I need help diagnosing a problem please

[Peter Vincent]

My friend was driving her 99 Taurus and hit a good NYC pothole. Symptoms now are the defroster went from blowing hot air to blowing cold, the engine heated up to almost the overheat mark. When she restarted after a few minutes the check engine light came on. It is raining pretty hard here so I could not really tell if there was fluids dripping out.

Any help as to what you may think it is????

Thanks,

Peter

 

[Dingo]

Coolant is gone.

 

[EddieS'04]

none or really low on coolant or the water pump impelar is shot or the thermostat stuck closed. Those are the items to look at.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

As suggested, you need to take a good look at the coolant.



As a general rule, the first sign of a coolant leak is the loss of ability to heat the passenger cabin. Why? Because the heater core is very high in the system, as the coolant lowers, it looses the performance ability to be pumped thru the core and get heat to the cabin...

 

[Gerald Pierce]

The 3.0 Vulcan engine has had issues with fouling in the cooling system. I did a lot of research on it after my coolant went from green to brown in less than 6 motnhs and the heater core plugged. If you didn't crack the radiator or bust a hose, you may have shook some crap loose and plugged the thermostat. look at your coolant, is it green or brown? If it's brown, I would fluch the coolant system after removing the thermostat. Google Taurus Car Club, on their website is very specific directions on how to do it and it will back flush the heater core at the same time.



I had all maintenance records for mine, and when the heater core plugged, Ford refused to honor the warranty due to "neglect" even though there was a recall on them to install a bypass assembly (how this would prevent it I dont know) and to fluch teh coolant system with some chemical and refill. Now I just back flush the heater core and coolant system twice a year and let my son drive it as a beater while he is rebuilding the engine and tranny in his SRT-4.



gp

 

[Scott Tanner]

cruzrtwdgt...



yep... i was a victim of that..... $1200 to replace rotted out softplugs on my Sable.....



If your coolant is there, check the above suggestion.... sound more like lost coolant... good luck