More of a garage find, but picking up a 3rd Gen SHO, complete, straight, good interior, sunroof, all electric, and only 41,842 miles. Has not run in 5 years, but was being driven when parked. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am an old time wrench turner, mechanic. My friends call me Gus.
Not sure I am qualified to post to this esteemed thread, so feel free to laugh and tell me to go away! Since you're a mechanic, I am pretty sure you know all this, but maybe a few 'regular folk' may find it helpful. Anyway,
here goes.
Suggestion the first: Rubber bits. Check em all. When I got my 1995 wagon, it had not been driven much since it had first been purchased. Had less than 15k miles on.
But... all cars age, even if not driven, and the first places they age are rubber bits and fluids. So
fluids need changed and any settled gunk cleaned/flushed out. I would even check things like the plastic tanks that hold the washer fluid, as they tend to age poorly.
I threw some Techron into my gas tank for the first couple tanks or so, and I do it about once a year since, but I cannot tell you empirically if it does anything... but my car runs well (idles so quietly, sometimes I wonder if it's on) and it was born in 1995, (prolly late 1994, actually) so... I'm gonna keep doing it every now and then as it seems happy
.
Rubber bits:
Tires: Flat spot. Even if they're perfect, with all tread, they're probably best off as spares if you want to keep one or a couple in your barn/garage. They might be a bit better for a car that was driven a small distances on a regular basis.
Hoses, mounts, connectors: I'd also look at hoses and any place where there might be hard rubber bits that support and connect things... Your mechanic (you!!) should go over the car with a fine tooth comb. Heat/cold cycles and random microbes that like to eat rubber on cars that aren't driven much cause deterioration even without wear.
I found that a lot of nearly new rubber had just dried out and was happier knowing I had replaced them. Also little tiny T shaped plastic bits that join those rubber bits... those break on Tauruses. Plastic really does not age well anywhere. They're easy to fix, but nasty if they leave you in the middle of nowhere without an auto parts store nearby. Had three break on two different tauruses. One on a lonely road... Fun was not had, but was grateful to be handy.
The other weakness I've had now with two tauruses of a certain age.
Brake lines. They age. Probably on any car, but since I had the same thing happen to two different 95s in dramatic fashion, I'm sharing. Came out one day, had no brakes, found
all the brake fluid was... gone. Line had not been cut it just 'broke'. One was 16 years old (many, many miles). The other was 25 (the low mileage one). Both just degraded and suicided.
Not sure about the SHO, but in the 3.0L engines, a lot of people put power steering fluid in their
power steering system, instead of Type F transmission fluid that it actually takes.
Every Taurus I've ever looked at (87-95) where people used
power steering fluid instead of Type F developed a power steering system leak, and that leak damaged the lovely and important rubber bits below... So you then have two issues, rotten rubber (mounting bits as I recall) and a power steering leak. Since the SHO has a different set up from the regular 3.0L, it may not have this issue.
I would love a SHO (my dream is of 1995 - especially that SHO wagon that they never made...), so enjoy!!
My layperson's two cents!
Blue
www.taurusclub.com
