1998 Ford Taurus Hard starting and stalling

WMKRUEGER

MEMBER
1998 FORD TAURUS
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
105,278 MILES

My son has a 98' Taurus SE, 24 valve V6 with 105,000 miles on it. When the engine is cold and he starts it up it will rev up to cold idle speed (1,500 rpm), then drop down almost immediately to 1,000 rpm. Then after as short time go back up to 1,500. Once the engine gets up to normal temp. And he stop it starts to idle rough and seem like it's about to stall. Sometimes it actually does stall. Also, when he pulls into his parking spot, wheels turned and foot on brake, it starts to buck, go, buck, go.

After he runs it for awhile and then parks it for a hour or so and trys to start it, it takes 3 or 4 times before it will run smooth. It stutters for awhile then straightens out. I've had three different people tell me three different things that could be wrong. I'd like to know what your opinion is.

Thank you,

Bill Krueger

1 Reply

IMPALASS

MECHANIC
3,112 POSTS

Hello Bill - nice to hear from you.

First thanks for all the info......... Good on ya..... Most of the time we don't' get all of that. If you can give me the engine in liter and the 8th digit of the VIN, I think we will be in there.

Please go to Auto Zone (AZ) or O'Reilly's (OR) and for FREE they can pull the codes to the car. Most important: Once they check your codes, if they find something and you don't get it fixed and need to get back with us, please make sure you tell us exactly what the code was, number and all. Example, if the code was E0568 O2 Sensor bad. Then make sure you give us all of that. While there for FREE also they can bring their tester out and check your battery and alternator.

It could be the Throttle position sensor, MAF sensor, Coolant Temp Sensor....... You may even need to get a fuel pressure check.

Let's start with the above first and see if we can't get a code to help us out.......