Please Help a sister Ford Chick

swissboy97

Registered User
Ok, here's the deal. I have a 90 TBird SC and she's running great (thank the Lord), but my friend has a 97 Taurus Sedan 3.0L GL that's had major overheating issues. The first mechanic thought it was the radiator and thermostat and those were replaced, but its doing it again. Her temp gauge will spike into the red while when stopped and the car will overheat, but cools off when driving. The antifreeze also turns a brown color though its brand new fluid. My guess is the water pump, but i'm not 100% sure.
She's shelled out a lot of $$, so any help would be useful.

Thanks,

Alex and my friend Adele
 
Did you do anti-freeze or the shop? Maybe it is orange instead of green. The SHO club might know the cars pretty well, though they run a different engine.
 
Ford had a service bulletin on the 96 - 97 3.0L 2V Taurus / Sable for the coolant going brown. Apparently there was junk leftover in the block and head casting water passages. Ford had a special flush and PH treatment for the cooling system for this, and also some revised water hoses with a different routing. Your local Ford dealer should still have the info. available on this to fix you up.


cheers
Ed Nicholson
SCCoO
 
Cooling problems

I'd go with another flush and fill since it's really inexpensive and check the fluid to see if that brown substance is an oily residue...THEN I'd go the Ford route and try and get it done for free if it persists. Sounds backwards, but I've found Ford ALWAYS finds a way to charge you for SOMETHING...

"It was under warranty, but we replace somethin you don't need with somethin you'll never use, not to mention you had two doughnuts and a cup of coffee, that'll be $1500 BUCKS":D
 
Sounds like two problems. The color shouldn't cause the temp spike.

I'd start by verifying that the cooling fan is turning on. Like our SC's, the cooling fan should come on when the A/C is turned on. So have your friend turn on the A/C and verify the cooling fan is coming on. (the mechanic should have checked that already)

If it's not, there is your overheating problem. The fan should come on by itself with the coolant temp is at or about 212 degrees.

Also, if the radiator cap has not been replaced, it should be. A faulty radiator cap could cause the engine to overheat at a premature temperature.

If the fan is running, and the radiator cap was replaced with the radiator, then the problem is likely a headgasket. Along with brown color in the coolant you should see bubbles in the expansion tank from the combustion gasses leaking. A good shop will have a detector that can detect combustion gasses in the coolant to verify a problem with a headgasket.
 
Does the coolant look rust colored? If so, I suspect the water pump impeller is made of steel, and it's corroded away to the point that you're not getting proper flow through the cooling system. The drop in temp readings while you're driving may be due to cool air moving over the engine, and the higher revs usually associated with driving as opposed to sitting at a light may mean that what's left of the impeller manages to move enough coolant to drop the temperature.

A friend of mine has a '93 Probe GT with the 2.5L V-6, and he recently went through the same sort of problem. It only got worse, until there was absolutely nothing left of the water pump impeller. At that point, it would overheat regardless of whether the car was moving.

Changing the coolant more often can help prevent the corrosion of metal parts in the cooling system.

Good luck!

Cheers,

Sean
 
I think Ed has the solution. Take it to Ford and give them an opotunity but make sure the milage on the car will fit within Ford bullitin. Make sure they will pay for anything related to this. There was a bullitin on the SC if under 100K miles on head gasket and it covered any water related problem. I got a new radiator, head gaskets, one head, & wp free. My mistake was telling them that well while you are in there go ahead and change out those hard to get at hosses that were not bad at all, just 5 yrs old and hard to get to. That was a mistake because they charged the full labor on those hesses even though the engine was already apart on waranty work. You know the dealer charged Ford for the labor. Do not have them do any other work at that time. Not even an oil change. Just warranty work!!. Take it in later if you want, but no extra work on this visit out of your pocket and you ought to be fine. Check the milage limit on this bullitin Ed mentioned.
 
My Diagnosis...

The Brown Color could also very well come from someone having used a "Stop Leak" type treatment in order to cure a potential radiator problum. I say this because when I bought my SC, 10 minutes down the road the radiator was spewing fluid. My only survival was to stop at the 24 hour WAL-MART and get the Stop Leak to make it home. (long story) My fluid was brown even after two flushes, AND a new radiator.
BTW all is good now including new water pump and t-stat, and several flushes later....
My .02
Tom
 
coolant

silversc90 is right. mixing the red and green antifreeze will cause serious corrosion. not only on head gaskets. it clumps up and stops the cooling system up. i had a couger doing the same thing yours is. i gave the car awaybut replaced some stuff i believe fixed it, which was everything. but anyway it could be the recall, head gasket (not as likely with out other symptoms like foamy coolant and oil, and/or pressure lost in a chamber), clogged radiator or water jacket (the cooling ports throughout the engine and head), water pump, an air bubble in the top pf the motor, another bad thermostat, fan not coming on, or incorrect coolant/water mixture. i think i got it all.
 
problem solved

Thanks for all your replies. She and her dad finally solved the problem with the help of a mechanic. Turns out their other Taurus had this same problem a while back and it was the fan in the radiator. They took it back to that same mechanic and he found the error. Seems to happen to quite a few of the late 90 model tauruses. Her car has been running well for a few months now.

Thanks again,

Alex
 
i had the same problem in my company car. heres what it is; orange antifreeze in a nutshell turns to mud (way way before the 150k suposed life span) and cloggs the water jackets, and if not flushed and changed in time WILL rust through freezeplugs as mine did, what a mess it was but after flush alone you should be fine (hopefully)
 
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