Need help diagnosing problems with my other ride

[striktlyaccord]

2003 Ford Taurus V6 automatic.  Not too sure how well it was maintained considering that it was my grandmothers, but it's only got 26,500 miles on it.  A few months back, I started having issues with it cutting out while I would be driving.  The problem then disappeared for a bit, but came back again.  I had it scanned at several places, but no codes show up.  One Autozone said that the 1-year old battery is okay, but that the alternator seems to be on its way out.  However, another location told me that the alternator is fine, so I got even more baffled.  The problem then disappeared again for two months, but now all of a sudden it's been real bad, especially in the snow.  It's gotten to a point where the car is dangerous to drive in because when it dies, I obviously lose all power steering and effective braking capabilities.  So, before I take it to a Ford dealership and eat God knows how much in diagnostic fees, any ideas on what's wrong?  Here's a list of issues and symptoms that I've noticed:

-Car stalls at all speeds.  If I'm moving, it bucks, dies for a second, than seems to re-catch itself and stays on, however the headlights and dash lights remain very dim.
-If it stalls when I'm not moving (i.e. at a stop light), it completely dies, and I have to shift into park or neutral to restart it.
-Most of the time when it stalls out, the "theft" light on the dash comes on simultaneously.  It only disappears if/when the car re-catches and doesn't completely die on me.  The check engine light also comes on briefly too, but only about 50% of the time.
-The shifting feels more and more sluggish lately.
-I can tell when it's about to die sometimes because the engine starts to make a high-pitched whirring noise before it cuts out.

Also as of late, the e-brake light on my dash has been turning on and off while I'm driving, even though the e-brake is not on.  In addition, on a few occasions, my speedo starts to jump all over the place when the car is in park (so I'm not even moving).  Luckily, I caught a vid of this on my phone a few days ago.  Check it out:

2003 Ford Taurus problem

So, based on all of these symptoms, any ideas before I go get raped at the dealership?

[CrackerTeg]

Its a Ford Taurus. There's your problem. 

On a serious note, you seem to have some fucked up electrical issues if the speedo and shit are going haywire. Secondly, the thing is almost 10 years old with ridiculously low mileage. I'd go over the usual tune up procedues as well as draining the tank to see if you have a bad gas issue and run seafoam through it to clean you injectors out. They might be gummed up.

At any rate, you've got some work ahead of you.

[Mike]

Not sure if it applies to your year but look into transmission issues for Taurus's I've seen something somewhat similar on an older Taurus a few years ago but, I don't remember exactly what the issue was

[timot_one]

Being that I know little about Fords, and about cars in general, it sounds like you may have multiple issues.  It very well could be the alternator or a bad ground.  It could also be an ECU issue since you have all these weird things happening.  You may have fuel system issues.  Have you checked out any Taurus forums to see if anyone over there has had a similar problem?

[Rushzer0]

Being that I know little about Fords, and about cars in general, it sounds like you may have multiple issues.  It very well could be the alternator or a bad ground.  It could also be an ECU issue since you have all these weird things happening.  You may have fuel system issues.  Have you checked out any Taurus forums to see if anyone over there has had a similar problem?

Nailed it right on the head. My friend had pretty much the exact same problem. Turned out his alternator was gone and he had 2 almost broken ground straps. We fixed that and his car ran like a champ...well as good as a Ford can run anyways :p

[Mike]

I really hope you guys are correct and I'm wrong I called a buddy and grabbed a little more information on the trans. Issue he had which caused similar symptoms. It ended up being a computer issue in his case. Tramission either sending or computer receiving bad info from speed sensors which didn't match rpm input and caused the car to stall and speedo to get loopy. If the car sat a lot, and with your mileage I would go hunting for a bad ground first.

[Rushzer0]

Oh shit!! Ya mike your right...those gen fords did have a problem with their ECU's (Body control modules or whatever ford calls them) I remember they scrapped my sisters cougar because of it....ekkkk

[timot_one]

Definitely a good start by checking grounds.  A bad ground will cause all kinds of electrical gremlins.

[striktlyaccord]

Thanks for all the tips guys.  I'll check into some of the things all of you mentioned and see where it gets me.  I did some searching on the web, and it seems that these issues are not foreign to this model year Taurus, however most people who posted symptoms on the web dropped a ton of money on various fixes, only to have the issue keep coming back.  If I can't figure anything out within the next few days, it has to go into the stealership on Monday because at this point, it's dangerous to drive.

[timot_one]

Why'd you post the thread then?

[gargantula99]

^ For emotional support.  We all need it every now and then.  Good luck with the diagnosis Dave.  Keep us posted on what they say.

[striktlyaccord]

Why'd you post the thread then?

Because I'm gonna check on all of the places you guys suggested before it gets sent in.  If I can fix it on my own, great.  If not, then away it goes.  It needs to be remedied either way.

As a side question, if I Seafoam the car at some point (or any car for that matter), I know on the bottle it says put 1/3 into the gas tank, 1/3 into the oil, and 1/3 into the intake vacuum right into the engine.  Could you just do the whole bottle into the vacuum hose in the engine so that you don't have to worry about changing out your oil right afterwards?  I know it wouldn't clean out as many areas of the car, but just wondering if the 100% into the engine method is ok.

[Mike]

Why'd you post the thread then?

Because I'm gonna check on all of the places you guys suggested before it gets sent in.  If I can fix it on my own, great.  If not, then away it goes.  It needs to be remedied either way.

As a side question, if I Seafoam the car at some point (or any car for that matter), I know on the bottle it says put 1/3 into the gas tank, 1/3 into the oil, and 1/3 into the intake vacuum right into the engine.  Could you just do the whole bottle into the vacuum hose in the engine so that you don't have to worry about changing out your oil right afterwards?  I know it wouldn't clean out as many areas of the car, but just wondering if the 100% into the engine method is ok.

I wouldn't use that much in one spot it would probably be bad for your car.

[timot_one]

I wouldn't use seafoam in general.  If your injectors need to be cleaned, you can remove them and have that done or replace them.  If you do regular oil changes, you really shouldn't need to run it in your oil.  If you end up sucking it through your intake tract, it may dislodge something and clog up your catalytic converter.  It's really not something that I would recommend anyone use on a properly maintained car.

[striktlyaccord]

Understandable.  However, I have no idea if my grandmother ever properly maintained this car while she owned it, and I'm pretty sure it was neglected the last few years she owned it (i.e. chipmunks living in the engine bay, hence the dozens of acorns I'm still finding).   :