My gf is looking at a 92 Ford Taurus SHO with 102,000 miles, fully loaded with the 5 speed. How reliable are these cars? Are there any common problems with these cars? I know it has the Yamaha v6 engine, is it a good engine? Any known problems with the yamaha v6 engine? Any common electrical problems? Anything else to look for besides the basic stuff?
I'm not going to bother reading the rest of the thread before I reply, so if there are any duplicates here, my apologies.
From a new owner's perspective, just beware as these cars are very maintenance intensive. However, you'd probably be fine buying one that hasn't received proper maintenance, if it only has 102,000 miles on it.
The issues of a car of that age (which is fairly 'young' in SHO terms - lots of our cars have turned over 200-300,000 miles) are going to be these: the water pump, the CPS (crank position sensor). The water pump leaks with age, and when it begins to leak, it shorts out the CPS. When you're in there to replace the water pump, it would be prudent to also replace the serpentine belt, and the timing belt.
Possibly the rear and front main seals. SHOs leak oil. As long as its not bothersome, you can ignore oil leaks - however, the plug well seals will need to be taken care of in order to insure proper performance and driving. At that age and milage, if they have never been done before, I would expect that they'd be shot.
As the car gets older, the timing belt will need to be done. Timing belts on SHOs rarely break, and even if they do, there won't be any engine damage. I've seen original timing belts go as long as 150,000 miles, but 100,000 is a good spot to go ahead and replace them at.
Also: Rod bearings. They're cheap to take care of preventatively. They're expensive to take care of after they break. At 100k miles, you're probably OK to defer this item for a year or two depending on how often the car is driven and how much. If it were my car and my money, I'd take care of it before 120,000 miles.
Common electrical issues: Well, not too common, but sometimes the DIS module on SHOs ends up going bad. Cheap fix, just find one at a junkyard. Another issue that's fairly common is the multifunction stalk. That stalk controls the high beams, wipers, and turn signals. It very often goes bad around the milage you have. Cheap fix - find one at a junkyard. There are also aftermarket replacements that work fine. For what it's worth, I'm still on my original at 202k miles on my SHO. Alternators on these cars are also a weak point, but they're cheap enough that they're probably a basic wear item. Alternator issues may manifest themselves many ways, but very often will emulate a flat battery, or things such as the A/C not working, or so on and so forth. If the car starts playing up electrical faults, the alternator would be the first place I'd look. Power window switches are also prone to failure, but again, given the low milage of that particular car, I wouldn't think of it as an issue - yet.
Clutches are a weak point, but as long as you're not driving it hard, it should last a good long while. If the clutch in that current car is strong, then ignore this. Just don't be doing constant burnouts or race launches - that's a sure way to **** a stock clutch quickly.
So that's about it. I'm sure I'm leaving off some obscure issues here and there... but I hope this helps.
For what it's worth, we're not trying to scare you off. Just think of a SHO as a car with similar maintenance requirements to a 1980s BMW. They're definitely intensive, and do need a lot of care - but they are also very rewarding cars to drive and own. You need to determine whether or not you/your girlfriend can handle it.
