Taurus SHO 3.4L

• Automatic transmission
• 99,500 miles

I thought Ford had worked out all the bugs with the older version Taurus but apparently not. My wife and I recently inherited a ’98 with 99k + miles from her folks. Ever since they had it there were no major problems. My father in-law takes care of his vehicles like no one I know, the first hint of a problem it’s in the shop.

It was within the first two weeks we owned it, my wife started hearing a clattering from below the front of the car, and it’s the dead of winter we don’t have a garage and I’m not crawling under the car, I have a good idea it’s a loose heat shield. Not soon after that the tranny starts acting weird like somebody overnight replaced the stock torque converter with a Stall converter, like the drag racers use. The car will not move until the rpm’s reach around 1800 or so. I take it to the shop and $2000 + to replace the converter and tranny, solenoid and whatever else is involved. Eventually the check engine light comes on, the O/D light flashes, and that's only supposed to flash when the O/D is off OR the tranny fluid overheats and this is when it's cold...I don't get it. Give me the late 60's or early 70's cars any day..I can't work on these !!!

At least we didn’t pay anything for ours and feel for those who did, however IF I do get it fixed then I’ll have a $900 car for $2000.00. (I'm being generous..)

What can we do about this? Apparently there is an inherent problem.

BTW, this site rules…I hope everybody starts to use it.