CarComplaints.com Notes: Most people need a car where the coil springs don't puncture or shred tires while driving. The Taurus fails in that respect.
The 1999-2003 Ford Taurus has a huge problem with coil springs breaking, which can puncture or even shred tires while driving.
The US government spent THREE YEARS (2008-2011) investigating the 2002-2003 Taurus coil springs. Although Taurus/Sable from earlier years were recalled, ultimately the NHTSA did not force a recall. They determined that because there had been no deaths & very few bad crashes & injuries, the broken coil springs defect was no big deal & not a safety defect. Tell that to all the owners who had close calls...
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
5,475 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Car was driven for approx. 100 miles, gas was low, so stopped to refill. When car was restarted, the car hesitated then sounded choked like it was not getting gas. Revved car to try to 'clear' system. Problem continued, at worst when idling. After a few minutes, engine light came on, so I turned off the car and called Ford dealer. Wrecker driver came out, revved car a few more times (approx. 3000 RPM) small backfire out of muffler each time. Problem seemed to go away. Wrecker driver blamed 'baffles' in muffler? drove car another 200 miles home. Three days later, after driving a bit, parked for short time then restarted car, same problem reoccurred.
While traveling at normal speed and without any indication vehicle stalled. Consumer depressed brakes and tried to turn steering wheel, but vehicle would not respond, resulting in a car crash. Dealer has been notified.
The car was operating under sunny dry conditions. Temperature was around 60 degrees. The engine stopped running, causing shutdown of all power related devices including steering and brakes. The Taurus seems to be more difficult than most cars to steer without powered assistance. I was lucky enough to be able to coast to an area where I could safely get off the road. Under different conditions, this failure could have caused a serious accident.
While pumping fuel into vehicle with engine off a fire started in engine compartment. Local fire departmentarrived and extinguished the fire. While being towed fire restarted again within engine compartment, fire was extinguished again by local fire department. Feel free to provide any further information concerning this matter.
- Mc Henry, IL, USA
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- Royal Oak, MI, USA