My 2005 Taurus was well maintained. I used the Ford Dealership for every check-up, oil change and issue that it had for 85,000 miles. One day as I tried to accelerate from a stop and the RPMs raced, the car slowly moved then jumped forward into gear and accelerated. I immediately took it to the dealer to discover that I needed a new transmission. I'm only now realizing how many others have shared the same frustration in having a car that should have lasted far longer before needing this major and expensive repair.

Bought this 2005 taurus brand new had 90 miles on it from dealership. Drove it till 75000 miles then transmission lost 3rd gear and overdrive. I work at a salvage yard so I got one from there it had 56000 mi on it put it in myself since im a mechanic. I drove the car for another 25000 then that one lost all gears so yet again i removed it and this time sent it to get rebuilt. The shop charged 450 bucks to do it and told me one of the lines inside was plugged tight so i got it back and installed it with new torque converter. Now I've only drove it 8200 mi and its slipping yet again, but this time the fluid is not burnt at all so I'm not sure of the cause this time around, I'm wondering if I got a bad torque converter. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know

I bought my Ford Taurus in 2007 with 38,000 miles on it. Loved the car! never had a minutes problem with it until yesterday! I drove it to work, and never had a problem, went to leave work and I couldn't go any where! no gears at all! I thought maybe it was an electronic problem, but no! I have always owned a Ford, and would not own anything else

but I have to say I am VERY disappointed with my Ford! Work is not very good at the moment and I cannot afford to get this fixed, and I cannot afford to miss what work I have, so I have a very bad situation here! I wish Ford would help out us little people that buy their cars! With Christmas coming soon whats a person suppose to do? Come on Ford step up!!!!!!

The Ford Product is unreliable and therefore will not retain it's value. It is really upsetting to think that we can't make a superior product here. I believe that Ford should repair these for free, it would be a bad marketing plan for me to talk about my car with friends. This problem and lack of reliability on the Ford Taurus. transmission suffered an internal failure and I quite frankly am not sure what to do next. Repair suggested by Ford dealership said they could repair it with a rebuilt tranny. My Taurus'05 was well cared for and let me down. Any great ideas or offers would be greatly appreciated.

'05 Ford Taurus transmission frequently fails to shift into 2nd and 3rd gears. Tach will go past 4k before it shifts to the next gear with a thud. Problem is worse on hills and with more than 2 people in the car (weight). Have changed trans fluid and filter without any improvement. Then used transmission fix fluid with some noticeable improvement in performance but not a cure. Waiting till I can afford a rebuild, estimated at $2K or for Ford to admit that they made a mistake and make right with their customers!

I bought my taurus as a demo with 15000 mile on it. [9 of 05] My wife complained that the transmission did not seem right. [carried back to dealer 3 times but they could not find any thing wrong with it.] One month after warranty ran out, the transmission went out all at once. I carried it to a local transmission shop to get repaired. He said it was the Torque converter. He said over the last two months he had replaced about forty of them on tauruses between 2003 and 2006. I wonder how many more as been fixed and not reported. [cost, about $600.00] As soon as I get it back I will trade it off for a foreign made vehicle. When they have a problem, they will recall them and fix the problem.

