Loss of power, hesitation, rough idle?

149,000 Automatic. After starting will idle fine for a minute or two, then the engine will begin to lose power. At that time a beeping sound will go off (not like the saftey belt. More like a beep then a dinging). The power steering will also go out then shortly afterward will die totally. However, the battery can be jumped with very little effort.

Take the car to an autozone or checker if you can and have them test the altenator. If you can't get it there then take the altenator out of the car, pretty easy to do, just take the belt off, undo the bolts and disconnect the wires, and have it tested.

Just wondering what the problem could be when driving the car on a warmish to hot day, if I take the revs over 2000 the car heats up, yet the temp gauge does not register more than half, yet upon stopping the car, and even just driving for ten minutes, the engine is very hot and smells dry. There is plenty of coolant in the bottle when checking it, if I continue to drive it, it will get to the stage where it has no power, it will chug along for a few seconds before stalling. If I let it sit for around 10 minutes, it starts again, like new and will travel further. It is a headache especiallly cannot drive it in peak hour traffic, stop start driving, on a warm day. No one as yet has been able to define the problem, no one wants to deal with the Taurus, getting to the point where I just want to sell the damn thing as its becoming unreliable in city driving. On freeway travelling, keep the car on around 90 klm at a steady pace, it drives lovely, very fuel efficient, cruises well. City driving, it will stall to stop the engine from overheating even though temp gauge is not on hot. Smells of a dry radiator. I figure there is a blockage somewhere, but as the mechanics all tell me, it could be a 100 dollar question or a 1000 dollar question? Even Bayfords. Have had it on a machine, let it run for 6 hours straight, didnt stall once, only when going up and down gears stop and starting. Any clues? Just a little more info, when I first purchased the car it had so much power it was scary, now it doesnt have any, I put the foot down to kick back to second and hardly get a reaction, just a car thats struggling.

I have been here and I have done this. Bought the tee shirt and sold it at a yard sale.

You likely have a crack in a head gasket that only opens badly in heated stop and go traffic, but when cruising on the highway, the combination of cooling air rushing through the radiator and around the engine does not "swell" the crack open as far.

This crack in the head gasket is putting high exhaust pressure into the water jacket causing coolant to not move. That is why it gets hot but does not show on the temperature gauge. The Hot water cannot get to the gauge sensor because water is not moving.

The flip side of the coin is when you shut it off and let it cool, the high radiator pressure forces antifreeze into a cylinder and you get white smoke for a minute on cold start up.

You probably would not need to replace both head gaskets. You could probably pull the spark plugs and see evidence of antifreeze on one of them.

There are several cheap, simple tests for exhaust pressure in the radiator. The simplest is a radiator cap gauge. If it ever exceeds 17psi, then there you have it. You could get this checked for free or very cheaply if you call around.

By the way, just to entertain you, I live in a University town. A very rich out of town girl came to University for a 4 year law degree. She was given a new 93 Taurus to take to college. In her 3rd year, the car blew a head gasket. She took it to the local repair shop and they replaced the water pump and the thermostat. Not fixing the problem, she buys another car and just parks the Taurus. She waits until graduation week to place an add in the paper to get rid of this car. (I'm going away in 4 days and never coming back.) I start the car and it makes a vapor cloud 40 feet tall (until it burns it off). She says, "Reimburse me for the water pump and thermostat repair bill and you can have the car($165).

This is a clean, never been smoked in, deluxe Taurus with power everything, nice stereo, and great air conditioning.

I take it to the local car engine machine shop. For $1,000 they pull the heads, mill them, all new valves and valve springs, and head gaskets.

I give my wife a deluxe Taurus for $1,165. She drives it for 5 years. I give it to my daughter. She drives it for another 5 years and still drives it today.

