'96 Taurus Transmission Failure

Did you tell them to rebuild it, or find the problem? Did they do an actual diagnostic on it BEFORE they tore it down? A good trannie shop has something called a "shaffer shifter" of such that takes the place of the cars computer and allows the shop to manually check the shifting of the trannie. They can usually tell from this test if its the trannie or the computer trying to shift it.

This trannie is electronically shifted. Some sort of electrical problem could potentially cause a problem. Its not uncommon to have the VSS fail or have the VSS electrical harness fail. But usually when that happens the car downshifts at high speed or such rather than go out of gear.

ANy history on this car? Has the motor, trannie or sub frame been out of the car when the cars wiring could have gotten stressed or broken? Did they flush out the trannie cooler and check to see if it was plugged or any of the lines kincked?

Bob

I told them to find the problem. They checked it out, and told me it needed a rebuild. Now I think that I got stuck, because after the $1400 so-called "rebuild" the problem has not been fixed.

As far as I know there is no history. The car has never been wrecked, and the previous (first) owner, said it ran fine for them, with no major problems.

What I am wondering is if there is some sensor or something I can unplug to at least get the car rolling for the time being. I'm not particularly car-literate, but I know my way around an engine.

Thanks for the response.

~Rob

Take it back to the transmission shop. It wouldn't do it when you took it back before, but it is doing it now.

Jeff

Call the transmission shop, tell them it is not working at all and you need it towed to the shop.

What is the time frame? I am hoping you paid for this with a credit card. If you did, you have 60 days after the first bill on which this appeared to stop payment. I would contact the credit card company today, and get going on that.

Jeff

I paid with a check, and it has already hit. However, I'm going to have it towed back in tomorrow, and I'm going to make it very clear that I want this fixed. I'm not happy, because from my point of view they charged me $1400 for unneeded work, and didn't fix the problem to boot. I'm going to tell them as much, and make it clear that unless they get the issue resolved - quickly - I will be sure and let other people know to stay away as well. It was a major headache going without my car for a week, and it's not any better now.

Thanks for the thoughts though. I think in the future I will steer clear of Ford Tauruses. I've been reading on the Internet and it seems that a lot of people have this problem. My car has only 108,000 on it, and it's been well cared for, so I shouldn't be having any issues at all.

~Rob

You need to stick to the facts rather than get emotional. You took the car in for repair. Supposedly, they diagnosed it and fixed it. I would ask: WHat specific problem did they diagnose? (it needs a rebuild does not count) What was found when the transmission was tore down? What specific list of parts was replaced? What hard parts (if any) were used? Did they rebuild your transmission or use a another unit and swap it out?

If they cannot answer the questions, then i would start to get irritated.

$1400 seems a little on the low side for a complete R/R and rebuild in most places.

Bob

Did the problem occur at the shop when you first took it to them, before the rebuild? If not, how did they determine that the transmission needed to be rebuilt if the problem wasn't happening when they had the car?

Did you take it to AAMCO or some other national chain that can't fix a transmission?

AAMCO would have charged him a lot more for a non working trannie.......

Bob