Questions and Answers

Dying Ford Taurus Station Wagon Q. I have a 1992 Ford Taurus Station Wagon, with a 3.0 V-6 automatic with approximately 110,000 miles on it which is exhibiting a strange symptom. It cuts out on me while driving. This does not happen all the time (as a matter of fact, I had a mechanic take it for a while and he could not get it to do it).

It seems to do it more often when the radio or lights are on. Some days, you wouldn't know there was anything wrong with it. I recently had 2 belts put on it and had the fuel filter changed. I also had to change the ignition cylinder. This past year alone, I had a new radiator and starter put in it. The transmission is 2 years old.

The car gives no warning of cutting out other than occasionally the check engine light will come on before it cuts out, but not all the time. I feel a surge before the engine cuts out. The battery light came on for about 10 minutes one day before this all started. Could it just be a bad battery? Help!!

A. I don't think it's a bad battery, and since there are so many possible causes it's hard to point to one specific possibility. The best place to start is with the computer. I would pull the stored DTCs and see what they say. Since the malfunction turned the check engine light on a couple of times, there should be a stored code and that will be an excellent place to start looking.

The other alternative is to let it fail completely and that will make diagnosis much easier. From what you describe however, it sounds to me ignition related, maybe a bad ignition module.

Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA

Back to Index