When I last discussed my adventures with my 1986 Ford Taurus LX, aka “Ms. Cougar,” I detailed the experience of getting covered in transmission fluid, among other things. Since then, I’ve been a bit more hands off with the car, although not because of any recurring trauma or anything, it’s just been too cold to do any sort of work in the garage. Plus, her ailments require a more seasoned professional. That being said, she’s doing quite well, although I suspect the recent California transplant isn’t too thrilled with living in New York during the winter.
I have also learned a little bit more about her past, thanks to a service that provides production information on vintage Ford Motor Company vehicles.
Before the cold set in, I decided to drop off the Taurus at my long time mechanic’s shop so he could fix a few issues I felt needed to be addressed. The four year old battery got swapped out for a slightly bigger unit from Interstate which so far has not needed to be hooked up to a battery tender. That’s a welcome change of pace from the old one, which would run out of juice every two weeks or so if the car sat still. Additionally, he repaired a chafed wire that was causing the #8 fuse to short out anytime the power mirrors were activated.
He also diagnosed two issues for me. The fuel gauge, which has never worked, is dead because of a bad fuel sending unit. And the driver’s side door could not be opened from the inside because the inner door handle is broken. He was able to jury rig the handle to a point where it can now open the door, but it will need to be replaced at some point. These aren’t crucial problem areas, but I am a bit dismayed that I cannot find a fuel sending unit for the Taurus. More on that later.
Although the car still had several issues going into winter, I was content with its overall condition, as it faced (and continues to face) prolonged periods of staying put in the garage, due to road salt. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case for all of November, so I was still able to take the car out for a spin every weekend or two. But after taking the Taurus out on a long drive in early December, the bull seemingly developed three new coolant leaks. The most noticeable leak came out of that line pictured above, which is a cooler line for the transmission, according to my mechanic. I also noticed some coolant pooled below the reservoir.
The other leak came from a heater hose connected to the thermostat. It’s the bottom hose on the left hand side of the above picture. Combined with a new power steering leak, it was time to take the Taurus right back to the shop. In addition to addressing the aforementioned leaks, I wanted him to find out why the car stutters at various speeds. He was able to tighten up a clamp to stop the heater hose leak and replicate the stuttering enough to the point where he determined the car needs a new throttle position sensor. Unfortunately, the Taurus is also going to need a new power steering pump and a new line that comes out of the pump, as they’re both responsible for the leaks. That’s in addition to the oil cooler line that needs replacing.
But none of those issues actually got fixed, because an incoming blizzard prompted me to pick the Taurus up before he could complete those tasks. That was the right move, as the Hudson Valley got pummeled with about 15 inches of snow, the most the region had seen in several years. That amount of snow does not faze us, as we’re used to such events, but it did result in quite a bit of salt being dumped onto the pavement. A subsequent threat of snow resulted in more salt being deposited onto the roads two weeks later, so the Taurus sat for about a month, before I determined the roads were clear enough for the car to experience daylight again. My policy is to wait for at least one rain storm before taking the Taurus back out for another drive.
With some cabin fever setting in, plus a desire to take the Taurus out to get the fluids pumping, I planned a trip to check out a used car I thought might be a good deal. As readers may recall, I sold my daily driver 2013 Ford Focus to Carvana back in October for a decent amount of coin. I want to get another daily driver soon, for various reasons. I decided to head out on January 17th to see if a 2019 Ford Fusion SE hybrid I spotted online was worth pursuing.
Checking out the late model Fusion was the second “stop” on the trip, as I wanted to first cross the Mario Cuomo Bridge, the replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge, which I had not seen or experienced for myself since it opened to traffic several years ago. For those unfamiliar with the area, the bridge lies across one of the widest stretches of the Hudson River, and the original bridge was put there for a very specific reason. As a result, drivers are treated to a very long cruise over the river, with a view of the NYC skyline to the south (on clear enough days) and a great view of the water to the north, if drivers are going westbound, like I was that day. Fortunately, the journey was totally worth it, as the cable-stayed bridge – like pretty much all spans featuring that style of construction – is beautiful.
