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I think your car is Third Generation Taurus (1996-1999)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_TaurusLooks like one might want to check the hood to see if a new front end is going to fit. Is there damage to the hood lock assembly?
Also take a look at the diagram here to see how many parts are involved in a front end replacement, and which parts might be needed and which ones reusable.
http://www.oemfordpart.com/auto-parts/1996/ford/taurus/lx-trim/3-0l-v6-gas-engine/body-cat/bumper-and-components-front-scatAlso looks like one might need some headlamp components:
http://www.oemfordpart.com/auto-parts/1996/ford/taurus/lx-trim/3-0l-v6-gas-engine/electrical-cat/headlamp-components-scat/?part_number=f6dz13n019aYeah, I have a lot to learn about this and buying parts is one of the things! Appreciate your input. Thanks!
[quote=”cap269″ post=143908]http://www.hondapartsnow.com/genuine/honda~pad~pedal~stopper~46505-SA5-000.html
List price $2.53, online price $1.82 😛 [/quote]Yeah, I have seen that… but as they say…. the devil is in the “details!” 👿 ..and one of the reasons I “love” car repair – buying parts and not getting skinned alive! LOL!
Got burned a few times before I realized one needs to figure in shipping to match “all-in” costs in order to compare online prices to Big Box stores. I frequently beat up NAPA when they are high on price and I can get it cheaper on line. Seems like all of the “good” prices I find are in California and I have to decide if I wanna wait a week for it to ship to East Coast.
Thanks for the part number! So it looks like the best option woulda been a “buy it now” price with free shipping off eBay! $3.19 x 2 = $6.38. If I wanted to wait a week for it to ship from CA. So cheaper than NAPA for sure.
Can you detect my frustration with buying parts? Wish I owned a business and could buy this stuff wholesale! Sigh.
What happened with the hood? LOL.
Well I noticed that the safety release (?) [the lever under the front of the hood] was kinda stuck or not working so well. Also, the hood latched but would not go down all the way. So I opened the hood and looked at things and movement seemed restricted. Also looked like it had 25 years worth of dirty, black, dried up crusty grease all over everything.
So I got out the degreaser, then some Dawn and finally shots of PB Blaster that I worked in using a tooth brush. Oh, had pulled the latch off the frame but left the cable connected. {Quite a pain while the bumper is still attached! } That worked just so much until eventually I used Brake Kleen to get most of the crust off. Then applied PB Blaster at the joints only. Now I had good movement on the front lever. So I reassembled everything and slammed the hood!
Great! Now the in-cabin lever doesn’t seem to move the latch and release it and I could not get the hood open! So off with the bumper, thinking I could access the mounting bolts much easier – yep, that worked but it gives me 4-6 inches of hood lift before the cable holds things back. So no joy. Looks like the workings are behind everything, not facing forward.
[quote=”cap269″ post=143903]Awesome.
Would have been cheaper at Honda, but, oh well … :P[/quote]
LOL! You are killing me! LOL! Rarely have I seen parts at Honda cheaper, but this case would be my luck!
Maybe I don’t know the secret code or “handshake?” Now if i were a shop doing an install…. I bet I could get a decent price on Honda parts.
But hey! only $4 per button! …for a part made in China at 5-cent cost!
Now I gotta figure out how to get the hood open – latch is stuck. Already have the bumper off, so took the mounting bolts off, but still held back by the release cable.
When it rains it pours! LOL!
No sir, THANK YOU! The help is much appreciated!
Excellent picture – knew what to look for right away. You make this look so easy – but I can tell this is knowledge from years of experience! Worth its weight in gold! Thanks again!
[b]Cap269 – you are a genius! THANK YOU!
Look at what I found on the carpet floor under the pedals!
[/b]Then looking up at the top of the brake pedal – There it is! or isn’t as this shows!
But I shot a video of the action on both of the pedals and found something interesting with the clutch! Guess the car will start without having the clutch depressed! Not a good thing! {better watched in YouTube as this format is too small}
Off to get some parts!
Oh, I assumed I needed to have the wheels off the blocks in order to be turning them from pin to pin?
That isn’t going to knock the car off the blocks or the jackstands will it?
