Picked up 04 Taurus Wagon for a bargain...

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Lady friend of mine car is not going to pass inspection the end of the year and she is really down in a rut financially. On my way home from work last week, seen a 2004 Ford Taurus Wagon with needs work $900.00 or best offer. Stopped called the owner & asked him what is up with the inspection on the car? He said his wife just wants it gone -- 3 vehicles in the driveway & that it just sits anyways. So, we took it for a test drive -- gonna need some front brakes but besides, 3.0L runs good & shifts really nice. Asked him what the bottom line is for price and he said give me 500 bucks. Took the car to my mechanic/inspection station the following day and he said it will pass with the front brakes getting done and is worth 500 bucks all day. Well he said just give me 400 bucks and you take care of the title/tags transfer. Very generous man at this time of year. Picked up 6 new spark plugs/
Motorcraft platinums and gonna change the oil with Chevron Supreme Synthetic Blend 5W30 SP paired with a Motorcraft oil filter. Oil cap says 5W20 but being the car is parked with 187,066 miles -- the 5W30 will suit it just fine. Gonna change the front brake pads here this week and give her the car. There are still good people out there. Any other concerns with this generation Taurus I should be aware of before the transaction would greatly be appreciated. Body is in good condition with no rust suprisingly and a small dent on back fender is really the only cosmetic issues I can or the mechanic seen. Headlights are gonna need replaced soon/hazed over. Good wash and wax and it will shine up nicely for free to her.

Thanks, Dale
 
That's a steal.
A Vulcan will run forever.
Only real weak spot on those is the transmission, and that can mostly be overcome with regular pan drops (30-35K.)
You might do one now for good measure.
I had a 2000 that I took to 275K on the original transmission/engine.
Still miss that car.
 
That is an awesome thing to do 😇 🎅

If it has rear drums and ever needs new shoes, know that Bendix makes pre-assembled shoes for that car :)

Not sure if it's a Vulcan or Duratec, but if you need to pull the intake to do the rear spark plugs, consider replacing the valve cover gaskets while you're in there.

That's a steal.
A Vulcan will run forever.
Only real weak spot on those is the transmission, and that can mostly be overcome with regular pan drops (30-35K.)
You might do one now for good measure.
I had a 2000 that I took to 275K on the original transmission/engine.
Still miss that car.
To make frequent ATF changes easy, get an aftermarket pan that has a drain plug, since Ford didn't include one from the factory.
 
Congrats on your purchase. We had a 94 Taurus with the 3.0 Vulcan. Great car. We had an issue which I believe is common with age and miles. The water pump is mounted on a plate, which mounts to the engines block. The plate corrodes and will leak, dripping on the exhaust system creating a lot of smoke. I believe this corrosion most likely shows up as nasty coolant in your radiator and reservoir tank. Best of luck
 
Congrats on your purchase. We had a 94 Taurus with the 3.0 Vulcan. Great car. We had an issue which I believe is common with age and miles. The water pump is mounted on a plate, which mounts to the engines block. The plate corrodes and will leak, dripping on the exhaust system creating a lot of smoke. I believe this corrosion most likely shows up as nasty coolant in your radiator and reservoir tank. Best of luck
Our 2000 does this. Stop leak tablets have worked to stop the leak. Not a fan at all of these products, but for the $500 we paid for the car, it was worth a shot.
 
They are prone to muddy up the coolant and plug the heater core. Lots of Interweb links to flush the system. Not a deal breaker at all.
Had that happen on mine. Shopped around and had prices from $800 to $2000 to replace it. Think it was 8 hours book time for labor. When they say Ford installs the heater core first and then builds the car around it they are not kidding. Paid $800 to have the thing replaced and it leaked after a week. They installed a defective core and had to eat all that labor to replace a $35 part. Bottom line, keep that core healthy.
 
The Vulcan Motor is really good if you have people in your area who are siphoning gas out of cars. Just fill it up with E85.
There are actually 3 engines out there, it's possible his is the Duratec as I've seen them on a lot of wagons. What's the 8th digit on the Vin? The S was the Duratec engine, U was Vulcan and 2 was the vulcan flex fuel. Don't fill up with E85 unless the vin has a 2 otherwise it's not a flex fuel vehicle. At that point it probably had the AX4N transmission which was good, but I think the spline tended to go earlier with 2004+ so make sure the fluid gets changed and the level is correct. Tends to slam into gear if the fluid is a little low.

The rear struts use a pinch bolt and tends to snap off when replacing struts. You also get SAS syndrome where the rear tends to sag. Aftermarket quick struts like Monroe, KYB, etc will fix that. Just be careful on the pinch bolts, get new ones and spray it well before trying to take them out. For the headlights, rockauto sells new ones at a pretty reasonable price. But you can also get those kits that polish the headlights and they will last about 3-4 months before you have to do it again.

Key question is what engine does it have?
 