First off, Ford can burn in hell for building such a sh*tty car. This is a car that I would recommend for NO ONE! Not even first time drivers. For a car as young as a 2005, even with 114k, the transmission should still be doing very well. Mine happened to die on me 1/4th a mile away from where I lived. To add insult to injury, it didn't give me any indication that it was going to fail. It happened close to a stop sign by my house, right before you make the last right. Coming to that stop sign, there is a slight incline. As I am making my way up the incline, the RPMs shoot up to about 5000 and the speedometer drops. I thought I may have knocked the shift lever into neutral. I looked down to double check. That bad boy was in D. I was forced to let the car coast backwards and towards the curb and stay there, (in the middle of a damn rainstorm mind you!!!) and park there with my hazards going off. Note to all Taurus owners or future (God forbid you purchase one): AAA is a MUST HAVE!!! I waited on them to tow the car 1 minute up the street. And get the "Plus" membership. With these cars, 100 miles of free towing may be vital to your wallet. Anywho, I didn't do my research on this car when I purchased this car like I should have. Had it looked at by a mechanic who claimed it was A-ok. Apparently lying is the in-thing to do with people these days. "Found On Road Dead" is exactly where I found myself that day. The refurbished tranny will cost me roughly $1500 to fix, once I get approved for a loan. Once I am done paying this car off, its getting traded in. The person who buys it, good luck. I will never buy another Ford or Ford affiliated vehicle again, Mazda included. I used to want buy a 2010 Ford F-150. Nope. Ford can cancel Christmas on me ever buying a vehicle from them again. This is absolutely ridiculous. I mean really. I had a 1997 Maxima that lasted until 250k, on the original tranny! Get ya sh*t together Ford! No wonder all the foreign automakers, even Toyota with its mishaps, are doing better than you guys! There is pride in building your vehicles. I'm done with Ford.

Me and my husband bought this car back in 2008, with 66,000 miles on it, before we had our first child. the dealer told us this was a super reliable car. We never had a problem with it up until today. I was getting ready to travel down the highway, but when I got to a set of hills not even a mile from my house, the car hesitated to go uphill. the RPMs would go way up to 7 and I couldn't get it to go any faster than 25 mph. The car has been properly maintained ever since we purchased it, and all fluids have recently been changed so there was nothing wrong there. I hadn't heard anything about this make ever having any trouble until recently. My father-in-law had transmission problems all the time with his ford, and my sister-in-laws taurus was a couple years older than ours, and the transmission was shot on it also. With my husband being the only one employed, this definitely makes a problem for us. especially reading the estimated cost to repair it being in the thousands...My husband owns a 1989 Pontiac Firebird and its got 200,000+ miles on it. Its had its troubles, but thankfully nothing too serious. But hauling a family around in that car is tricky to say the least.

My 2005 Ford Taurus did the same thing last week. I felt like my car slipped out of gear and it would not engage in any gear, not even reverse. Had it dropped off at the Ford dealership this morning and the told me it was the Torque converter. Here is a breakdown of my estimate.

New Converter $390.41 Screen Pan 38.62 Transmission Fluid 55.20 Seal 14.20 Gasket 41.18 Pump Shaft 82.40 Total Parts $622.01

They said it would be $100 an hour for labor and this job would take 18 hours. Pick your jaw up off of the floor...yes, 18 hours. So with $1,800 in labor that brings my total cost to $2,422.01. After doing some research online I felt like this was a common problem and brought it up to the service department. They asked me if I had done regular maintenance on the car. I have changed the oil myself and I have not owned the car for 30,000 miles yet so hadn't changed the transmission fluid. I wrote a very strongly worded email to the Ford Motor Company and look forward to hearing their response. I also found a transmission specialist who said the Ford dealership takes him cars all the time to fix. He normally charges about $1,000 but my torque converter blew up and sent metal shavings into the transmission. That was an extra $650 to clean out. At $1,650 it is still a big savings.

I'm looking for every opportunity to share how horrible I feel about the way Ford seems to want to sweep this under the rug. I had a wrecker service come pick up my car and walking up to the front of my car the man pointed and said, "I see the problem right there...it's that little blue circle on the front of your car." He meant the Ford emblem. Sad but true. Where you at Ford? Let me know.

Update

I have been in touch with Ford and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) about the obvious widespread issues with the Torque converters on the Ford Taurus but especially the 2003 and 2005 year models. Ford has been unwilling to do anything but put me off and I haven't heard back from the NHTSA yet. What I am trying to do is to document how many people have had this issue. I am trying to complile a list of people as well as talk to transmission shops to see if they can document how many of these converters they have had to install in the last 5 - 7 years. I am in the infancy stages of putting this together but I am looking for help.

Please contact me through this forum or you can email me at awej1@yahoo.com. If what I've seen on the internet is any indication this problem is a lot deeper than Ford wants anyone to know.