You may laugh please,

Ken

Hey Ken, thankyou for your advice, its like someone has just opened a window and let the breeze in. I will take your suggestions now to my mechanic and see if it opens the doors for him too. Seems like here in Australia nobody knows anything about the taurus'. Or they dont want to! I really like my car and would like nothing better than to have it running the same as before. Thanks again, good advice taken. Kay

I have a 96 ford taurus that has been having a problem for awhile. Its so bad now you can't drive it. Whats going on is it will take throttle if you just crack it about a 1/4 throttle, anymore it falls down, also it misses when it reaches about 3800rpm. If you give it half throttle it falls on its face. Had a tune up done on it and they said fuel pressure was fine. Also replaced the catalytic converters. My thinking is when the cats plugged possibly some trash got lodged in the muffler causing too much back pressure when you advance the throttle. Would a faulty MAF sensor give these symptoms. Also thought it may be the ECM as they are known for problems at this age. Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.

Thanks

You can have fine fuel pressure at idle, but not enough flow at higher engine speeds. One simple test if possible is to disconnect the fuel line and route it into a 2 liter coke bottle, then turn the key on and watch the flow. Theres a sock in the tank that can plug over time. First guess would be electronic tho.

The fuel sock makes since as when it stalls you pull over and kill it then restart it goes for awhile but its getting worse. Since killing it releases the fuel. The sock will release the crud for awhile. Have to pull the tank and check that out.

Thanks, George

It takes my car a while to crank we checked the fuel pressure by turnng the switch but dont crank up it says 15psi but when I crak it says 30-40 psi runs good some times but when I lay in to it it bogges down then kicks in and runs fine I have replaced the fuel pump, filter, strainer, fuel pressure regulater, still does it I have checked the egr valve it is good the engin codes say bank1 and bank 2 are lean what do u think it is

I have a 1996 Ford Taurus GL 3.0 V6 engine It has a leaky radiator, and I used Baars to temporarily fix it. Only ended up gumming up the heater core. They Blew air threw and flushed the system. Now when it is running for say about 30 minutes or so it starts to lose power. Acts like it wants to stall the temperature gauge reads that it is in the half way mark so it doesnt look like its over heating. But there is a burning smell, almost like a burnt caliper barbequed antifreeze type smell. And when you lift the hood after shut off you can hear sizzling and?Knocking? Sounds.

Is it possible to have the timing belt slip or lose "teeth" if you overheat the engine hot enough? I got it hot enough for the engine to shut itself down. I was losing water/anti-freeze thru the overflow reserve, and ran it pretty "dry". After I refilled it with water, I tried to start the engine and it seemed as if I lost half the compression. (I should explain that the feeling of loss of compression only occured during my attempts at starting the car. Although I noticed a little loss of power while driving on the freeway back to my house 20 miles away.) It took 5 or more minutes of repetitive trying before it started and lots of pumping the gas --- until finally! Though it would not stay running at idle. Also it would sputter, or more accurately described "backfire", as if it had a carburator. The same thing is happening now when I attempt to start the vehicle, failing miserably. It sounds like it's backfiring back down a carburator (the cylinder is trying to fire while the piston is still on its upstroke.) If my assumption is correct, is the timing gear/belt located directly behing the water pump as in older vehicles? Is it very involved (i.E. How long should it take to do the job? Thanks

My car has been Acting up When driving it runs hot alot and has some misfire.I was driving and It shot up on the tempature gage and Now will not drive over 30 miles an hr and Will start idleing high and wont go over 30 miles an hr !

My car is bogging out when I accelrate on the highway then boggs out when I try to go after I stop, what could be the problem

Shakes or Wobbles problem
1996 Ford Taurus 6 cyl Two Wheel Drive 100100 miles

lots miles been well taken care of oil changed regulary ect.

I drive it for about an hour or so it starts to shake and does not want to run? I pull over or manage to get home and have husband drive it it does not do it. Think when it gets engine gets hot it seems do this? I work about 29 miles from home and some times it does the shaking and sometimes it doesn't do it for a few weeks?

I