Naturally, I was a bit apprehensive about the trip. Aside from the leaks, I hadn’t really taken the Taurus on a sustained highway trip before, especially on roads I hadn’t driven on recently. Fortunately, the Taurus seems to have gotten used to the cold weather, or my increased use of the heater, as there were seemingly no leaks during the trip. And the power steering fluid only leaks out in substantial quantities when the car sits for several days. The car did stutter a bit, but that’s probably due to the bad throttle position sensor. The Fusion turned out to be a bust, as it had some undisclosed damage on its front end, but the trip was far from a waste. Ms. Cougar got the workout she deserved, and I’m glad we’re both getting better acquainted with one other.
However, Ms. Cougar had at least one secret I didn’t know about until recently. See that “S” to the left of the odometer? That signifies an odometer/speedometer replacement module was installed at some point.
To be fair, the car didn’t exactly hide this from me, as I noticed this sticker on the driver’s door jamb pretty much as soon as I got it. Previously, I thought this sticker was just something that all Fords from this era had on them from the factory, with the information being written on them after the fact, if needed. But that clearly wasn’t the case. Does this mean that Ms. Cougar has been lying about her age? It’s possible, although my guess is that this was simply a warranty replacement early on in her life, hence the sticker.
And the Marti Report reminded me why that is probably the likeliest scenario. For those not aware of what a Marti Report is, it’s a service spearheaded by Kevin Marti that outlines all the production data of a chosen vehicle, straight from Ford’s system, as he has access to the database for 1967-2017 model year vehicles. Anyway, my opinion is that a Taurus built eight days before Top Gun was released in theaters qualifies as a relatively early build, as the Chicago Assembly plant had only started building them four months prior to that date. It would make sense if the first examples to roll of the line had issues with their digital odometers, as I assume that was fairly sophisticated tech for that time.
But the most important information divulged by the Marti Report relates to the gas tank. Ms. Cougar is equipped with the 18.6 gallon tank, as opposed to the standard 16 gallon one. That makes finding a replacement sending unit far less likely, as the specific unit I need also has additional parts for the digital instrument cluster. So it appears as if a functional fuel gauge is not in the cards for now – or ever, apparently.
And I may have mentioned this already, but I find it incredibly amusing that Ms. Cougar’s birth date makes her a…Taurus. Good stuff.
Kevin Marti also offers a separate production statistics report, which I obviously purchased. The intention of this separate report is to try and get the car as close to a 1 of 1 as much as possible. Of course, a grey on grey Taurus sedan isn’t exactly exotic, so Ms. Cougar had some contemporaries, although I think we can all agree that she has most likely outlived them all.
As for useful information we can glean from the report…about 51,000 Taurus sedans had the 2.5 liter four in 1986. And reading somewhat between the lines, a Taurus buyer could apparently opt for an LX-trimmed example with 15 inch wheels with either steel rims or some set of wheels covers instead of the alloys, which would be an odd decision, although I could be missing some piece of the puzzle here.
Anyway, that about sums up my adventures with Ms. Cougar since my last update in July 2020. She is a fine lady and I’m happy to have her around.
2020 Expenses, Maintenance, and Travel Report
Shipping: $1300
2 new front tires and an alignment: $300
4 new struts plus installation ($325 + $440): $725
Early winter service visit (power steering drain and fill, wire fix, battery replacement, door latch diagnosis, sending unit diagnosis): $600
Second early winter service: $0
Insurance: $240
- Fluids, tools, miscellaneous items, and parts purchased for DIY work also purchased in 2020, but not counted in list due to laziness
Total expenses for vehicle transportation and non-DIY work in 2020: $3,165
Miles traveled: 750
When the Taurus was facelifted for 1992 (or is that a new generation, not a mere facelift?), a whole lot of decontenting took place. Niceties like the door pull straps, that covered compartment in the shelf under the back window, and the rear seat headrests disappeared. Also gone was the 18.6 gallon fuel tank your car had; now all sedans would be fitted with the smaller 16 gallon tank.
I think you’re confusing the better equipped LX Taurus with the L, for example. My ’90 L never had rear seat headrests or compartment on the rear shelf. Maybe the L model was a bit more common in ’92? I don’t remember de-contenting being a problem then.
