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I read wikipedia on this car and know the basics, but wondering how they are reliability wise?
I am having trouble selling my car, but someone wants to trade me a nice 1993 Taurus SHO for it. It has a 3.2L DOHC 24 valve V6 that apparently is a pretty peppy engine. This was the first year for the automatic in the SHO and it was a 3.2L, as opposed to the 3.0L. Apparently this is a Yamaha based/developed engine?
I really dont want this car for myself, but wondering if I could sell it easier than my car? Not sure if the engine in the SHO is junk, hard to work on, or if they are not desirable, or? Should I just stay clear?
the auto sucked if you get one the 5-speed is the only way to go in the early SHO's
they did have a alot of issues over the normal Taurus but the were a great performace bargin and have a decent loyal following
The automatics were horrible and the engine requires some extremely pricey maintenance for the timing belts and the plastic clips are notorious for failing. They are a unique car and they have a very strong, but small, following. Since it isn't something you are into, I would stay away from it. Cool car, but it needs the right owner. The ones that are really worth money are the later generation 3.4L V8's, those were cool cars and very fast for a sedan at their time.
I read wikipedia on this car and know the basics, but wondering how they are reliability wise?
I am having trouble selling my car, but someone wants to trade me a nice 1993 Taurus SHO for it. It has a 3.2L DOHC 24 valve V6 that apparently is a pretty peppy engine. This was the first year for the automatic in the SHO and it was a 3.2L, as opposed to the 3.0L. Apparently this is a Yamaha based/developed engine?
I really dont want this car for myself, but wondering if I could sell it easier than my car? Not sure if the engine in the SHO is junk, hard to work on, or if they are not desirable, or? Should I just stay clear?
Hell, the engine is the highlight of that car by a long, long, long shot. It's everything else around it that's junk. I had an '89 SHO and I have never owned a car so unworthy of the engine that moved it; in that way the SHO was the 80s/early-90s interpretation of the 60s/early-70s muscle cars that had great engines but handled like balls. It was a really fun car to do stoplight battle with -- stunned a whole lot of people who didn't know any better and thought it was just another old, tired 15-year-old Detroit-crap family sedan. But the chassis was awful despite Ford engineers making a valiant effort to tune it for high-performance duty; there's only so much you can do to turn a 1980s-era mid-size, mid-market, FWD American family sedan into a performance machine. The brakes were frighteningly inadequate. Overall it was a downright scary car to drive near its limits. The Yamaha motor was just way too much motor for that car.
Hard to work on? Not particularly -- except the engine. The '89-'95 SHO is the only application that engine was ever used for. As 1st- an 2nd-gen SHO numbers dwindle, it's getting harder to find a specialist who will work on it. The rest of the car except certain body trim is just standard Taurus stuff, and since they made milions of Tauruses, parts aren't that hard to come by.
Desirable? Sort of. There is a very dedicated but not particularly large following for SHOs, particularly the V6-era models and even more particularly the manuals. But they made quite a few of them and there are still enough on the roads that they don't fetch much of a premium. That said, if you price it reasonably, typically some SHO fan out there will snatch it up pretty quickly. I suspect we are approaching the tipping point where the number of solid examples will fall below enthusiast demand and prices for well-cared-for SHOs will start rising in price -- not that they'll ever be worth a mint.
I was sad the day I got rid of my SHO, but it needed more care than I could afford to give it and I didn't need three cars. If I had the money to keep and maintain a couple of toy cars, I'd still have it. I don't miss it as an everyday driver (which it served as for three years) considering how much better cars have gotten in the intervening years.
the auto sucked if you get one the 5-speed is the only way to go in the early SHO's
they did have a alot of issues over the normal Taurus but the were a great performace bargin and have a decent loyal following
What issues did they have over the normal Taurus? The only issue I know of versus the regular Tuarus is that the manual transmissions were a little weak for the engine, but even then they didn't have an unacceptably high failure rate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJGOAT
The automatics were horrible and the engine requires some extremely pricey maintenance for the timing belts and the plastic clips are notorious for failing. They are a unique car and they have a very strong, but small, following. Since it isn't something you are into, I would stay away from it. Cool car, but it needs the right owner. The ones that are really worth money are the later generation 3.4L V8's, those were cool cars and very fast for a sedan at their time.
The 3rd-gen SHOs were sleds. Yeah they had a V8, but they were still no quicker than the previous-gen V6 autos and actually quite a bit slower than the previous-gen with a manual. Plus there was a nasty tendency for the camshafts to detach from the sprockets, which in turn caused pistons to slam into valves. Nobody who knows anything about the 3rd-gen SHO will touch one unless they can verify that the camshafts have been welded to the sprockets or reinforced with roll pins. For the foregoing reasons, the 1st and 2nd-gen SHOs have a far stronger following than the 3rd-gen.
I have a '93 3.2 liter. I love this car. The automatic belt tensioner pulley is giving me trouble. I took it off and the bearing is destroyed. Cannot find the correct pulley with the bearing. I need help finding one. Thanks
I have a '93 3.2 liter. I love this car. The automatic belt tensioner pulley is giving me trouble. I took it off and the bearing is destroyed. Cannot find the correct pulley with the bearing. I need help finding one. Thanks
Try SHOsource.com. They have the bearing listed there for 42 bucks plus shipping, and it looks like they have a used pulley for a 3.2 for 45 bucks.
I ended up selling my Caprice for cash and passing on this trade.
I bought a 1995 Lincoln Town Car... love it!
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need a part
