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...
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
99,782 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.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. While driving approximately 65 mph, the vehicle began to decelerate independently. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for diagnostics where the mechanic advised that the transmission would have to be rebuilt. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 179,000.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. While driving approximately 10 mph, the transmission failed without warning. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence and had not been diagnosed or repaired. The contact planned to notify the manufacturer of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 107,000.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. While driving approximately 15 mph, the vehicle began to decelerate abnormally. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic for diagnostics where the mechanic stated that the transmission would have to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 53,000.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that the vehicle would lose power without warning. The vehicle was towed to a local mechanic and a diagnostic was performed. The failure was located as the transmission torque converted having failed due to defective material. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The VIN was not available. The approximate failure and current mileage was 69,000.
- Glens Falls , NY, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that while driving 15 mph, the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle would not respond to the contact's attempts to accelerate or reverse. The vehicle was then taken to a private mechanic where the vehicle was diagnosed and the failure was located in the transmission pump.the vehicle was not repaired. The failure and the current mileage was 87,000.
Sudden transmission failure. Car went from drive to neutral without warning, and then won't enter any gear. Fortunately we weren't on a busy freeway at the time.
Pulling out of driveway at work onto delhi pike a 4 lane highway to make a left turn (rush hours traffic) got out to lane started down road, engine just revved car quite running, rush hour traffic 35 mile hr zone. Called Ford, no recalls (was told not enough complaints filed). Ford really did not even seem concerned or act like they cared about it. I guess since the vehicle is 2003 and it is now 2011. Sorry about my luck, was how Ford approached it. It cost $2231 to repair. Thank god I am alive if this would have quit in middle of the left turn I could have been killed. Is it going to take deaths to make this a recall, it is quite obvious there is a problem. My car had 52520 miles on it, most vehicles this is just broke in. Car complaints.com there are over 200 complaints about the same thing. Imagine going 70 on highway semi behind you all of a sudden you slow up have no way to get off highway, I guess the semi runs over top of you killing you and how many other people, either in your car or chain reaction. Ford and the NHTSA need to step up, and help out. How many people out there did not file a complaint, or know this is a known problem with the Ford Taurus.
While accelerating from a stop at a red light, vehicle shuddered a little as if transmission shifter was bumped out of gear. Vehicle coasted to a stop through the intersection. No motion was found by selecting other gears. Vehicle was towed to transmission shop and trans failure confirmed. Torque converter failure, tc bearing failure, boost pump failing and check valves out of specification. $1,800 in repair costs. I know of many people with failed Ford transaxle failures before 75K miles....
Came home on my 03 Ford Taurus working great the next day turned on the car to go to work started great put it in gear to leave and no go will not go forward or back. Friends and family told me transmission might have gone bad but the strange thing is no warning signs lucky for me it failed outside my house. Explored the internet and found out that the 03 Ford Taurus has a faulty transmission.
Vehicle made noise while driving on flat ground. Asked passenger if they heard the noise and they did not. Car continued to drive approximately 2 more miles. Car started to fail while driving uphill. The car made a revving sound and then stopped moving. Turned flashers on and pulled over to the side of the road. Scared that car would not park. Tried to change gears and vehicle went into park. Still scared so hand brake was applied. Called father and uncle to move car. Car had to be pushed backwards down the hill into a parking space at a secondary school. Next day, car was towed to residence. Vehicle will be towed to transmission specialist in February for diagnosis. Had to worry about getting to work to even pay for repair. Scared to imagine the cost.
Was pulling out of the car garage and put in reverse the car started back and the engines RPM roared up and crashed in to neighbor tree went across the street and crashed in the other neighbor tree and house all of this in reverse.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that the gear shifter would not shift into drive or reverse. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was not available. The failure and the current mileage was 100,000.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus station wagon. The contact was entering a parking space when the vehicle stalled on without warning. The vehicle was taken to a local mechanic who diagnosed that the torque converter and pump shaft failed. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was in the process of being repaired. The failure and the current mileage was approximately 159,000. The VIN was unavailable.
I was just driving along and all of a sudden the rpms just went up and I started to slow down, pulled over to the side of the road and tried shifting in reverse and then drive and would not move, rpms just went up when I stepped on the gas.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact was driving 65 mph, the vehicle would stall without warning at any time. The contact would have to restart the vehicle for the vehicle to perform normally. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer stated that the symptoms were similar to the NHTSA campaign id number: 12V006000 (power train:automatic transmission:torque converter) recall, but the VIN was not associated. The manufacturer denied any assistance with repair to the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 80,000 and the current mileage was 82,000. The VIN was unavailable.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. While parked, the contact moved the gear shifter into reverse but the vehicle would not respond. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic for diagnostic testing where the mechanic advised the contact that the transmission would have to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 65,000.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that while accelerating from a red light, the engine rpms increased but the vehicle would not move. The vehicle was towed to a local mechanic who diagnosed that the transmission was defective and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and the current mileage was 138,000.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact started the vehicle, but was unable to shift into any gear. The vehicle was not taken to have the failure diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure and current mileages were 82,000. The VIN was unavailable.
2003 Ford Taurus. We were driving down the road and the engine revved up like it was in neutral. No power at all. The car started slowing down in traffic and there wasn't anything that we could do about it. We coasted over to the shoulder of the roadway. We put the car in reverse - nothing, put the car in drive - nothing. We had the car towed to the mechanic. It will cost $2,500 to fix. The car only has 53,000 miles on it. Ford knows about the defective transmissions on these cars but fails to do any recalls.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- El Paso, TX, USA