Hi all,
I recently acquired (less the 72 hours ago) a 1993 Ford Taurus GL (3.8 V6, 4 speed Auto) which has supposedly about 30000 miles on a rebuilt motor. The last owner, (family member) basically gave my fiancee and I this vehicle. This vehicle has drove the previous owner crazy and she has passed this vehicle on to us. I knowing this when I got this vehicle I have come to you all for some suggestions. The vehicle cosmetically is in great condition and overall runs fine. (There is a special note at the end on recent driveablilty though which has caused the vehicle to be parked)
Please note I have purchased a factory manual (CD), Technical Manual, Owners Manual and a Haynes manual for reference but I will not have them in my possession till next week and recent driveability has caused some concern.
I will lay out the problems in a list form from most severe to less severe (I will be doing all repairs myself)
1) Oil light comes on after engine is warm (with thermostat open) and will appear only in drive but in park or neutral or driving it goes out. It occurs about every other time the car is taken out and is not consistent.Receipt shows oil change about 6 monthes back (car was not driven for last 3 months except to get to my place). It was last changed with
5W30. I am thinking oil should be a 10W30 or 10W40 something a little thicker. I have a Corsica 2.8 V6 that did this to and I upped it to 10W30 and never have seen problem since (more then 60K miles back) and I am hoping this is similar. Otherwise I will start looking at Oil pump, Bearing clearance, sensor, and or the pick up tube. Any other ideas on this issue?2) We also have a temperature issue (Thermostat was replaced less then a year ago according to receipts). The temperature issue acts like a short almost. You will be driving along (speed does not seem to make a difference) and the temperature is between a quarter and a half then all of a sudden it goes steadily all the way to the hot side then as fast as it went hot it will drop back down to where it was before. Feels like bad thermostat.
The system was flushed about 9 monthes ago (same time as the thermostat replaced). The belt looks good and there is no abnormal noise from the waterpump. The hoses look weak especially the heater core hose coming from the top of the intake off of what I am guessing is a electronic control valve for the heater. It is very large (expanded) and is/was being replaced this weekend along with a oil change. Anyways, Receipts show thermo sensor replaced, thermostat, system flush, radiator cap, lower hose replaced (maintenance?).
The thermostat job looks shabby, used a lot of Gasket sealant probably to keep gasket in place. My feeling the problem with the temperature does not lie in the cooling system directly. Maybe engine timing (its a distributor), bad head, could be waterpump, could be bad thermostat, could be partially clogged radiator. I will put the system under a pressure test tomorrow afternoon. What I am looking for here is anybody that has experienced anything similar on this type of vehicle/engine and figured out what it was. Otherwise I will check timing and change out the complete cooling system since its not overly $$$ even with the radiator.
3) Outside Door Lock does not seem to operate on drivers door. My guess is the lever mechanism is not connected anymore. Electronic lock and unlock work. Is there anything special I should know before I take the door skin off and figure whats not connected.4) The vehicle has a locking mechanism on the drivers side floor near the door. I believe it controls the rear trunk. I put my key in the lock but neither one turns the lock. The trunk key works fine in trunk. Is there anything I can do to get this thing working. I am thinking some extra WD40 or PB to see if its frozen. If not can this mechanism be replaced?
5)RECENT Drivability. (Vehicle is now parked) Last night I took the vehicle out and all was well. I drove it about 50 miles and the only thing I saw was the oil light that appeared twice when we were sitting at a light for a extended period of time. We even got a full tank of gas before the night was over.Then tonight we decided that we would do a quick run to the store (groceries) and the vehicle just ran horrible but not at very first only once it warmed up. Then coming back home the temperature gauge began to climb. When it got to the hot mark I shut it down. When I restarted it, it puffed a few small (and it was small) clouds of white smoke from exhaust (head gasket or head?) I drove it about 8 miles the temp began to rise again so I shut it down again. Let it sit and cool and this time it was a bare to start and quite a bit of white smoke and ran very rough. (again head or gasket?) After a about 30 seconds of running it ran fine. I got it home and no smoke. I restarted it about 10 minutes ago and started instantly and no smoke. Now I have blown a head gasket and a head before but in both cases there was water in the oil or oil in the water. Both water and oil are clean. I know a pressure test will show if the gasket or head has problems but is there any other ideas. Another unlikely thought was maybe bad gas? Any ideas?
Thanks for your time, Chris