98 Ford Taurus Water Pump Problem

[rich_ncal]

The heater and defroster on my 1998 Taurus where not working well. I have about 120K miles on the car. I also started to notice high water temperatures while idling at a stop light after climbing a few very large hills.

I found the attached articles on the internet. I replaced my water pump. I had the same problem as in the articles. The impeller of my water pump was mostly gone. About the same our worst than in the pictures in the article.

I would recommend that anyone with a 96 -99 Ford Taurus or 96-99 Mercury Sable replace the water pump after 75K - 80K miles.

 

[PitbullMidwest]

I own a '99 Taurus and the cooling sytem failed at 38,000 miles. The car never did produce heat very well, even when new.

My wife and I went to a Christmas party and when we came back to the car all of the coolent was on the ground. The mechanic that we took it to showed us our water pump that looked very much like the picture you posted and told us that the frost plugs had basically rotted from the inside out (which was why the coolent ended up on the ground) 2,000 miles out of warrenty and we had to replace the water pump, heater core, frost plugs, all the hoses and have the heads planed due to high heat even though the temp guage never showed a hot condition. The coolent that was left in the block was brown and gritty. The mechanic thought that the casting sand hadn't been properly flushed. Oh, two weeks after we got the car back the overflow bottle split.

We flush the coolent annually and even with 135,000+ miles it still comes out brownish. We've replaced the heater core twice and it still doesn't produce heat or defrost very well. The car runs like a top otherwise and still gets about 26mpg on long highway driving.

I might consider changing the water pump this year.

 

[wrenchturner]

The most likely cause for the water pump impeller to fail is due to cavitation which is air bubbles forming on the suction side then collapsing on the pressure side causing erosion. Happens on boat propellers too. If the radiator cap is not holding pressure, the water boils at very low temperature
(depending on pressure) then litterally turns into water again on the pressure side. Did you test the old cap? Also, the lowest pressure point around the pump when spinning is around the shaft. If the seal around the shaft is bad, it can suck air into the system when running especially if the radiator cap is not holding pressure.

Now for the really bad news. The rust that is in the engine block, and I do not think you can flush it all out, is going to end up in the radiator and clog it. Been there, unfortunately Done that.

 

[HGM]

The brown coolant ordeal was a recall.. If you follow the recall, you need to re route the heater hose and add a restrictor to the system allong with a thurough flush and adding the anti cavitation additive for diesel engines.. I would also recomend checking the voltage of your cooling system, as electrolysis will cause repeated heater core failures, it tends to get bad on these cars..Easily the worst problem with these cars, so changing the coolant anually is the best thing you can do for preventative medicine..

 

[PitbullMidwest]

The brown coolant ordeal was a recall.. ..

They recalled through the 1998 model year, the '99 wasn't recalled. If you were to go to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website and call up the '99 Ford Taurus you'd see a snapshot of my car. Lots and lots and lots of service bulletins but no recalls. If there was something wrong on the '99 model, my car has it. The only service notice I ever received from Ford was about the front coil springs failing in northern states. They won't replace them until they fail but in the mean time they'll put "boots" around them so that when they do fail at least they won't puncture your tires.

As I said, other than the cooling system the car runs fine, it's just ALL the little things (and there are many) that add up to a less than satisfied customer.

 

[HGM]

Sorry for your experience.... I would still recomend doing that recall on your car, even though it doesnt call for it..

 

[rich_ncal]

Thanks for the replies. Once again I am surprised with the great wealth of knowledge available from the members on this site.

Hopefully others Taurus and Sable owners will be helped by these posts.