Had that happen on mine. Shopped around and had prices from $800 to $2000 to replace it. Think it was 8 hours book time for labor. When they say Ford installs the heater core first and then builds the car around it they are not kidding. Paid $800 to have the thing replaced and it leaked after a week. They installed a defective core and had to eat all that labor to replace a $35 part. Bottom line, keep that core healthy.
Going on memory here (my daughter's old Taurus) - I think there is a work-around on You Tube that involves cutting a small metal support under the dash that allows you to remove the core with removing the entire dash.

Here it is, proceed at one's own risk, LOL:

There is also a metal tube coolant assembly mounted on the firewall that can rot out. Again, not a deal breaker.
 
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Going on memory here (my daughter's old Taurus) - I think there is a work-around on You Tube that involves cutting a small metal support under the dash that allows you to remove the core with removing the entire dash.

Here it is, proceed at one's own risk, LOL:

There is also a metal tube coolant assembly mounted on the firewall that can rot out. Again, not a deal breaker.

After two hours of trying I was finally able to touch the core but the AC lines were in the way. This was around 1997. Before youtube. Hard to remember how we learned things before youtube.

If there is a work around that's great!
 
Lady friend of mine car is not going to pass inspection the end of the year and she is really down in a rut financially. On my way home from work last week, seen a 2004 Ford Taurus Wagon with needs work $900.00 or best offer. Stopped called the owner & asked him what is up with the inspection on the car? He said his wife just wants it gone -- 3 vehicles in the driveway & that it just sits anyways. So, we took it for a test drive -- gonna need some front brakes but besides, 3.0L runs good & shifts really nice. Asked him what the bottom line is for price and he said give me 500 bucks. Took the car to my mechanic/inspection station the following day and he said it will pass with the front brakes getting done and is worth 500 bucks all day. Well he said just give me 400 bucks and you take care of the title/tags transfer. Very generous man at this time of year. Picked up 6 new spark plugs/
Motorcraft platinums and gonna change the oil with Chevron Supreme Synthetic Blend 5W30 SP paired with a Motorcraft oil filter. Oil cap says 5W20 but being the car is parked with 187,066 miles -- the 5W30 will suit it just fine. Gonna change the front brake pads here this week and give her the car. There are still good people out there. Any other concerns with this generation Taurus I should be aware of before the transaction would greatly be appreciated. Body is in good condition with no rust suprisingly and a small dent on back fender is really the only cosmetic issues I can or the mechanic seen. Headlights are gonna need replaced soon/hazed over. Good wash and wax and it will shine up nicely for free to her.

Thanks, Dale

I had a Mercury Sable Duratec version for a while and miss it on heavy winter days. But God did that thing guzzle gas!
 
Going on memory here (my daughter's old Taurus) - I think there is a work-around on You Tube that involves cutting a small metal support under the dash that allows you to remove the core with removing the entire dash.

Here it is, proceed at one's own risk, LOL:

There is also a metal tube coolant assembly mounted on the firewall that can rot out. Again, not a deal breaker.

Yep! Had it all replaced and it wasn't cheap, but at the end of the day overall it was well worth it and I came out ahead on the car...
 
There are actually 3 engines out there, it's possible his is the Duratec as I've seen them on a lot of wagons. What's the 8th digit on the Vin? The S was the Duratec engine, U was Vulcan and 2 was the vulcan flex fuel. Don't fill up with E85 unless the vin has a 2 otherwise it's not a flex fuel vehicle. At that point it probably had the AX4N transmission which was good, but I think the spline tended to go earlier with 2004+ so make sure the fluid gets changed and the level is correct. Tends to slam into gear if the fluid is a little low.

The rear struts use a pinch bolt and tends to snap off when replacing struts. You also get SAS syndrome where the rear tends to sag. Aftermarket quick struts like Monroe, KYB, etc will fix that. Just be careful on the pinch bolts, get new ones and spray it well before trying to take them out. For the headlights, rockauto sells new ones at a pretty reasonable price. But you can also get those kits that polish the headlights and they will last about 3-4 months before you have to do it again.

Key question is what engine does it have?
Oh shoot. i forgot about the non flex fuel vulcan motor
 
for $500? that's a deal. how's it cosmetically inside and out.
Its not bad whatsoever for the money & age. Tan interior that is clean an non smoker. Definitely not a show car but a great car to get her from point A to B hopefully for the next couple years. Just needs some TLC inside and out --- pertaining like I mentioned earlier --- his wife said it just sat.
 
I will have to look into the vin this week sometime like mentioned to determine what engine it truly is.
Did you take any pictures? You can just tell from the engine. Or if it had the 24V DOHC badge on the side of the car. Also what trim level is it? The higher end had the climate control and the cassette player. I think you could just get the radio/climate control on eBay for around $50 and you could just swap it and get the cassette player and the auto climate control. Then you could get a cassette adapter and hook it up to bluetooth to play music in the car from your phone. As for the oil, yes, very common for those to switch to 5w30, that was the original spec. I always ran 5w20 most of the time but it did leak oil on the Duratec. You had to drop the exhaust to replace the oil pan gasket and I never bothered. It leaked less with 5w30 than 5w20. It was also picky about plugs, it's good you got the Motorcraft ones. Transmission fluid should be Mercon V which you can easily get at Walmart, I think they still carry Supertech Mercon V.
 
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