On January 27 I put up a post asking if anyone in the Bay Area could help me acquire a 1986 Ford Taurus LX that appeared to be in very good condition. That request occurred roughly seven days after the idea of buying the car started to become a reality. That week was an emotional roller coaster, that’s for sure. For a time, the deal seemed dead. Then it roared back to life and almost instantly got snuffed out. Fortunately, the CC community is filled with amazing people and a knight in shining armor arrived just in time! This post will detail how this whole thing started, what’s happening now, and where I plan to take the Taurus in the future.
There are some people who deserve a shout out too. And I’d like to have some sort of meetup at Radwood Philly on April 5. Let’s make it happen!
I am constantly searching the internet for first generation Taurus and Sable sedans or wagons. My goal was to acquire one later this year, around June or so. That timetable rapidly accelerated when tbm3fan mentioned he had found an excellent looking 1986 Taurus. Some quick digital sleuthing lead me to craigslist and the actual listing. Huzzah!
It’s important for me to clarify that coming across the ad did not initiate the purchasing process. I simply visited the listing to appreciate the Taurus in all its well-preserved glory. Two days later I sent the link to a friend that lives near San Jose. He responded fairly quickly:
“If I had somewhere to store it I’d buy it lol”
That’s the statement that really got the ball rolling. A couple of back and forth texts confirmed my friend was interested in buying and storing the Taurus until I could get it shipped back to New York. The excitement was palpable.
Things got real when he successfully contacted the seller. They planned to meet up that Saturday. What followed was several days of nervous excitement. The “secret” also got out in the form of a post at the Taurus Car Club of America. This did not help my state of mind. I didn’t exactly envision hundreds of people lining up to look at the car. But the possibility of the Taurus getting away from us crossed my mind…more than once.
The plot thickened when my friend met the seller on Saturday. It turns out there was a good reason he wanted to get rid of it: the car failed its smog inspection. Not coincidentally, he put the Taurus up for sale on the same date it couldn’t pass the test. The good news was that the car drove well and got up to highway speed just fine. But the smog issue threw us for a loop because my friend wanted to purchase the car and put it in his name before selling it to me. I didn’t really want to take possession of the car until spring, which is why we got tunnel vision. California requires owners of any 1976 and newer gasoline car to pass smog and a private party sale cannot happen if a car fails the test. My friend told the seller that he had a buyer if the smog issue could be rectified.
We also never solved the storage issue. I tried Public Storage but they only store cars if the owner can physically be present to sign the paperwork. It wasn’t looking great. Later that night I received a text from the seller saying he had sold it to someone who would take it as is. We didn’t know how that was possible but that seemed like the end of things. Only it wasn’t! The seller did say he’d sell it to us if the deal fell through. So there was some hope we’d still get the car. Paul wisely suggested we simply ignore the minor smog issue and register the car in my name, because New York exempts any car over 25 years old from emissions regulations.
I spent the time between Saturday night and Monday morning feeling a bit dejected. I’d written off the deal at that point. But the seller reached out to me on Monday morning with the news that his other deal fell through. It was back on! The gears started turning. One major problem though: the seller didn’t want to use Venmo or any other type of electronic payment app. Okay, no problem! My friend could do it. Only he couldn’t. He had personal obligations to attend to that Monday. Was this how things were going to end?
Once again, Paul kept things alive when he suggested I appeal to the CC community. I promptly wrote something up, posted it, and waited. It took about an hour and a half before we got a response from someone who could help. That was a harrowing ninety minutes for me. I tried to get some writing done but my brain was not having it. I was functionally reduced to reading the news and checking the post about every five minutes.
Fortunately, that paid off. And a white knight came to the rescue.
Looking back at the timing, it appears I let more than five minutes pass between page refreshes. Oh well. My response time was fourteen minutes. Not a spectacular time for emergency services to get to you, but perfectly acceptable for a Taurus-related boondoggle. That email ultimately put me in touch with Bill Gardner. Bill was the perfect person for the job. A true car guy who knows the ins and outs of the paperwork because he’s been around the block a few times. He agreed to complete the transaction and store the car at his place. Better yet, he’s an all-around nice guy who’s easy to talk to. Suddenly, everything felt a whole lot less complicated!
