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:
0 / 5
Injuries / Deaths:
2 / 0
Average Mileage:
71,779 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 own a 2003 Ford Taurus and I had to replace the blower motor, a resistor and the bower motor wheel. This was do to a defective design by Ford that lets moisture into the blower motor area thus causing it to fail, they refuse to do a recall and I have seen thousands of the same complaints on websites for auto repair.
When someone was going to do something about the stalling problems while driving2003 Ford Taurus. Sometimes it wasd at a stop, but it also happened at highway speeds. It choked out, the gauges went haywire, and it stalled. Thiswas something I found on blogs was a common complaint by Taurus owners. It was a distraction that could cause an accident at highway speeds. It was scary when it happened.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that the windshield defroster must be powered on and off in order for it to operate. The contact was unable to retrieve air or heat inside the vehicle. The weather conditions were rainy. The manufacturer advised the contact to bring the vehicle to the dealer. The dealer stated that the blower motor failed and contained water damage. Ford agreed to pay for half of the repairs. The current mileage was a 16,400 and failure mileage was 16,300. The consumer states he would like to reimbursed for amount he paid of $182, however Ford only agreed to pay for a portion of the repair. Updated 05/04/07
While driving at highway speeds the vehicle went dead for 1 to 3 seconds and then started back up again. It was to the point that I would not allow my wife to drive the vehicle since she may panic and have and accident. I have taken the car to dealer, and no one seemed to know the cause for this.
Have replaced the blower motor resistors on a 2003 Ford Taurus twice (paid for twice at a Ford repair shop) and it has quit again - all within a two month period. Afraid to let them try again.
2003 Ford Taurus ses. Ford tsb 4-15-3, NHTSA #10011149. Blower motor resistor failure. Moisture causes the resistor to short out. Moisture and electrical short is a fire hazard. Resistor and blower motor must be replaced and blower motor housing must be resealed. This same problem has occurred in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 model years. Defective workmanship and materials.
I have a 2003 Ford Taurus SE, while driving on the freeway I tried to make a phone call home. At the time my phone could not connect, I re-tried the phone call my phone made a clicking sound, simultaneously my dash board blinked out and reset to all the wrong information. When I exited the freeway I pulled over and restarted my vehicle everything reset correctly. I contacted Ford, they said it was a voltage spike. I then talked to a good friend in the research and development dept. At a competitor. He told me that certain types of cell phone signals will interfere with the electronic devices in some vehicles. I think that Ford should take this a bit more seriously because if this is a problem that this model Taurus has, it should be addressed.
On 6-7-06, while driving the car to work, the fan motor quit. For the next week, the motor would quit or fail to run any time that it was raining or had rained. This effected using the defrost and the air conditioning. After checking all fuses, I finally took the car into the dealer service department. One of the service advisors looked at the car and asked if this was a 2003 model Taurus? he then explained that this problem is common with that car. He explained about the water getting in the motor and that there was a tsb on how to fix this. However, Ford would not cover any of the cost since there was no recall at this time. Total cost of the repair was $401.14 dollars. Since this caused a electrical short and was not protected by fuses, I am surprised that there was not a fire. The car was less than three years old but had 37,398 miles when the repair was completed.
Yesterday my Ford Taurus 2003 while my child was with me had the engine go wild out of control. The engine all by its self started racing at high speed and there was no control of it. I had good sense to hold down the brake and shifted it into neutral. It ran this way for a minute or two. I almost killed myself and my daughter. I took the car right away to westfield Ford 708-354-8600 and was told that the computer that controls the engine went wacky and needed to be re-programmed. This is a very serious condition when the car can just take off by its self with no safety shut down. Please investigate maybe someone was killed this way because of a defect in a computer. If there was more traffic present I could have died along with my child. The customer report from westfield says 94490 diagnosis J# 1 06F0Z0engd. The Ford people seemed to act like this has happened before to other people.
: the consumer stated the turn signals and hazard lights worked intermittently. If the steering wheel was in the up position, both of the signal lights work properly. If the steering wheel was the up and standard position, the lights would malfunction. The dealership and manufacturer have not been contacted. Updated 02/09/06.
About four months ago the engine would completely shut down while driving with a loss of power. This happened without warning, no previous stalling. Once the engine died, a period of about ten minutes would pass, and then a restart would be possible. Sometimes it would take numerous times to restart. After the first occurrence, the consumer took the vehicle to a Ford dealer, where it was still under warranty, and they replaced the fuel pump. The fuel pump did not correct the problem because the engine would still die. The consumer did return to the dealer, and they performed a diagnostic test which showed a valve assembly control failure and it was replaced. Also, they performed fuel pump pressure test, recorder monitor road test, check of battery condition, and a replacement of the electrical fuel pump assembly. After all of these tests and corrections, this was still a problem. The vehicle continued to have a problem that has not been corrected. The consumer went to the dealer six times, and has not contacted Ford manufacturer. After all of these attempts the dealer suggested to the consumer to call NHTSA and check the lemon law. Updated 12/27/05.
2003 Ford Taurus. Vehicle stalled on June 13, 2005 and all the dashboard indicator lights came on and stayed for just a couple of seconds. This happened at least 7 times since then. The car will never completely die, it just mad ethe consumer fell that he haad no control of vehicle. When it did die it will restart, and the car was back to normal. Took vehicle to dealer, and they checked it out and could not find anything wrong.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Lake Ridge, VA, USA