I bought a 1997 Taurus in June of 2008. I absolutely loved the car and it drove like a dream. A few months later, I was out and about doing my running around. I was at a stop light and when it turned green my car did nothing but rev really high like I had it in neutral ( IT WAS NOT IN NEUTRAL). After a minute though it made a loud pop noise jerked very hard and took off. My car was fine for quite some time after that but in November it started doing it more often but not all the time. Then my check engine light came on so I had a sensor on the transmission replaced in December. Thinking Ah-ha! I took care of the problem. Well that wasn't the case. It still does it!! And since it only does it every now and then and still drives like a dream nobody can tell me what the problem is.

A few things I can say for sure are that it only seems to happen if I've been driving the car for a few hours straight and it's nice and warmed up and when this does happen instead of revving it up until it moves, try putting your hazard lights on and putting the car in park... turn it off then start it back up. That's what always seems to work best for me.

There's a very good chance that I lunched the transaxle on this car. The story:

To avoid an accident, I hit a curb, bottomed-out, and began leaking tranny fluid, which - like a fool - I drove and added fluid, as needed, for about three weeks.

My mechanic, Nick, brazed the drain pan, went through the refill procedure with me shifting through the gears, and for $182.00, I was in business. I asked Nick if there was much of a silvery hue to the fluid. He said, "No, not at all."

So why is the tranny on this thing possessed now? It's as if the cruise control is kicking in and out. It's definitely the transaxle because when it starts lurching and bucking, I pop it into neutral, and it calms right down.

The car doesn't owe me a dime. I paid $1,200 cash well over a year ago, and it had 158,000 miles on it.

I am pissed about that tranny acting up, though.

-Steve Boston suburbs