Bill ultimately handled the actual deal with aplomb and the Taurus is currently waiting to be picked up by a transport company. It should arrive in New York by February 19 at the latest. I’m sure many of you are wondering why I’m not taking it cross country anymore. The simple answer is that driving a 35 year old American car cross country is incredibly risky and I didn’t want to come home empty handed in case something happened to it. Plus, it’s not like I can’t do it in the future. I’d be much more willing to take a first gen Taurus from California to New York if I had a backup at home!
As for the car itself, I’m inclined to believe it’s close to the last of its kind. It’s a 1986 Taurus LX. In terms of major options, it’s missing the Instaclear windshield and the moonroof. Unfortunately, the car didn’t come with the original window sticker, so I don’t know what exactly is in it. If anyone knows where I can get that information let me know in the comments.
It’s also got the digital dash and a giant compass directly in the driver’s line of sight. Obviously, that is something installed by the previous owner. Hopefully whatever is keeping it on the dashboard leaves no lasting damage when it’s removed.
The interior is also very clean and the seats are in great shape.
As you can see from this screenshot I took of the Carfax report, it’s been very lightly driven its entire life. The Taurus spent just under six months with the previous owner. It seems the original owner was also vexed by emissions issues. That’s not going to be a problem for me. And it seems like the car is in very good mechanical condition. It’ll need new tires, an alignment, and a new gas gauge, but those are the only pressing issues right now. It’s going to have its fluids replaced too. I’ll have my mechanic look it over to see if it needs anything else. I plan to do as much work as I can on my own, but I may not do that initially.
That’s because I want the car to be in the best shape possible for Radwood Philadelphia. I’m going to take it there. And I’d like to meet as many of you as possible, either at the show or at a separate shindig. We can nail down the specifics at a later date, but as of right now, I think I’ll arrive in Philly on Saturday. We can do a meetup at a restaurant or bar, or we could just convene at the show itself the next day.
And it’s not going to stop there. Local shows aside, I’m seriously flirting with the idea of also taking the Taurus to Carlisle for the Ford Nationals in June. I think this is going to be a great year for both myself and the Taurus!
Finally, I’d like to once again thank the people responsible for making this happen. Tbm3fan deserves a shout out for posting about the Taurus, which started this whole thing. Paul most definitely needs to be thanked for his sage advice. And Bill Gardner, as previously discussed, has earned my utmost gratitude for making sure the deal actually happened. Bill, you are the absolute best!
Before condemning the gas gauge, try a bottle of Chevron Techron in the tank. It was actually a Ford approved service for fuel sender issues, as it will remove corrosion on the resistor card caused by sulfur in gasoline.
Yes, I can testify that the Techron “fix” works. My 1986 Taurus wagon had an intermittent fuel gauge. I heard about it from a friend who wrenched at the Lincoln-Mercury dealer. I ran the tank down to about 1/3 (estimated) and added the Techron. Drove it a while on bouncy streets (some California streets have storm drainage on the surface, a real dipsy-doodle ride) to agitate the fuel in the tank, and then let it sit. Next morning I drove it some more and the problem was still there but after three days it was gone, never to return as long as I had the car (traded it four years later in 1996). If the smog failure was due to a partly blocked injector, the Techron may help that, too. I found that my Vulcan V6s (I have owned five) could run quite smoothly with one dirty injector as long as it was not totally blocked!
I don’t know if the formulation of Techron has changed since then. It seems the manufacturers are always “improving” things (usually means “cheaper to make”).
I don’t know about the gas gauge fix, but wish that I had when my ’97 Grand Prix GTP’s gauge was acting up. After an ill-fated attempt at replacing the sending unit (myself), I traded the GTP in on my Mustang a week or so later. I was probably high from the gas fumes, but was happy with my decision anyway, leading to my handle here. ;o)
As far as the Techron fix for passing your emissions test, it worked for me!
