Originally Posted by Lubener
Taurus and Sables were not very reliable. Transmission, broken springs and suspension issues. Would be worth a gamble if the owner has documented proof of maitenance and service records. If they claim they never had problems, be prepaired to be the one when things start wearing out.
I thought mine was somewhat reliable. My springs broke at about 80k and 90k. I should have known better by the time the 90k happened. But I just replaced them with a set of Monroe quick struts. I think I did 3 sets of struts in the time that I owned the car. Because of the lifetime warranty, swapped them out at 60-80k. They're around $85 each on rockauto now for the front. Sway bar links also broke. Transmission I didn't have an issue with til the end, but I changed the fluid every 30k-40k.
Originally Posted by boulderdentist
I am currently driving a 2000 Taurus, LX base model with the 3.0 L overhead valve referred to as the Vulcan engine. Some of the weak points are the cooling system clogging up because of the iron engine block. If kept flushed and clean no problem. There is a vulnerable issue with the timing cover gasket which causes a coolant leak at the timing cover, Fortunately it does not leak into the oil but is an annoying leak. The cam synchronizer tends to go out and need replacement, use only a MotorCraft replacement. The transaxle seems to be a weak point as well. Other points are the oil pan gasket leak. If you can do most of your own work it is economical to repair, if not becomes expensive in relationship to value of car. Goo luck.
Mostly NA because those issues didn't occur with the Duratec, I did do regular coolant changes and only had to change the intake manifold gaskets once. I guess both engines share oil pan gasket leaks. Never got mine fixed because you'd need to drop the exhaust to change the oil pan gasket so I just kept adding about a quart of oil ever 3-4k, it seemed like it leaked more the more oil you had in it and also 5w30 didn't leak as much as 5w20. The Duratec used a timing chain so I never had to do anything to it.
Originally Posted by spk2000
About 8 months ago I bought an 03 Sable LS with the 200 HP Duratec engine with 71,000 miles for $1,200. 4 months later it needed a new injector for around $800. Doing fine now but only has about 78,000 miles now. I still have an 01 Sable Wagon everything almost identical. Transmission is slipping bad around 175,000 miles. It has been a money pit. Broken strut spring, water in heater blower motor - both were known design failures and Ford did nothing for me. Said car was too old but it was never resolved as it had very low miles and was garage stored most of it's life. Now it is a pats car for the 04. I had a 98 that was bulletproof 230,000 miles never did anything but oil, brake and tires changes. Personally I prefer the Grand Marquis over all of them but wife hates driving it as it's too big she says. GM has 216,000 miles and have not done much to it outside normal maintenance.
The broken spring had a recall but all Ford did was provide a cover so that if the spring broke, it didn't puncture your tire. Sounds like the price of the injectors were way too high. They're anywhere from $30-$55 online each. It wasn't a common problem. Never did anything to my injectors and I ran whatever gas was cheaper. Surprising that you got a good one in 98, those 3rd gen models were considered worse than the 4th gen.
