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 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
2 / 0
Average Mileage:
50,177 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 at any speed, the blower motor emitted smoke from under the dashboard on the passenger side of the vehicle. The failure recurred three times. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the resister blower motor was getting damaged with water from the crow and under the air cabin filter where the installation of the cabin air filter. The technician informed the contact that the vehicle need to be taken to a dealer to have the installation replaced. The vehicle was repaired twice; however, the failure recurred. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 132,000.
The heater blower motor has stopped working in my vehicle. I have had it replaced once and it worked for about 2 months before failing again. Ford has issues a bulletin on this issue and it is a known problem, but they will not fix the problem if the car is no longer under warranty.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that both the blower motor and the interior lights experienced failures. As a result, hot air would not blow from the vents and the windshield could not be defrosted. The interior lights illuminated constantly and drained the battery prematurely. The dealer reprogrammed the electrical system computer and corrected the interior light failure. The blower motor failure was not corrected. The failure mileage was 82,555 and the current mileage 85,754. Updated 03/05/12 updated 03/06/12
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that the defroster was inoperable. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where they advised him that the blower motor had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and they offered no assistance. The failure and the current mileages were approximately 58,000.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that the heater blower had malfunctioned. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer to have a the blower resistor replaced yet the repair did not correct the failure. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer where the dealer discovered water damage around the heater blower. The dealer created a shield around and replaced the heater blower. The failure mileage was 49,152.
- Belleville, MI, USA
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The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that whenever the air conditioner was activated, the front passenger side floorboard would become wet. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the contact was informed that motor blower would need to be replaced. There were no prior warnings of the failure. The failure mileage was 84,000 and the current mileage was 86,000.
I have a 2003 Ford Taurus and every time it's setting out in a moderate to heavy rain the right front floorboard gets saturated with water. I've had to replace the blower resistor twice and the blower motor once and the motor in it now is going out. Why isn't Ford being held responsible for the repairs and costs affiliated with this manufacturing defect and the costs incurred on those of us unfortunate enough to have purchased one of them? due to this issue I nearly had an accident on 03/08/10 when my windshield fogged during a rainstorm and I lost almost all visibility. If I hadn't known the area very well plus 25 years of law enforcement driving I very well could have been seriously injured or killed. NHTSA needs to act on this asap before someone is killed. My name is [xxx] and I can be contacted at [xxx], in mesa, Arizona. My car is usually under cover and it flooded with water also in Feb. 2009 &Feb. 2010, when it was standing out in the rain, not being operated but just out in the rain. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
My blower in my 2003 Ford Taurus has been intermittently failing for a month or so. On Friday Jan. 8 it quit and will not go. The heat is fine and trickles out, but the blower will not come on at all. It was fine at 8:30pm when I picked a friend up at the airport, but was dead at 10:30pm when I picked up my granddaughter at a friends house. It appears that there has been water in the housing that has shorted out the motor. I understand that Ford knows this is a problem with these cars but is reluctant to do a recall to fix it.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. While driving 65 mph in rainy conditions, there was excessive condensation on the windows. The air conditioner was activated, but then suddenly failed without warning. The windshield was unable to defrost, which resulted in reduced visibility. The driver pulled over to the side of the road and cleared off the windows. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer and they stated that the blower motor possibly failed due to water leakage as rust was present. The vehicle was repaired. The failure was mileage 127,600 and current mileage was 127,800. Updated 08/21/09. Updated 08/26/09.
I own a 2003 Ford Taurus that the blower is bad and apparently due to water damage through the vent area, I see where on the internet this may be a recurring issue that Ford has not issued a recall on. What course of action should I take to get this resolved so I don't have to continue to buy blower motors. The car is very reliable other than this.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. While driving approximately 35 mph, the air conditioning unit failed. There were no warning indicators illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer and they stated that the failure was related to the blower motor. The vehicle was repaired. The failure and current mileages were 47,300.
The contact owns a 2003 Ford Taurus. The contact noticed water leaking onto the passenger side floorboard of the vehicle. A few months later, he began experiencing failure with the blower motor, which caused the heater, defroster, and air conditioning to not work. He called the dealer numerous times and they stated that it was a common failure; however, there was no recall. They offered to place a rain cap over a new blower motor, but it was not covered by the manufacturer. The vehicle has not been repaired. The failure mileage was 80,000 and current mileage was 106,000.
When it came time to use the heat, which wasn't needed before this problem, the heat only worked on high. Sometimes it would not even work. Now, the air does not work as well. They work on high every once in a while, but that is it. A mechanic told me that he has seen this quite often in this year model, and while you can just replace the blower motor switch for a temporary fix, it will continually go out each year, and the only real fix is to replace the air compressor.
2003 Ford Taurus, cowl leak. Water leaks into heater and A/C blower motor causing corrosion. Blower motor is inoperable. Inherent problem, but never corrected. Postings of this condition all over the internet. The Ford dealer wants almost $600 to repair. The is a tsb 03-15-6 on this problem.
Heater/ac fan only working on high speed then quit entirely, found fan motor full of water. Somehow water leaks in from air inlet. Ford aware of problem but will not fix.
1. discovered water collecting in passenger side floorboard, following heavy rains. 2. blower motor resistor failed, causing blower motor to only operate on the highest speed. 3. located technical service bulletin #tsb 04-15-3 which described the problem I was having, the cause, and corrective action required. I took the vehicle to a Ford dealership and had the corrective work performed as described in the tsb.
My 2003 Ford Taurus heater fan motor stopped working in slow speeds at about 51,000 miles, for about a month only the fast speed would work and yesterday the fan stopped working altogether. Replaced the relays and fuses to no avail, last resort will be to change out the fan motor itself.
Blower motor worked then quit all of a sudden when I was driving. Did not work on any setting. It was raining and windows were starting to fog. I thought I was going to wreck because I did not have any defroster. Recall number 03V087000 does not fix this problem even though its similar. I think it should include this problem because having the blower motor go out is dangerous.
2003 Ford Taurus. Blower motor resistor rusty and bad from leaking water. Technical service bulletin #031506. NHTSA #10011149. A known issue that should be repaired under a recall.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Austintown, OH, USA