Thanks for your help, Andy

I bought my car on April of 2006 with 38,000 miles on it and Dec of 2007 I was driving to work and i stopped at a stop sign and when I went to pull off my car just coasted into traffic and stalled as in I just popped it in to neutral. I didnt know what was going on so I kept switching gears and nothing happened. It cost me $180 to get it towed and $1200 to get it fixed because my transmission pump had went out on me. Now almost 3 years later my transmission light is coming on and it seems like the car is fighting to pull up a hill or an on ramp to the high way. It is every slow to accellerate. I was told that a transmission flush might help but I dont know.

I am a student paying for school and my job is cutting my hours, I cant afford these problems now. I have to drive to get around but i dont want to be driving with an 18 wheeler behind me and the my transmission goes out. Its scary, if ford ever comes out with a recall please let me know

I bought this 2005 Taurus with 46,000 MI on it with the expectation of getting at least 180,000 MI of reliable service with no major repairs. Most of todays cars will last at least 200,000 MI if properly maintained.Transmission failed with no warning whatsoever at 77,000 MI. I was driving at 45 MPH. Next time I pressed the gas pedal, the tach indicated a significant increase in engine RPM. The car did not accelerate at all. I coasted off onto a side street, and turned the engine off. Transmission fluid was at the correct level, and not discolored or burned. I restarted the engine and the transmission would not engage in any gear. Charge to have car towed home was $220.00. Transmission required complete rebuild, including a new tourque converter.

This Taurus reminds me of the junk GM built in the 1970's. I am just now scrapping a 1993 Pontiac Trans Sport with 294,100 MI that never needed any major repairs. Neither the engine nor transmission have ever been apart. It still runs good, but was broadsided at an intersection. At nearly 300,000 MI I didn't feel it was worth fixing. A 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis I previously owned had 250,000 MI on when the trans startrd slipping-no major repairs to that point when I junked the car-rust made the car not worth fixing. I like Fords-OLD FORDS- from the 1950's and 1960's.

After this trans failure, I drove my 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 without incident to my destination at Chatham, Ontario, Canada from Romulus, MI. I also have made this trip many times without any trouble in my 1951 Ford Custom. I have more faith in the reliability of these older cars than in the Taurus. These old cars usually give plenty of warning before catastrophic failure occurs, and are far more easily repaired than modern cars.

Update from Dec 30, 2014: Had transmission rebuilt at 77,000 Mi. At 110,000 Mi transmission failed again. Can start car moving in lowest forward gear with trans slipping a lot. After car reaches about 20 MPH, can shift into normal drive gear, and trans functions normally, until car slows to less than 20 MPH. Reverse is OK. I will not have this car fixed, as there is no guarantee that the trans will not fail again in a short time. This car is going to the junkyard as it is the worst car I ever owned. I will never buy another Ford again. I just replaced this car with a Honda CRV.

I noticed in the winter the transmission would intermittingly slip between 1st and 2nd. I took it to Goodyear and had the transmission fluids completely flushed and replaced. Problem continued to exist. Took the car to the Ford dealership on 4/23 and had trans looked at. Diagnostic tester and road test shows "check trans light", slight hesitation and codes P0316 and P0733. Needs major internal trans work. Had to pay $90.00 to have this assessment. Dealership quoted me $3169.83 for 3 year/100k warranty for new trans. Won't get my $90.00 back unless I agree to have the work done at the Ford dealership.

O'Reilly Auto Parts suggested I try Lucas trans-fix product. Poured 24 oz into the transmission. Drive improved slightly but now I'm back to hesitation, rpm's close to 3000 when I'm driving 30-45mph.

Called around. Went to Goodyear (different location) and was quoted $2773.00 for 3 year/100k new Jasper transmission. The cheapest I can find for a remanufactured transmission.

Unbelievable! I bought this car used in 2007. Was under 36,000 miles. Hearing more and more problems about the Ford Taurus Transmissions. I've been driving Ford autos since 1989. Really disappointed as this car is burning a huge hole in my pocket!