what happened was they threw a rod and it went through the block and into the tranny so they had to replace both. But seriously what are the odds of that happening again.

 

[Osiris]

Oopsie!!! You're right, Jimmy, I thought it looked kinda strange...sorry guys. The Lincoln you are thinking about is the Continental.

Even the GenII SHOs with the automatic are a little shaky. But some people like them and if you take certain steps you can make the tranny last a bit. If I were in the market for a GenI or GenII SHO I'd be in the MTX without a doubt. The GenII's are beter here thanks to the rod shifter vs. cable, but the '91 Plus SHOs had them as well.

The AX4N in my SHO has shown me no problems whatsoever, but I'll keep changing the fluid every 30K just to be safe.

[ 04-24-2003, 07:18 AM: Message edited by: Osiris ]

 

[Jimmy]

MMM....1989 SHO.....a dream come true (if they did the 70k mile work).

I was a huge Taurus freak for a few years, and the #2 poster at TCCA (behind the owner). Their current leadership has teh suck, and there are very few people left there who actually know anything about the cars. All the knowledgable people left last year when the webmaster pulled the owner's name out of the registry because he didnt like him. When a couple of us tried to find out why, we were threatened with banning. About 3 days later, they completely deleted the boards, then reinstalled them so everyone had to re-register.

When Tom got booted, that club went straight to hell.

 

[SyNRG]

my sis and bro in-law just purchased a brand new 2002 (the top of the line), so far its a great car, leather seats are really cushy once broken in, smooth ride, sweet exhaust note, and the interior is super quiet! (compared to my dad's '95 sho and uncle's '86 or '87 tauraus)

only complaint: stock Continental tires suck, swap them out asap (their loud and traction teh suck

)

 

[ZTS_Dude]

Originally posted by ax0n:

Are there any issues with the newer Tauruses (taurii?) after the revamp in 97? I know the older ones had big transmission problems once you got past 100,000 miles. Was that ever resolved?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Yeah, I'm 99% sure the revamp (the Ford oval design) came out in 96, and included the new (better) tranny. We looked at one, but never bought.

 

[Osiris]

If you're thinking of the 60K service that's needed Jimmy it isn't all that big of a deal anymore. In fact, all it takes is time. The hardest thing is the timing belt, but while you're down there ou may as well swap out some sensors and of course the waterpump, which have been known to go south often.

The valve adjustment and plugs come at 100K and on the V6 the plus swap with new wires might take you about an hour.

Now if you have the 3.4 V8 like my '96 does ( avail '96-'99 ) then you're talking about 3-5 hours to do the plugs ( rear bank ) but there is no 60K needed, Ford uses a chain instead of a belt on that motor and there are no plug wires, just 8 super-expensive coils. I guess that's the price you pay to have an exotic V8 under the hood of your mundane family car.

 

[Jimmy]

Typo

I know its not a huge deal, but finding a SHO in good shape where the owner actually DID the 60k is a huge deal. A lot of them got abused (hey, is fun to drive!) but werent well taken care of. Its a lot easier to see an 89 or 90 that has missed the first 2 than it is to find one that was treated well. Generally if they liked the car enough to take care of it, they like it enough not to want to sell it for what most people will pay.

Getting a tranny flush isnt a big deal anyway, but you wanna guess how many people do it? Much less than half I'd bet.