The real de-contenting happened starting about ’04, when Ford basically gave up on the Taurus. ABS was dropped. During the model year, the rear sway bar on sedans was dropped. ’05 was even worse.
There was different levels of decontenting (then some “recontenting”) throughout the Taurus’ run. The ’92-’95 definitely feels/looks cheaper than the 1st gen cars, then within the DN101 “ovoid” cars there were some really nice touches on the first 1996 cars that were very quickly chopped, per my reading of Mary Walton’s “Car.”
Very common across all of automobile-dom. I noticed for example on my Park Ave my ’91 has these nice heavy cast polished aluminum center caps, where by 1993(?) or so they were replaced by lightweight painted stamped units. I noticed this after grabbing a set of nice alloy wheels with good whitewall tires for my ’91. I kept my ’91 centercaps and they have cleaned up spectacularly with some wet sanding and polish.
I was comparing the 86-91 Taurus LX to the 92-95 LX. The 91 and earlier L never had the fancy rear shelf with headrests, larger speakers, and a storage compartment, but the GL and LX did. Ford went with the L setup for the GL and LX starting in 1992. There was lots of other decontenting that year, as well as a generally cheaper feel in the interior, which now had that molded-plastic look and feel similar to many GM cars of the ’90s.
Another bit of 1992 de-contenting I should mention – the optional “insta-clear” electrically heated windshield. These are really expensive replacement parts from what I’ve heard. I was surprised to learn these are still readily available on numerous Ford models in Europe.
Right you are. Decontenting has always been a pet peeve of mine. Seems like the first year of a model has some really nice features that slowly disappear throughout the model run. The Taurus was a glaring example, but all manufacturers are guilty of this. Nothing but a cost saving measure. They think the customer won’t notice.
Reminds me of a story about Earl “Madman” Muntz, the iconic huckster who, among other things, manufactured and sold cheap televisions in the fifties. As the story goes, he would inspect a finished television and tell his engineers to start removing parts until it stopped working. The last part was put back and the TV was now ready for sale.
Muntz also was a carmaker, producing the Muntz Jet in the early fifties. Only 198 were built. Unlike like his cheap TV’s, the Jet was a luxurious, V-8 powered luxury coupe.
Sounds like a good balance of driving vs fixing problems. Glad it’s working out.
And $240 for insurance, what a bargain!
That’s just kind of how it is with these old gals. I’ve had a very similar experience so far with my $400 ’91 Park Avenue. Good sized ATF leak from rotted out transmission cooler lines that only became apparent after the PO drove the car and parked it in my driveway (cheap and easy fix with $20 of parts from rockauto). Then while the car had been raised and lowered a few times on jackstands in the garage, a leak in the power steering rack became apparent: the old rack boot tore and an accumulated amount of ATF (incorrect on GM pumps, you should use actual PS fluid) gushed out in a scary looking puddle. I topped off the pump reservoir with Prestone PS fluid with some kind of stop-leak additive and have not seen any appreciable leaking since. All of this stuff becomes apparent as you start driving these old cars that did a lot of sitting.
Still chasing a cam position sensor code, perhaps my own fault for first trying out a few junkyard replacement sensors and then a cheapo $15 aftermarket unit (tested power and ground to sensor from the ICM, they’re good).
Ah digital instrument clusters in 80s Fords not the most reliable thing they ever installed a mate had on in a NZ XF Fairmont he bought cheap I took it in for a wheel alignment for him hadnt driven one in years but nothing much worked in it the speedo was intermittent at best fortunately those 4.1s dont accelerate very quickly so its largely not needed, except at inspection time, it must have been something that infected Fords all over the world.
Ive got a recent classic purchase parked about an hour away but rarely get to drive it I got and do thed odd repair it needs but it never comes home with me lack of aircon is the main reason, the heat and humidity at the moment make that a need in our summer, though I must fix the heater in it ready for they claim is winter in this town I have a spare matrix but installing it looks like a big fiddly job.
