Ford Guys! '04 Taurus-Duratec 30 Nice?Trusty? $3k

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I owned a 99, worst car ever, the clogged heater core is a very real thing. Ended up having it back-flushed every year.

So, I had one (money pit), my brother had 3, from '98 to '04. Every one had their rack and pinion replaced, and every one had over $1500 put into the A/C, which would continue to leak anyway. Even with that he had better luck than I did, probably because they were wrecked or traded in while I kept trying to get "my money's worth" out of mine.

All these years suffer from extreme rust around the top of the front struts. Check for this carefully.

I never got my money's worth out of mine.
 
I know all to much about these honestly. The coolant rusting issues is way way overstated for the 3.0 Vulcan the duratec is the worse of the 2 the Vulcan is simple cheap and bullet proof. The Vulcan requires Timely antifreeze changes . That's it and it'll eventually need the cam timing sensor that is a common failure point.
The duratecs....are far harder to work on and more expensive , everyone that comes into the shop with one leaks oil. They are oil leaking pigs!! They are also harder on the already weak transmission because of more power. I'd find a Vulcan Taurus. And the Vulcan you can just replace plugs no pulling intake [censored]. Also I've seen several duratecs come in with lean codes there was even a tsb on certain years if I remember correctly.
 
Also on the heater core which I've done a couple ....they're stupid simple to do and do not have to remove the dash there is a bracket under there that's only used when the robots are installing the dash in the car and you cut it out of the way and can remove the core without pulling the dash.
 
Originally Posted By: HangFire
I owned a 99, worst car ever, the clogged heater core is a very real thing. Ended up having it back-flushed every year.

So, I had one (money pit), my brother had 3, from '98 to '04. Every one had their rack and pinion replaced, and every one had over $1500 put into the A/C, which would continue to leak anyway. Even with that he had better luck than I did, probably because they were wrecked or traded in while I kept trying to get "my money's worth" out of mine.

All these years suffer from extreme rust around the top of the front struts. Check for this carefully.

I never got my money's worth out of mine.


My 99 Vulcan with 145k had all your issues. Clogged heater core even with yearly back flush. Steering rack replacement, rusty rockers, AC compressor stopped working, leaky windows, and finally got rid of it when the brake lines rusted through. By that time the rear shocks were sagging onto the tires almost.
 
Originally Posted By: ram_man
Also on the heater core which I've done a couple ....they're stupid simple to do and do not have to remove the dash there is a bracket under there that's only used when the robots are installing the dash in the car and you cut it out of the way and can remove the core without pulling the dash.



Yes that's correct but you still have to loosen all four dash bolts and rest the passenger side of the dash on the seat which is not terrible
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Originally Posted By: ram_man
Also on the heater core which I've done a couple ....they're stupid simple to do and do not have to remove the dash there is a bracket under there that's only used when the robots are installing the dash in the car and you cut it out of the way and can remove the core without pulling the dash.



Yes that's correct but you still have to loosen all four dash bolts and rest the passenger side of the dash on the seat which is not terrible


Yea I can do them in about an hour.
 
OP, would you consider a 2000-2005 Impala, 97-2004 Buick Century, 95-2005 Lesabre???
These could all be had for your price range, you can get quite a nice Century for 3 grand. And you could get the 3800 in the Lesabre and the Impala. The Taurus are decent, but for the money, I'd be looking at ~2000 GM products. Pretty bulletproof, especially with the 3800. And cheap parts, easy to work on. But either these or the Ford should serve you well. (I was shopping for a car in this price range this summer, ended up with a somewhat more expensive Buick Lacrosse). It takes work to find a decent one for 3 grand, especially in the North. But just an idea. Check if the intake gaskets have been done. If they have, you'd be set. BTW, the century came only with the 3100 (3.1 L V6). The Impala came with a standard 3400 (3.4 L, essentially the same as the 3100), or an optional 3800 (completely different V6 and the paradigm of pushrod V6 engines). The Lesabre came only with the 3800. Just something to think about.
 
What a conundrum ..

Duratec a tougher engine but harder to change plugs.
N series transmission less likely to break but recieves more stress from Duratec vs Vulcan
Vulcan clogs heater cores more but easier to change plugs.

I called our local tranny shop. Actually a fairly big place after 40 years of business. He said the Impala tranny looks like a glass chin next to a Ford N series. That is an iverall comment. He listed just spline problems on the Ford tranny and then when I mentioned the Impala tranny he laughed and said "those are my bread and butter". Then listed a littany of overheating slam shifting valve problems debris about the GM tranny. I was floored. A Ford item stronger than a GM!?!?!?

He said, " Bring in the Ford Tranny and for $900 I'll put in a tc and rengineered parts to make it bulletproof."
 
