Need a Diagnosis

Fish_Flake · 4 Jul 2003, 05:26 (Ref:651653)

My car broke down yesterday. Now, I am embarrassed to admit that I know nothing about cars. I was never interested in the mechanical aspect of it when I was younger, so I never hung around the shop at my mom's dealership or anything like that, nor did I have that gearhead male influence at home. I should have, because in the past few years I have become more interested, but I still have none of the know-how that I'd need to put it all together. But that's not quite the point. I just need to know what's wrong with my car.

I'm driving home after dropping off someone's cell phone they'd left at my place. I come to a stop sign. After looking, I put my foot on the gas as usual, and the revs move into the red figures, the engine begins to sound like a chainsaw, and nothing is going to the wheels. I let off the gas for a second, then try again, and I get moving again without a hitch.

Once I got into downtown, about two miles from where I turned at the stop sign, I come to a stop light on an uphill incline. The light goes green, and I apply the gas, and the same thing happened to me as before, only this time I'm on an upslope and my car begins to creep backward, and I almost back into the minivan right on my tail. I'm stuck there for about fifteen seconds, with the soccer mom behind me flipping me the bird, before my car gets going again. I turn, and last for about a thousand feet before the the revs get back into the red and no power is being applied to the wheels. Luckily, I'm going downhill, and I barely pull into the Dairy Queen on the next corner. I'm in the parking lot for about two minutes, blocking an elderly couple from the drive-thru and a girl I sat with in art class from getting out of her parking space. Once I started the car again, I knew that I had no chance of getting up the hill to my house, but since there was only one way out and I was by now in several people's way in the parking lot, I had no choice but to keep forward. I was toast. After two hundred feet, I flat out lost all momentum and could only mash my brake pedal and pray that there were no semis following me. Luckily, it was a two-lane, one-way road, but I was still stuck stationary blocking the right lane during lunch hour. Even as I had the car in park, had the hazard lights flashing, and was standing out of the car, nobody seemed to care that I was obviously having car problems; the few people who did stop were only stopping to complain that I was going too slow. Worse off, I didn't have my own cell phone, so I had to leave my car unattended in the middle of the road to use the phone at the window-repair shop across the street from the Dairy Queen so I could call my mom and tell her to send me a tow from work. It was only until after I called her that I realized that it would be wiser to put the car in neutral and coast downhill to pull into the lot a few yards past me while there was no traffic coming my way. Unfortunately, that lot was for used cars, and the wrecker missed me the first time he went by, thinking my car was one for sale.

Since it is the Fourth of July weekend, all the shops are closed until Monday so I can't get anyone to look at it before then. I'm guessing it has something to do with the transmission, but from the description of my car's symptoms, does anyone else have a more specific diagnosis?

Lee Janotta · 4 Jul 2003, 05:44 (Ref:651663)

Automatic transmission, I'm sure. Whether it's in the torque converter, or the transmission itself, I couldn't tell you... Though with a sudden failure that bad, I'd look at the torque converter first. Actually, first, check your ATF level. If that's low, refill it with the same fluid your manual prescribes (brand, of course, doesn't matter, but don't put in Type F if it calls for Dexron III, or vice-versa. It'll rot out the seals if you do that).

What year/make/model are we talking about here?

Fish_Flake · 4 Jul 2003, 06:01 (Ref:651668)

1991 Ford Taurus, automatic transmission.

evo · 4 Jul 2003, 06:18 (Ref:651674)

Sounds to me like the cheesy little fliud pump that "connects" the engine to the gearbox (ie torque converter) as Lee said.

gttouring · 4 Jul 2003, 06:59 (Ref:651699)

yup check the fluid level in the dipstick it should have a red or Orange handle, make sure the level is at hte indicated line. and naturally the oil dipstick has Oil written on it.
borrow a car for the weekend,and drop yours off at the dealer.
by the way not very racy is it?
trade it in for a festiva-at least there are race parts for it

275 GTB-4 · 4 Jul 2003, 10:42 (Ref:651874)

Quote:

Originally posted by gttouring
yup check the fluid level in the dipstick it should have a red or Orange handle, make sure the level is at hte indicated line. and naturally the oil dipstick has Oil written on it.
borrow a car for the weekend,and drop yours off at the dealer.
by the way not very racy is it?
trade it in for a festiva-at least there are race parts for it

Agree with all of the above and add - when was the last time you had the slush box serviced?? Could just be a band adjustment. Either way, you ain't going nowhere until you find out what's wrong.

