New to us car

gregk24

gregk24

Joined
Apr 13, 2013
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Location
FL, USA
If you have been following my threads recently you know that we have been toying with purchasing my sisters 2000 Ford Taurus. Well as if today, it’s ours.

In true BITOG fashion I already changed the oil (M1 HM 5w30 / Fram Tough Guard).

Plans are to drop the trans pan and change fluid / filter, drain and refill the radiator, and get a new air box and filter as the current air box is broken.

First longer drive will be tonight with the family.

Here are some pictures. 2000 Ford Taurus SE Vulcan Flex Fuel / 4 speed AX4N. 207,000 miles.
 

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Also of note, many members mentioned that on the Vulcan the oil filter will leak on the starter when removed. While the oil filter is directly above the starter, I removed it slowly and literally had no mess. Not so much as one drip.
 
I drove three of these to 60,000 to 70,000 miles (provided by the company I worked for). AT best unremarkable-boring transportation. Mine ate alternators-however, since they are right of top of the motor they are easy to replace.
 
Wife had a 2002 Taurus drove it till 2019 174,000 miles not a bad vehicle. It had the 3L duratec engine did leak some oil but did not burn any. Good car in general.
 
A car like your Taurus can be a great miles per $ deal. A few minor repairs won't hurt the value equation, esp. if you do the repairs yourself. Kinda fun to tinker with an older car, and get a couple of years use out of it in return.
No worries at the Walmart parking lot!
 
My mom had a Taurus similar to yours with the 3.0 engine. It was put out of service by hitting a deer. I still have a Ford Ranger daily-driver with the 3.0 engine, currently at +200K miles. I've had several Aerostars with the 3.0 engine, all of them hitting over 200K miles. A steady diet of cheap oil gets them there. I currently use ShieldChoice, formerly TropArtic. The filter change on my Ranger is a real PITA, but as far as soaking the starter in oil, you can cover it with water-proof bag or a piece of plastic if you are worried about getting oil into the starter. My starter failures were from old age, not oil saturation.
 
Looks like a very good specimen Greg!

A guy at work recently had one of these sitting in the parking lot, tranny gave way right as he drove in. It was in above average shape and had 130k on it. He'd let it go for 300 bucks, with a rebuilt tranny I'd have been at about 2,500 bucks. I was sorely tempted but in the end passed since I didn't really have a use for it. Ten years ago when the kids were getting their first cars I'd have been all over it.
 
slacktide_bitog said:
Get a new transmission pan too :)

Also, your new Taurus has a cabin filter, so you should change that, too.
Click to expand...
AX4N had a reusable transmission gasket but lots of times they used the replacement cork filter instead of the rubber one it came with. Never did a transmission pan and wasn't something that was commonly done, it does call for 30k transmission fluid and filter changes. The Supertech Mercon V at Walmart is the cheapest fluid out there unless you find Castrol on sale.

You should check out Rockauto's clearance section. Some decent deals there on the struts, $35 each for the rears on Monroe. I remember paying about $100 for them years ago.

 
KCJeep said:
Looks like a very good specimen Greg!

A guy at work recently had one of these sitting in the parking lot, tranny gave way right as he drove in. It was in above average shape and had 130k on it. He'd let it go for 300 bucks, with a rebuilt tranny I'd have been at about 2,500 bucks. I was sorely tempted but in the end passed since I didn't really have a use for it. Ten years ago when the kids were getting their first cars I'd have been all over it.
Click to expand...
Do these transmissions just fail all at once? This one drives ok for 207K miles.
 
Wolf359 said:
AX4N had a reusable transmission gasket but lots of times they used the replacement cork filter instead of the rubber one it came with. Never did a transmission pan and wasn't something that was commonly done, it does call for 30k transmission fluid and filter changes. The Supertech Mercon V at Walmart is the cheapest fluid out there unless you find Castrol on sale.

You should check out Rockauto's clearance section. Some decent deals there on the struts, $35 each for the rears on Monroe. I remember paying about $100 for them years ago.

Click to expand...

The idea of replacing the transmission pan is because the original one doesn't have a drain plug, while some aftermarket pans have one. This makes future ATF changes much easier, so you don't have to drop the pan.