Originally Posted By: TmanP
OP, would you consider a 2000-2005 Impala, 97-2004 Buick Century, 95-2005 Lesabre???
These could all be had for your price range, you can get quite a nice Century for 3 grand. And you could get the 3800 in the Lesabre and the Impala. The Taurus are decent, but for the money, I'd be looking at ~2000 GM products. Pretty bulletproof, especially with the 3800. And cheap parts, easy to work on. But either these or the Ford should serve you well. (I was shopping for a car in this price range this summer, ended up with a somewhat more expensive Buick Lacrosse). It takes work to find a decent one for 3 grand, especially in the North. But just an idea. Check if the intake gaskets have been done. If they have, you'd be set. BTW, the century came only with the 3100 (3.1 L V6). The Impala came with a standard 3400 (3.4 L, essentially the same as the 3100), or an optional 3800 (completely different V6 and the paradigm of pushrod V6 engines). The Lesabre came only with the 3800. Just something to think about.
I never thought somebody would recommend a 3.1L or 3.4L GM LOL. What a piece of junk. It doesn't get much worse than a 3.1L or 3.4L mated to a 4T65e in an early GM with those electrical gremlins.

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Those old 3.1/3.4s in front of a 4T60E will run forever once the IM gaskets are changed - $200 and a Saturday afternoon. I'd snatch a clean one up in a second if I needed a set of low cost wheels.
 
They had the transmissions figured out towards the end of the run. They are significantly better than a 41TE ... but that doesn't say much.

The Duratec is a good engine. Also good if you want to ignore maintenance as it doesn't crud up the cooling system from the cast iron engine
 
I mean, are they perfect, no, but We're talking about a $2000-3000 car here and for the money they are decent. Living in the Midwest, and just glancing on craigslist, there are plenty of 3.1/3.4 cars with well over 200,000 miles on them. You see them around all the time. Based on a cost per mile standpoint, they're very hard to beat. Would I rather have a 2009 Accord or a 99 Buick century? Of course, the Accord, (that costs 6 times as much) but if we're talking $3000 Accord vs $3000 GM product then that is easier for me to choose. The W-bodies have their problems but they are pretty good for what they are (honest, basic, low-frills transportation, much like the Taurus). If you pick up one with 125-150K you can have a good life ahead for a low cash outlay. Remember, he is looking at an early 2000s taurus, the Buick/Impala's competitors so that's why I recommended it. I'm with dishdude. Pretty solid cars.
 
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Perfect example - how many old Centuries (A bodies) and Cieras do you still see on the road? Every time I go out I see a handful and they haven't made them for 20 years. Those cars got zero love in their lifetime and they're still running! If anything over a couple hundred bucks breaks, they go to the junkyard...and yet you still see a ton of them!
 
For the brake pulsing, I would just get new rotors, not worth turning them. New ones are around $25 after discount codes at rockauto. Turning them is still $10-$15 a rotor and then you have to wait while it gets done. At $25, it's too cheap to turn. And yes, clogged heater core isn't that common, but when they made 300-400k a year, various items will get mentioned and you probably won't get 1/2 of them if that. Many people have gone 200k+ with the original starter. For the spark plugs, you can also remove the cowl pieces which gives you more room to access the plugs. They're supposed to be good for 100k, so I only changed them twice. Lean codes come from air leaks. One common one is the intake manifold gaskets, if you end up doing those, it's the perfect time to change the plugs and the PCV value while you've got it all apart. A used tranny is probably around $1000 as it's $600-$700 to put in a transmission and you can get used ones in the junkyard for $300ish and you can throw in a new torque converter which is about $100. The 99 was also a 3rd gen, 2000-2007 was the 4th gen and had fewer problems than the 3rd gen.
 
Sump, you might want to visit the Ford Taurus Forum as it is a great site and the members are very helpful just as these.
http://www.taurusclub.com/

I have a 96 Ford Taurus GL Sedan that is a 3.0 OHV engin. I love that car and just like any car it is all about maintance. I would suggest for the Transmission changing the fluid at 20K instead of 30K as recommended in the manual
 
I'll second what mctmatt said - that forum is a wealth of good knowledge. I'm a member there, and found it incredibly useful when it came to working on my Mercury Sable.

----

In the past decade, I have had both a 2001 Taurus with the Vulcan, and a 2003 Sable (the Merc version of the Taurus) with the Duratec. Both cars were very solid cars.

I'd probably still have the '01 Taurus if it hadn't been totaled.

I bought the 03 Sable with just over 75,000 miles on it, in 2009, and sold it with a little over 189,000 miles on it, in 2014. For about the first 3 years I had it, I was pretty bad about maintenance, and while I got the oil changed, etc.. when it was needed, it wasn't nearly often enough.

The car didn't seem to care, at least not that much. Sure, there were the occasional issue like suspension or brakes that went past their useful life.. but they still got fixed/replaced.

Other than that, no major issues, but the car definitely was neglected.

Eventually, I got my head straight and got back on top of maintenance.. even started doing most of the maintenance myself. This was definitely a learning experience.

