I purchased a used 3 year old Ford Taurus from my father in law. He had bought the car new and had it serviced regularily and had all of the bills to prove it. We drove it home with about 55, 000 miles on it (it was a US car). We drove it over the winter and also had it service reguarily at Mid Town Ford in Winnipeg. One warm spring day in April we stopped at a red light and I noticed the oil pressure flicker as the car idled. I shut off the car and called CAA (AAA) to have the car towed to Mid Town Ford.
They indicated that some of these engines had weak oil pumps and I might get lucky. I wasn't lucky. The oil pump was fine but all of the rod and main bearings were deeply scored and the engine had), read ZERO oil pressure at an idle when the engine was hot. The Service Manager said it should be a problem. Ford had apparently extended the warranty on these engines to 60, 000 miles because they had a lot of problems with their V-6's. He said that sand was left in some of the tight corners of the block from casting and it got painted over. Then as the engine racked up miles some of the sand would vibrate loose and get into the oil and then the bearings. He said he was sure Ford would cover the rebuild. Again I wasn't lucky, I had about 1, 000 miles over the 60, 000 and Ford gave me the middle finger salute.
So I had new rod and main bearings and a new oil pump installed in the engine and proceeded to order a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. On the day we took our extra clean Taurus into the Chrysler dealership for trade we had to wash off the plastic / metal rad so that the antifreeze leak wouldn't show. It only leaked when the car cooled down. Another "Better idea" from the company where "Quality is Job none". Thankfully we were given a very good trade in value for the car which somewhat compensated for the repairs.
Needless to say our JEEP is still going with 250, 000 or 400, 000 kms on it now and virtually trouble free I might add. Even still the original radiator.
I will never let another Ford product into my driveway unless it is an older collectible Ford.
Glenn
LaSalle, Manitoba
Canada
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