Hint: don't walk into the auto shop and say something dumb like "how much for a new gearbox?" there are lovely people out there who will let you pay for something whether you need it or not!!

Lee Janotta · 4 Jul 2003, 14:29 (Ref:652369)

Ack! No, not the dealer!!! Do _not_ take this to the dealer, you'll pay a fortune! Ask around, and take it to a reputable transmission shop, or even better, if someone in your family knows "a guy". If it's a torque converter, this is definitly a job for "a guy". Just pull one out of a junkyard, and have him swap it into place!

Fish_Flake · 8 Jul 2003, 00:34 (Ref:655414)

Finally got someone to look at my car today. The whole transmission's toast. Dealer's estimate is $2,200 for a brand new transmission, but "a guy" will install one that came from the scrap heap for about $750. A lot cheaper, but it's still over $600 than what I have, and without a car, I can't go to work, and I still need to replace the rear bumper, which would be another $700-800. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Lee Janotta · 8 Jul 2003, 04:46 (Ref:655480)

Man, that really bites...

I was pretty damn sure it was the torque converter, I just can't imagine how you could have chewed up the transmission that quickly.

Fish_Flake · 8 Jul 2003, 05:10 (Ref:655495)

I'm going back home on Wednesday for a while, meeting up with old friends and such. I'll figure something out by the time I get back Sunday night, but it won't be easy. I didn't want to start amassing a huge debt that will take years to pay off until college, but that's life.

evo · 8 Jul 2003, 05:46 (Ref:655507)

When you replace the transmission, get a manual instead. Far less troublesome...

Oh wait, that's a pretty large conversion. Nevermind.

Fish_Flake · 9 Jul 2003, 05:09 (Ref:656486)

Just one last update...Since the cost of the new transmission, near bumper, and coat of paint I'll eventually have to put on would cost over twice as much as the original cost of the car, my mom suggested that I just get a new car. She said she would take care of the purchase, as long as I pay her back the difference over time. The bad news is that the car's still a Taurus, and a wagon at that, but the good news is that I now have a lot of space in the interior that I can work with.

Thank God the owner was a military officer; it's painted gold, and the interior is deep green, not some drab gray. I'm thinking of installing a sound system in the back so big it'll register 2.0 on the Richter scale. No, I'm gonna tint the windows, take out the back seat, add a futon, and string some Christmas lights around the inside: the perfect Make-out-Mobile. A wagon is a wagon; it's on the inside that counts.

Lee Janotta · 9 Jul 2003, 05:15 (Ref:656488)

That's probably the best solution, Fish. Good luck with the new car.

**garcon** · 9 Jul 2003, 13:45 (Ref:656876)

Taurus wagon. Hmmm, you could open a decent sized bar in the back of that, dancefloor included...

DAVID PATERSON · 30 Jul 2003, 02:48 (Ref:674876)

I've never seen a Taurus wagon, could it be any uglier than the sedan?

Fish_Flake · 30 Jul 2003, 04:04 (Ref:674907)

Well, it looks almost identically like this.

DAVID PATERSON · 30 Jul 2003, 04:45 (Ref:674921)

That's a lot of car for one person.

We didn't get that shape Taurus in Australia. I was thinking of the disgustingly ovoid model which followed. It was forced on Australia by Dearborn execs, fortunately very few Aussies bought it, so we can go for a drive with feeling sick from seeing so many of the horrible blobs.

Mattracer · 2 Aug 2003, 07:33 (Ref:677697)

Yep, that model seemed to represent the obsession at the time of oval-shaped everything- windows, dashboards, tailights, headlights, rooflines.

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