Overall, I'd say that the Duratec 3.0 engine is a great engine, but I will agree that it's definitely not the easiest engine to work on. It's shoehorned in there pretty tight.

Between the Duratec and the Vulcan, I prefer the Duratec overall - More power, better torque..

On to your questions:

Originally Posted By: SumpChump

1. Gas Cap evap check engine code


The obvious fix here is get a new gas cap. You can test this by replacing the gas cap, clearing the code, and driving around for about 15-30 minutes. If that fixed it, the code won't come back.

On my Sable, it ended up being the intake manifold. The (plastic) intake manifold did develop a tiny crack in it at one point (around 140,000 miles)which ended up causing a code, but replacing it only took a few hours and wasn't expensive.


Originally Posted By: SumpChump

2. Slight slight clunk at steering radius center when turning the steering wheel at parking lot crawl speed.


Never had this on mine.. not sure what it would be, off the top of my head.

Originally Posted By: SumpChump

3. slight brake shimmy when braking firmly at highway speed


I DID have this happen on mine. One of the brake rotors had developed a "hot spot" on it.. uneven material density. I replaced the rotors with new ones, and the shimmy went completely away and never came back.

Originally Posted By: SumpChump

4. Oil pan beneath is "moist" with oil (simply age?) not oily anywhere past that.


Yes, the Duratec has a tendency to leak oil, but it's manageable. Mine started around 130,000 miles, leaking from the valve cover gasket(s) and making its way down the engine. The Oil pan ultimately was pretty covered with it. I was able to almost completely stop this after a while by switching to Valvoline MaxLife oil and adding a little Trans Fluid to the oil. It was down to just a couple drips a week.

As part of the process to address this issue, I cleaned the engine and pan as much as possible. Made it easy to trace the leak and monitor any changes.


---

Bottom line, as far as this Taurus - $3000 is not a bad price.. not awesome, but not bad. If it were me, I'd try to negotiate it down to $2500, or maybe even a little less.

For comparison sake, My sable was the LS Premium (Leather, MACH sound system, chrome wheels, etc.. and when I sold it in October of 2014, with 189,000 miles on it, I got $3000. The one you're looking appears to be a lower trim level, so it should really sell for less.
 
You might also want to look for a Sable, the LS model had the Duratec engine and it's easier to find them loaded with leather and sunroof. Here's one for $3300, a 2005 with 109k, looks like sunroof, leather and climate control. Pretty far from you though, you might be able to find something like it locally.

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/cto/5391700921.html
 
Originally Posted By: SumpChump
What a conundrum ..

Duratec a tougher engine but harder to change plugs.
N series transmission less likely to break but recieves more stress from Duratec vs Vulcan
Vulcan clogs heater cores more but easier to change plugs.

I called our local tranny shop. Actually a fairly big place after 40 years of business. He said the Impala tranny looks like a glass chin next to a Ford N series. That is an iverall comment. He listed just spline problems on the Ford tranny and then when I mentioned the Impala tranny he laughed and said "those are my bread and butter". Then listed a littany of overheating slam shifting valve problems debris about the GM tranny. I was floored. A Ford item stronger than a GM!?!?!?

He said, " Bring in the Ford Tranny and for $900 I'll put in a tc and rengineered parts to make it bulletproof."


I have a 2000 Ford Taurus wagon (Duratec). I bought it for $3300 7 years ago with 90k miles on it. It now has 145k. With the exception of fluid and filter changes, the only thing I've had done was replace the AC. The former owner only changed the oil. I could find no other maintenance in the stack of receipts he gave me...just oil changes and tire rotations every 3k miles.

It's been very reliable. Plugs are not difficult, if you remove the wiper cowl. I can do mine in about 30 min front and back.

I love this car and will keep it til it's done. I'm also a member on the TaurusCarClub. It's a great forum with tons of info.
 
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Interesting reading this stuff since my wife has had a 98 Sable wagon since 2006. True, the Vulcan engine has it's troubles with the coolant. One just needs to change it out every year. Not that hard. If not you will eventually clog. You will eventually lose the vanes on your water pump. Then you will eventually overheat and toast the combustion chamber for cylinder #1 getting a crack.

Transmission simply needs fluid changed out on a regular basis. Guess what people forget to maintain in their cars most of the time? Brake fluid, transmission fluid and coolant.

The biggest help, at least for me, is that I don't live in a rust state and therefore have no issues under the car. Have changed out the entire front suspension in just a couple of hours with no stuck bolts. It is a good riding car.

As for the engine the Vulcan is the hardiest of the two. Not enough power to damage itself and can go 300,000 miles with good care. Duratec has great power but I do not hear things about their longevity.

Currently my wife's car is laid up because I may have done something inadvertent when I removed the upper intake to look at something. Checking out the valve train when the weather permits and confident I will solve it. Nonetheless, those engine are plentiful around here and I bought one with 110,000 miles for $125 as a spare. Also a member of the Taurus Car Forum.
 
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