Well, a buddy of mine has a 2000 Taurus that gave up the ghost on him in the middle of an intersection today. He noticed it was running rough especially at idle or just off idle over the past couple days. He managed to get it restarted, but now it won't idle in gear at all, and barely in neutral. It's a higher mileage car (around 130,000 miles) and gets driven more than maintained.

I recommended changing the plugs, the fuel filter, and getting the injectors cleaned. The air filter is clean and there doesn't appear to be any crap beyond the air filter. Any other recommendations that I could pass on to him?

Thanks!

 

haha my cavaier z24 is soon to be found on road dead...just saying.

 

Chevyguy: beyond the plugs I would replace the wires and coilpack. I would hold off with the fuel filter and cleaning the injectors. Maybe a treatment with a do it all Gumout product and a MAF sensor cleaning wouldn't hurt. Disconnect the battery negative and step on the brake for 5 seconds to reset the computer just in case it stored some trouble.

And 130000 miles is not much for a Taurus or most any modern car. I just replaced the ignition parts listed on my '03 Windstar with 145000 miles. Runs beautifully.

I hope your friend doesn't neglect the transmission. Because the tranny won't be as forgiving as the engine.

 

There were some problems with the PCV hose splitting and causing a good sized vacuum leak and all sorts of problems. Might be a good place to check.