the car is in excellent shape runs fine but u cant run it for long since the alternator doesnt work so the engine will die once the battery runs out of power, i was just wondering if i can charge the battery would i be able to drive it maybe atleast around the block cause i wanna know how the tranny shifts and whatnot ,and would i be able to tell if there is any tranny problems with the car ?
what colour would the tranny fluid be if its bad thanks alot sorry for all the questions im pretty clueless
that’s high miles, especially for a Yamaha engine(which it has). you can’t really tell if there’s tranny problems unless you drive it, that goes for lots of stuff in general. don’t buy the car.
Bring a fully charged battery with you to the test drive, it should get you by for about 15 min. These cars are known for bad trannys. Fluid should be red, not dark brown, and not smell burnt.
the 90s taurus also known as a mercury sable were known for transmission problems after 130k, you need to check the price, some alternators for front wheel drive cars are not only expensive 2 to 4 hundred plus installation (which may be why the owner does not want to pay to fix it.) these were not very good cars new, some year make and models were better than others, 2000 and newer are ok 99 and older is not a good dependable car, and had bad repair records. If you want a car that takes highmileage well and will be a good dependable used car, then this is not it. they had other problems with the engines too, depending on which one. I may be getting picky in my old age, but I dont think you should have to research particular years to try and figure out what was good and what was bad. Any front engine front wheel drive cars have more problems and are almost double the cost to fix, than similar year front engine , rear wheel drive cars. keep looking, there are a lot better cars out there, oh yea and on top of everything else they are good a failing smog tests.
question: why not ask the owner to replace the alternator before you will even consider buying it? alternators are neither expensive nor time consuming, it seems as though the owner might be hiding something. as the previous guy stated, it’s hard to trust a car with that many miles on it anyway, let alone if you can’t run it for longer than 5 minutes, and even then, with no load on it.
as for the transmission fluid, it should be bright red… like cherry kool-aid, if it’s brownish, or dark (like black cherry?) it’s not good… also, if you decide to buy it, check for metal shavings, and as odd as it sounds, sawdust. sawdust is used a coagulant to make the transmission shift more solidly, but only for a short time before it compounds the original problem of old-transmissionitis
Depends on the price?
If you can get it for $500, it would be worth switching batteries in order to test drive it.
Anyone who tries to sell a car that does not run, has to be desperate and be willing to take almost anything.
With a fresh battery it should run for a couple hours..
You should also consider that such a car may be expensive to insure. Check your insurance rates before buying one, for example here – carinsurance.yoll.net
You should be even more careful if the transmission fluid looks new. Changing fluid to hide a problem isn’t unusual. It should be a dark red with a slight brown tint to it and will naturally have a slight smell of clutch material to it. Rub a drop or two of the fluid between you thumb and forefinger. It shouldn’t feel gritty. As for the alternator, someone else suggested getting the current owner to replace it. I agree with that. Take it to a reputable mechanic and let him check it out for you.