“Mario Cuomo Bridge, the replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge”
technically correct, but virtually no one calls it that
last poll something like 70-80% of NYers oppose the Cuomo thing and still call the bridge the Tappen Zee
like Cape Canaveral, the Tappen Zee will be back
Though living in the CO Rockies we still cross it a few times each summer visiting our families in New England. Will always be the Tappan Zee or the TZB; nobody we know wants to associate it with The Family.
There are still fuel pumps with the sending unit available. Rock auto lists a few different ones for the 18.6 gallon tank with digital dash. Maybe they just are not available from wherever the mechanic is trying to get the parts from. But they are still out there, albeit in limited supply. Both airtex and Delphi still have them.
I was gonna say, there’s no way these are THAT rare that you can’t find a pump online (rockauto is my go-to as well).
Nice! I had only been looking specifically at fuel sending units and didn’t realize that they come bundled with the pumps. I’ll probably buy one soon. Thanks for the tip!
Fuel pumps don’t last forever . It’s a great idea to change both at once, when you’re in the tank. I don’t think you have a choice, usually both the pump and sender are manufactured as one unit, iirc.
Rockauto has one sending unit available as of right now, about $60.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=1268428&cc=1138238&jsn=453
Just checked the listing, those pump assemblies appear to be to 18.6 gal tanks w/o Digital gauge. I don’t know what the difference is between conventional and digital gauges, but there must be something.
I doubt this is legit, but
https://www.zerfolgs.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=70890
This is the whois page, out of New Mexico according to the search
https://who.is/whois/zerfolgs.com
This looks promising:
https://nospartsltd.com/product/e9dz9h307d/
E9DZ9H307D is the factory part per Tasca
https://www.tascaparts.com/oem-parts/ford-fuel-pump-e9dz9h307d?c=Zz1mdWVsLXN5c3RlbSZzPWZ1ZWwtc3lzdGVtLWNvbXBvbmVudHMmbD01Jm49QXNzZW1ibGllcyBQYWdlJmE9Zm9yZCZvPXRhdXJ1cyZ5PTE5ODYmdD1seCZlPTMtMGwtdjYtZ2Fz
That paint came up with a nice shine after all, following the damage I recall it received in transit to you. Excellent! Looks pretty new.
These pictures are very deceptive. The Taurus still has all those scratches from the journey to NY. Once spring arrives I’m going to take the car to a body shop to get an estimate on how much it’ll cost to fix them.
If you can run your thumbnail across them without it catching, they are clearcoat scratches and can be buffed out. If so, no need to pay a body shop for that; you can invest in a buffer and some pads/rubbing compound, or you can seek out a local place that will do a detailing. Some car wash joints will do it, as will some small scale used car dealers.
The map of your route that day had me feeling a bit wistful, with a dash of PTSD thrown in. I lived in Warwick for many years and travelled 17A daily over the mountain to work either in NJ or NYC. Large chunks of your route are old stomping and commuting grounds for me. It’s beautiful country without a doubt, but memories of long-ago winter commutes and crippling traffic jams in manual transmission penalty boxes of the ’90’s gave me palpitations for a few minutes. I haven’t been across the “new Tappan Zee” yet, but I have a few not-so-fond memories of morning commutes over the old one.
MTN – do you remember the Portuguese restaurant 10 Railroad Avenue in Warwick? When I came down to the city from Liberty I sometimes left the Quickway at Bloomingburg, taking 17K to 17A and thence down to Mahwah.
I absolutely do remember it. Excellent food and very attentive service. Haven’t thought about that in years. I closed on the sale of my house in Warwick just days after 9/11, and was afraid the deal would fall through in light of the turmoil. In hindsight I should have stayed put for a few more years, as that house is now worth multiple times what I sold it for. It was still an overall profit for me, but I loved Warwick and have often lamented leaving over the years. The Winters though. Ugh.
When I was a kid, Dad would sometimes take us to Chateau Hathorn for big celebration dinners – an anniversary or birthday. It is beautiful country. The Sugarloaf is very evocative and scenic.
A Taurus tours from Fishkill! Man, that circuit brings a smile to my face. My stomping grounds! . After the pandemic, you should check out the restaurant Il’cenacolo in Newburgh.
you look at that now it still looks modern and new. if only ford didn’t botch the 96 so bad.
