1998 Ford Taurus engine problems

Owners reported engine problems in 59 complaints for the 1998 Ford Taurus, 9% of the complaints on file.

Complaints: 59 9% of this year's complaints
Typical mileage: 97,000 miles 16 complaints with mileage
Crashes and fires: 3 and 5
Injuries and deaths: 10 and 0

Source: NHTSA owner complaints

When engine problems show up

Based on 16 complaints that include mileage. 19% were reported before 60,000 miles. The amber marker shows the median: half of these complaints happened before that mileage.

View the numbers

Mileage	Complaints
0k to 20k miles	0
20k to 40k miles	1
40k to 60k miles	2
60k to 80k miles	3
80k to 100k miles	3
100k to 120k miles	3
120k to 140k miles	1
140k to 160k miles	1
160k to 180k miles	2
180k to 200k miles	0
200k+ miles	0

What the data shows

Of the 16 engine complaints that report mileage, the median is about 97,000 miles, and 19% were reported before 60,000 miles.

These complaints mention 3 crashes, 5 fires, 10 injuries.

What owners wrote

Heat/vibration of engine caused plastic vacuum elbow to break. This caused loss of vacuum to brake booster and loss of brakes. Customer ran into brick wall. We are vehicle investigators/engineers for insurance companies. Normal vibration and heat caused this failure. I would recommend some kind of strain relief or a superior material for this important part. This elbow connects main manifold vacuum to a vacuum manifold mounter on left side firewall.

December 1999 CrashInjury

This is the scariest thing I have ever seen while driving my teenage son's vehicle. His vehicle would not decrease in speed. While taking off from a stop, without touching the pedal, the vehicle accelerated on its own. I have never seen a vehicle accelerate without hitting the gas pedal. This is a serious safety concern especially since its a teenagers vehicle. I see that newer tauruses had a recall for the exact same issue.

Reported at 175,500 miles, October 2014

Engine problems in other years

Engine problems across all Ford models