(Oh, and I have the parking brake on (SOP 4 me & parked car) AND while working on the car the rear wheels chocked too!)
Thanks good thought!
I hate crawling under the car with the motor running. But did that to see if I could see any leaking – did not see anything while things were stationary.
Turning the wheels makes sense!
However, I NEVER get under my car unless I have two forms of support: a primary and back-up kind of support. (I’m just kinda funny that way – sorry) So right now the front wheels are sitting on 9-in concrete blocks with jackstands as back up under the pinch weld points. I believe all four points have some load on them so if one fails there isn’t a sudden drop on to the back-up support. Also I think this arrangement keeps something from getting bumped, kicked or misaligned as repairs proceed.
So ah, er, um, sorry to be so dense …but how do I get an second method of support that would allow me to crawl under there safely?
Hey – Thanks for that reply! Much appreciated. I see what you said about possible play in the sway bar and damaging the lines. Sure looks that way in those pictures. Also kind of made sense as I found and repaired a broken sway bar link this Spring. I replaced both actually.
But the best thing about the reply was it gave me something to go look for and some education on what the parts are called! So I went and looked and snapped a few more pictures.
Looks like the sway bar bushings are in tact and in decent shape – I don’t see any obvious wear or cracking. Then I looked at the lines versus the sway bar and it looks like there is some health distance between them. It is hard to see, and I took pictures from various angles to try to show the space between the lines and the sway bar. No one picture shows both pairs of lines in a good perspective as I think my lighting flattens things out? In addition those lines are behind or down stream from the gear box – if that is important.
That gear box looks like it is in a couple of pieces that bolt together. Does not look like there is a leak where the inner tie-rods connect into the gear box – boots there but kind of looks as if the halves could be leaking? Or is there something on top that leaks?
I do note a bunch of never seize smeared on the bolts for the spash guard/cover. That usually means that yours truly has been playing here previously as i always clean up bolts and coat them with never-seize before replacing them. That reminded me that 10 years ago I did replace the pressure like from the PS pump to the rack (gear box?). That said, have not had a leak until recently.
I tried some prying around with a bar just now. The rack seems to be well seated with no movement. The inner tie-rods seem snug on the right, though I noted a slight clicking sound from under the boot on the left side when prying on the inner tie rod.
Additional Symptom? or Separate Issue?
I will note that I replaced the sway bar links because last Winter I was having “front end noise.” In doing the checks from Eric’s videos I found one tie rod end (TRE) (left) was bad (play and squeaking) and the Right Upper Control Arm (UCA) ball joint was bad too. So as well as replacing BOTH sway bar links I replaced BOTH TREs and UCAs. I was able to get rid of the “squeaking sound” in the Left, but still have a metalic rattle when I hit a solid/hard bump. Hard to describe the noise, but it sounds like the kind of klunk one gets when they put a too small nail as a pin in a standard house door hinge.Hi Bill – Thank you for the tips and info! Funny that I could not find much in the manual about changing the fluid or filter. Appreciate that advice. Found A/T filter & gasket kits for $13-$25,
Hey, I’m the curious type – What would happen if I took that hose clamp loose and started the engine and let it run with the pump pushing fluid out – until there was no more fluid? Would that get ALL of the fluid out of the system?
Thanks again for all of the help here! Finally had success! Got the quick connects together and seated and put those black clips on and all was good.
Ran a vacuum test again and got 30 inches of vacuum after 10 minutes! Shut down vacuum pump and it held for 15-minutes! Charged up system with 3 – 12 ounce cans of R134a refrigerant. Stated capacity is 2 pounds.
When I was done I let the system run and cycle for a while and then recorded the below figures from the gauges. Ambient air temperature was about 85-degress F and high humidity.
Low @ 42-45 psi…………High @ ~100 psi
Low @ 24 psi………………High @ 170 psiShut the car off and the gauges stabilized at 52 psi on both High and low side. Attached is a copy from the service manual of the pressure temperature relationships.
Have been driving car around and the cool comes out nicely.
So am I good to go? Everything look “OK” or normal?
I have videos of the gauges that I could post if that is needed?
