| Components - Details | |
|---|---|
| NHTSA Complaint Number: 002240875 | Incident Date: Dec, 23 2002 |
| Consumer's City: | Consumer's State: KS |
| Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO | Manufacturers Name: Ford Motor Company |
| Model Name: TAURUS | Model Year: 1998 |
| Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No | Component's Description: Visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:heater core |
| Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No | Persons Injured: 0 |
| Vehicle's VIN#: 1FAFP57UXWG | Date added to File: May, 25 2021 |
| Date Complaint Received: Oct, 14 2003 | Complaint Type: IVOQ |
| Incident Reported To Police: No | Purchase Date: Oct, 16 2000 |
| Was Original Owner: No | Anti-lock Brakes: Yes |
| Number of Cylinders: 6 | Date of Manufacturer: - |
| Was Vehicle Towed: - | Description of the Complaints: Heater abruptly stopped working while driving last winter. since then the cooling system has been flushed 6 times. each time it will work for a week and then it stopped again. the car was taken to a dealership where they replaced the blend door motor, charged $230 for it and it did nothing. it was given a "chemical flush" for $125 which did nothing. then the dealership informed me that it would need the heater core and blend door replaced. i was told by another dealership that this was a service bulletin in the first place and they should not have done the other work at all. apparently this was a known problem on the taurus from 96 on. i found a lot of people on the internet complaining about the exact same thing and was told that the nhtsa had advised ford in 96 or 97 that they should probably recall the cars for this problem which causes the defroster to not work and therefore makes it dangerous to drive at all in the winter. apparently ford did a " customer satisfaction" recall which expired in 99 but was never done on my car (i bought it used in 2000). i called ford to ask why this wasn't a recall since from what i have found it effects all tauruses from 96-99 at least. they told me that it wasn't a safety issue so it wouldn't be a recall. i submitted that it is a safety issue since you cannot see out of the windshield in the winter and since when ours stopped working we were on i-70 between st. louis and kansas city during a snowstorm and had to stop because we couldn't see. this is a $1300 repair that ford knew about for a long time, i think they should have to pay for it. *la |
