Hi. I hope someone can help...

NO HEAT - A few months ago my radiator completely drained while sitting for a couple of hours while I was at work. Had to have my mechanic replace the radiator. Afterwards, I noticed the coolant in the reservoir was really rusty-looking. My mechanic flushed the system but said the engine was basically failing from the inside out. Maybe a month later I have no heat and had coolant leaking. He said I needed a new timing cover which would have been around $400 or $500 to fix, but to keep adding coolant and maybe it would last a while before I had to replace it. Well, it's winter and very cold. I work a voc-tech school and am having the auto shop work on my car for pennies on the dollar. So far they replaced the water pump, fixed a crack in my timing cover and replaced the thermostat (?)....but still no heat.

Any suggestions on what else they should look for?

 

Ask if they can confirm whether the heater hoses are both hot.
If not, either the heater core is plugged or the heater core is air bound. Let us know which one it was.

 

Ok...it will be a week before I get it back there, but I will mention that to them. Thanks!

 

They flushed out the heater core a few of times and got out a lot of junk. I now have heat!!! I think they are flushing it out once more and adding clean antifreeze. Thanks!

 

Taurus of that vintage have a history of internally rusting pipes in the cooling system. Ask if the the crud contained rust. If there was rust flowing through the system it could have damaged more parts. The impellers of the pump for example. But as long as it runs it runs!