Even though the OE gasket is "reusable" I would still buy a new OE "reusable" gasket

For the struts, my choice would be Motorcraft quick struts. They come with an OE strut, OE spring, and OE mount.
 
slacktide_bitog said:
The idea of replacing the transmission pan is because the original one doesn't have a drain plug, while some aftermarket pans have one. This makes future ATF changes much easier, so you don't have to drop the pan.

Even though the OE gasket is "reusable" I would still buy a new OE "reusable" gasket

For the struts, my choice would be Motorcraft quick struts. They come with an OE strut, OE spring, and OE mount.
Click to expand...
You're supposed to change the fluid and clean the magnet which you won't be doing if you just drain the fluid. To do those you have to remove the pan.

Motorcraft is a 2 year warranty and the Monroe are lifetime. I had the Monroe, they weren't as bad as everyone claimed. I got about 60-80k out of them and only 60k out of one set just because it was starting to feel a little tired but not yet shot but they were free for another set and I had an indy that swapped them for $80 so it was worth the $80 to get a fresh set of struts.
 
Wolf359 said:
You're supposed to change the fluid and clean the magnet which you won't be doing if you just drain the fluid. To do those you have to remove the pan.
Click to expand...

If you drain the fluid, then refill with the same amount you drained, you are indeed changing the fluid :rolleyes:

If the drain plug that comes with the new pan doesn't have a magnet on it, you can always get a magnetic drain plug if you feel it necessary. Honda is the only one I know of that uses a magnetic drain plug on their transmissions. They use a much different transmission design and much different fluid too (Z1 and DW1 have a lot of zinc in them)

Toyota uses a non-magnetic drain plug, and they have very few transmission problems. Ford is one of the worst when it comes to automatic transmissions.


Wolf359 said:
Motorcraft is a 2 year warranty and the Monroe are lifetime. I had the Monroe, they weren't as bad as everyone claimed. I got about 60-80k out of them and only 60k out of one set just because it was starting to feel a little tired but not yet shot but they were free for another set and I had an indy that swapped them for $80 so it was worth the $80 to get a fresh set of struts.
Click to expand...
Longer warranty =/= better quality.

Monroe is OK, and they do offer wider quick strut coverage than others, it still doesn't seem to be a better deal than the Motorcraft struts, which aren't much more. It's nice to have OEM quick struts available.

OP seems to be in Florida, where rust isn't an issue. Up north, even cheap quick struts could outlast any rusty 2000 Taurus still on the road :sneaky:

For a Ford like the OP's Taurus, my order of preference would be:
Motorcraft > Sachs > KYB > Monroe
 
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slacktide_bitog said:
If you drain the fluid, then refill with the same amount you drained, you are indeed changing the fluid :rolleyes:

If the drain plug that comes with the new pan doesn't have a magnet on it, you can always get a magnetic drain plug if you feel it necessary. Honda is the only one I know of that uses a magnetic drain plug on their transmissions. They use a much different transmission design and much different fluid too (Z1 and DW1 have a lot of zinc in them)

Longer warranty =/= better quality.

Monroe is OK, and they do offer wider quick strut coverage than others, it still doesn't seem to be a better deal than the Motorcraft struts, which aren't much more. It's nice to have OEM quick struts available.

OP seems to be in Florida, where rust isn't an issue. Up north, even cheap quick struts could outlast any rusty 2000 Taurus still on the road :sneaky:

For a Ford like the OP's Taurus, my order of preference would be:
Motorcraft > Sachs > KYB > Monroe
Click to expand...

The magnet is inside the pan and you're supposed to clean it off. It's kind of a big magnet. First time it had a lot of fuzz on it, later on not as much but there was still fuzz on it. You also change the filter when you drop the pan. There's a ring that tends to stick so you need to make sure you pry it out when changing the filter.

I thought the Monroe's were fine, but I remember changing them once and a strange noise went away, the front strut mounts had started making a noise about 2 years after I put them in. After about 60k I changed them and the noise went away and that's when I realized it was the strut mounts. I had changed the sway bar links and figured it was some kind of bushing or control arm. For a $1200 car, the Monroes will be fine. I don't even do Sachs on my Mercedes which were oem. They're just too good for a Taurus. I just put Bilsteins on the Mercedes.
 
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