Glad to hear the Taurus is doing well! Funny that you’ve driven it 750 miles because earlier this month when I got our ’95 T-bird inspected, I noticed that I’d driven it just 750 miles since last January’s inspection. Usually I’ve driven the T-bird about 2,500 mi. per year, but those were mostly commuting miles, and since I’ve been teleworking since March… not too much commuting going on. Most of those miles were racked up on a few pleasure drives with my daughter over the summer.
Dollar-for-mile though it’s been a costly year, since I got new tires and battery for the T-bird this year. Just goes with the territory, though.
Thanks for showing the Marti Report; I’ve heard about those but have never seen the results of one.
That’s annoying about the odometer… I wouldn’t have guessed that’s what the S stood for (I’ve seen only one other car with a digital odometer that’s been reset, and in that case there was an asterisk next to the odometer mileage). I had my T-bird (analog) odometer replaced about 14 years ago, and it also has those stickers on the door frame. And the original mileage that was written on it has long since faded away.
Oh, and great photos, by the way!
Try doing this as a workaround for the unobtanium fuel sending unit: find a 16 gallon tank with a working sender. 2.6 gallons isn’t going to matter in the real world unless you’re trying to get 500 miles out of a tank!
I’ve always thought the original Taurus would look better with an integrated hood/grille area.
My MS Paint rendering:
Ah, you remind me of the fun times under the hood of my son’s 89 Grand Marquis. Elderly and low-mileage was a lot more pleasant of a combination in cars from the 60s than in cars from the 80s.
I had no idea that the Taurus offered two different sizes of gas tanks.
I’m wondering if that larger tank was part of the CA emission system? I don’t think there was any separate tank option.
Spectra Premium, who make an extensive line of fuel tanks and senders and such, list two “fuel modules” (=sender + pump) for your ’86 Taurus LX V6 with 18.6-gallon tank. Their № SP230H (without digital gauge) and № SP232H (with digital gauge). If you don’t want a new pump, they have just the senders, too: № FG29B (without digital gauge) and FG29D (with digital gauge). See for yourself.
Marti reports are great. I got the deluxe one for my ’83 Ranger 4×4. I always wondered why it had so many options, yet came with the base 2.3L/4 speed combo. Why? It was ordered as a dealer promo.
I see there is a bridge on your tour route named after former NY governor Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. At first I mistakenly thought it was named after the current guy. Is this his father?
My initial reaction is that I wanted to say that monuments, streets, etc. being named after current politicians is not my personal preference. Those being named after a former, respected leader, seems OK. Better than to await their passing.
Several of the bridges that cross the Hudson have been renamed for dead politicians. No one I know has ever called those bridges anything but the traditional names. The only bridge originally named for a person is the Rip Van Winkle, and he never actually existed.
I was shopping various Ford dealers for a while before buying my Ranger in August of 1986, though I’m not sure I started as early as May. But I wonder if ever walked past your Taurus on the lot at Sunnyvale Ford. I ended up buying at Frontier Ford a few miles away.
I’m so glad I found this article. A(nother) 1986 Taurus LX is high on my list of my “fantasy” (I use that term loosely because 99% of the cars on it are inexpensive and relatively common) fleet compilation.
I had one, many years ago. It was very rough, but it was a 1986 LX, red with grey leather. It needed a full restoration then (Y2K aprox), but still ran and drove. I do regret not keeping it. I had a 1992 Ford Tempo LX at the time and I was more worried about keeping it.
Now, I have neither, unfortunately, but I do have an awesome 1995 Taurus sedan with the 3.0L V-6, AX4N transaxle, buckets-and-console interior and no rust (southern car). I will not be letting it go. Itll likely have some brothers to join it, especially if I run upon another V-6 Tempo or an earlier Taurus with the 3.0L. Right now, it has an SVT Focus and an F-100 Ranger short bed for company (along with a ’74 Chevy C10 pickup).
Hi. What tire size do you have on this 86 Taurus LX?
I still don’t get the Ms. Cougar moniker. After all, that’s a Mercury name.