Taurus/Ford SUV owners/buyers:

[JD GUMBEE]

We tested the Ford V6 stuff and found it to be not fleet friendly. Therefore, I cannot see info on them in the thousands.

However, another fleet data guru...we'll call her "Amy," has an entire fleet of the small SUV's/Taurus/F150's to manage.
(Poor Amy and her suit-wearing-sales-people drivers. Poor poor Amy.)


WARNING! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON...DANGER BELOW!!!

DO NOT...shall I repeat?
DO NOT buy a Taurus or small Ford SUV without knowing which kind of water pump they use.
There are two different setups.
One, like (AFAIK) the F150's use, is belt driven and easy to replace.
The Taurus and the small SUV models can have a water pump driven by the TIMING CHAIN.
As in...your front cover IS your water pump.
When the bearing fails...and they can fail in three seconds @ highway speeds and you would NEVER hear a warning...they break the water seal and spew pressurized coolant directly into the oil. ...but wait, theres some even "better" news coming.
When they fail...your valve timing is pretty much instantly screwed.
You end up with something like this situation:
^^Video of the front view of an "Eco boost" motor that popped, showing the chain and the cracked gear that ruined the engine.

Bottom line, by chain carnage or oil/coolant mixing and ruining bearings...losing your water pump will ruin your entire engine.

(Amy has seen a bunch of them and the engines are not cheap.)

^^^If you are buying a newer Ford this is REALLY IMPORTANT to read and understand.


When a car company buries a starter under the intake, mechanics get crabby.
If the starter fails, the owner pays big labor to have it replaced. (Toyota Tundra, anyone??)
(...but it can be replaced)

The internal chain driven water pumps are ten times more "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot."
Anyone who understands engines knows you don't drive a water pump off a timing chain. Ever.
Even one of the electric pumps would have been a better way to go. (At least it would have been external and relatively easily replaced. As in...it would not ruin your engine when it popped.)

Someone should have taken the engineers who designed these out behind the woodshed and put them down...so they could never design another thing like this. Amy says it is 9 HOURS of book time on a Taurus to replace a water pump.
(A water pump is a very common repair...especially as a vehicle ages.)

Every one of her internal water pumps has taken out the entire engine when it failed.

In the case of these Taurus/SUV's, it makes a shiny clean 90,000 mile vehicle that looks to be in perfect shape, worth nothing.


Check which one your proposed purchase has. No matter what model/year/style.

If timing chain driven...RUN AWAY.  Far away.
Especially if you see one on a used car lot with the "troublesome water pump already done."
Likely bought at auction...doctored to "sort of" running right again...for about 3000 miles maybe...and then BOOM! Amy has experienced trying to salvage the motors. Does not work out in her experience...and you spend a lot to make the gamble.

BTW---a timing BELT driven water pump is a very different animal and does not do the same damage when it fails.

 

[closeanuf]

Thanks for the heads up.  I'm not a Ford fan, but the old 5.0's I had in the past were great engines. I don't understand how after the 6.0, 5,4 and soon to be eco boost troubles Ford has had why do people still buy them?  Everybody has the right to choose the vehicle they want.  I for 1 appreciate your posts.

 

[Doubleone]

I had a 1994 Taurus station wagon that was the worst car I've ever owned. Got it for cheap from a tow yard action for the wife when we had small kids. Failed transmission, alternator, radiator, water pump, headlight housing, A/C compressor, brakes, on and on and on... Never again! Hard to work on and failure prone.

 

[JD GUMBEE]

soon to be eco boost troubles Ford has

They are already loaded with problems.
In the pickup, buy the small V8, not the V6 turbo.
Confucius says, "one can purchase much fuel for the price of two turbos and a V6 longblock replacement."

 

[Weldman]

Wouldn't Mercury Sable's fall under this category too since they share the same engine?

 

[JD GUMBEE]

Wouldn't Mercury Sable's fall under this category too since they share the same engine?

I think those were too old to have the death-to-engine water pumps.
Not certain though.
Sable stopped being a car in 04? 05-ish??

 

[jonney38]

I have a 1997 Ford Taurus wagon I bought new. It has 270,000 miles on it and I've really been happy--still pulls my teardrop. I think I have replaced the water pump. I've had two radiators but am not complaining about that or the one transmission. The engine still takes almost no oil.

 

[JD GUMBEE]

Yeah...1997 is not a chain driven pump.
Glad you are happy with it.

 

[Doubleone]

Not meaning to knock anyone who's had positive experiences... I'm happy you're happy and trouble-free.   We had a 1994 Taurus wagon for my wife back in the day when my kids were small, so she could fit all the kids and kid paraphernalia.  I can confidently state it was the worst car I've ever owned!  Got it at about 25k miles.  It was a pig on fuel, handled like a boat anchor, torque steer, rattles and plastic plastic plastic falling apart everywhere.  I lost a transmission for no good reason at 50k (fluid serviced at 25k when I got it), AC compressor, radiator, water pump, power steering pump, rack-and-pinion, alternator, starter (twice), hoses, wheel bearing, drive shafts, it ate brakes like no tomorrow (could be partial operator error there - wife's heavy on brakes).  Fuel filters would literally clog to the point of restriction about every 12-15k.  Lots of little nickel-dime things like door handles or rod connectors for the door locks would break.  Turn signal switch.  Electric door lock solenoids repeatedly failed (typical 90's Ford).  Plastic headlight housings would accumulate water any time it rained.  The water-based paint faded and peeled.  Even the windshield had mysterious delaminations.  The fit and finish on the body was at best sloppy, and the door weatherstrip seals leaked air and made noise while driving...  I never did replace the struts and sagging springs because I couldn't wait to get rid of the car.  Wrenching on it was a total nightmare because they simply were not designed to be worked on.  No room to even swing a wrench in some cases.  I think that car must have been job #1.  It was such a bad experience that I found myself saying 'never again' to owning an American car.  We replaced that turd with a succession of essentially trouble-free Camry's (3) and 4-Runners (2). 

On the flip side of the coin...  I later made an exception to my 'never again' statement.  I bought a 1996 Ford Explorer as my kid's first car.  I bought it super cheap from a friend's tow yard (what they had at the time).  I got it as essentially a throw-away car for my oldest kid, expecting he would go out and total it in short order.  I figured I'd get him a 'real' car after he had his first  'educational experience'.  He did get in several minor bump type accidents but not any damage, and the car was eventually passed down through all three of my boys.  So, I'll tell you that stupid Explorer is like a zombie car; it's still running to this day, looks and drives like hell, and the thing just won't die...  It regularly eats tires, brakes, suspension bushings, and balljoints but the engine and trans just keep going and AC blows cold.  It recently started to misfire and set codes, so I thought maybe it was it's time...  Nope!  Checked compression and it was nominal, so we threw some plugs and wire set at it, and now the thing runs even better than before.  I've never changed the sparkplugs since I've owned it, and they all had .090 plus wear gaps when we pulled them.  My youngest is still driving it to school and part-time job.