CarComplaints.com Notes: Most people need a car that shifts gears & coil springs that don't shred tires. The Taurus fails in that respect.
The 2003 Ford Taurus has major issues with the transmission failing. Typically the 2003 Taurus transmission failure costs $2,000 to fix by about 90k-100k miles. Not good.
Adding insult to injury, the 1999-2003 Taurus also 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...
1.9
hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
83,793 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.
I was driving on the freeway when the car started to overheat. I exited the freeway, when I came to a complete stop the oil light came on. I drove the car slowly and I started to smell burning oil and the engine started to make a knocking sound when I accelerated. I stopped the car and oil smoke was coming out of the hood.
Driving the car for about 10 minutes when the ac shut off and the overheated and suddenly the engine died in the middle of the street. Every time I tried to start it, it made a knocking sound. The car was towed to a Ford dealership. They could not find out why it overheated.
Ac fan only blows on high. Was driving home in pouring down rain, and ac blower quit working on 2nd notch. When contacting Ford, they told me I didn't have a warranty and just the diagnostic test would be 70 dollars. I'm a single mom of three and from searching the internet I see I'm not the only one with this problem. As you know you need either heat or air to defrost the windshield while driving in the rain. This is very much a safety hazard, especially if Ford knows about it and does nothing to correct the problem.
Once in April 2008 and again in February 2009, I have had to change the heater blower/motor in my 2003 Ford Taurus. Both times, I had a puddle of water form on the floor on the passenger side of my car before the motor went out. Both times the blower/motor was replaced with a used part.
Blower motor stopped working - once removed I found rusty water in the motor assembly - once put back in only high works. I will have to replace the motor and resister but until the leak is fixed stopping the water from entering this area I will need to replace again in the future.
- Washington, MI, USA
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The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that the blower motor failed when she attempted to drive the vehicle. There is no recall regarding the issue. The current mileage was 82,000 and failure mileage was 81,500. Updated 09/10/08 updated 09/15/08
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that there was a water leak in the front seat on the passenger side of the vehicle. The dealer stated that the gallium was leaking and they replaced the ac motor and resister. The dealer charged her $700 for the repair and stated that it was not a safety issue. The contact was given recall # 03V087000 (visibility:windshield). The current and failure mileages were 47,117.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Winnetka, CA, USA