My wife’s 2009 Lancer was due in a few months last summer when her SES light came on when we were driving around one nice day. She freaked. I didn’t, and simply ran the codes with the FIXD device she got me for Christmas the year prior. The code was for a possible oxygen sensor, or other fuel injector related cause.
As ambiguous as that was, I cleared the codes and went get to some Techron. She remarked, “Should you be doing that?” I had to laugh because she bought the thing for me. I’m sure there are better OBD-II readers out there, but this works pretty good for an iPhone app. I have the device in each of my cars.
FFWD to November or so when her car was up for emissions, it passed with flying colors. From the time I cleared the code last summer, the SES light has not come back on… (knocks wood on desk).
Now the ground fault code on my 2007 Mustang? I still can’t figure that one out. (P0622 – Generator Field Terminal Circuit). Electrically, other than this idiot light (the battery icon illuminates with “Check Charging System” occasionally popping up), the car is perfect. 14.7 volts and a new OEM battery this past summer too, only its third including the original).
Wow, whotta rollercoaster!
In your shoes I’d probably still look into that emissions failure, because it means something’s out of order; when it’s fixed the car will likely run better.
No Check Engine light? Even if not, see if there are any codes. On that year Taurus you can do it by connecting two pins on an underhood connector and reading flashes on the Check Engine light. Not as easily as on Chryslers where you can get them with the ignition key, but not difficult either.
Bravo Edward! What a great read. I’ve been buying and selling for over 40 years and I love a good car-chase boondoggle. One of my earliest capers (in high school) involved having my (sainted) mom drive me 200+ miles to buy a 1959 Karmann Ghia convertible. As we kept driving south on I-5, past Seattle, past Tacoma, past Olympia, I kept saying, “Longview should be just around the corner,” but it wasn’t. We drove back home in separate cars, mine with no top at all, in November. Insane.
Nice to see some more pictures that allow us to see how nice of a car this is. Everything about it screams original elderly owner. Those are original California plates that actually date back to 1985. I remember that in high school, a buddy of mine had an ’86 with blue plates, and even those seemed out of place for the Taurus’ sleek design.
Cars with milage this low mean that they have been under-driven, and that can result in some possible issues. I absolutely agree that taking it across country fresh after the sale would have been foolhardy. I would change all the fluids and do some shakedown runs to see what demons rear their heads.
Once the car is in NY, the failed smog might not mean a whole lot. CA’s standards are pretty high.
All in all, it’s a nice looking early Taurus! Hopefully it doesn’t give you too much trouble. It will be a hit at Radwood!
Interesting that it passed in July 2019 but failed 6 months later in 2020. Well, I will say that if I didn’t take it and that was a possibility very early on, it couldn’t have gone to a more deserving fanboy of the Bull. I got sidetracked into looking at 5 speed cars like 88-92 Accords, Integras, Volvo 240 and Camry.
FORD TAURUS 1986 01/19/2020 11:59 a.m. F NO
FORD TAURUS 1986 07/17/2019 11:57 a.m. P QU623075C NO
FORD TAURUS 1986 07/10/2019 11:21 a.m. F NO
FORD TAURUS 1986 05/01/2002 12:15 p.m. P EO778973C NO
FORD TAURUS 1986 04/17/1997 11:25 a.m. P CB212079C NO
It’s interesting that there are no smog attempts made in a 17 year span from 2002 to 2019. Since the plates are original ones it didn’t get re-registered out of state in the meantime. I wonder if it was just completely off the road for that span of time or are there still counties in CA where you don’t need an emissions check to re-register the car? No real mileage accrual in that span either.
17 counties (CA has 58) require no biennial smog inspection, and 6 more require the inspection only in certain zip codes.
Since mileage didn’t change much I would bet the car was on planned non-op.
> Unfortunately, the car didn’t come with the original window sticker, so I don’t know what exactly is in it. If anyone knows where I can get that information let me know in the comments.
Until a couple of years ago, you could plug your VIN into this Ford website to get a build sheet for the car. You probably still can if you create an account, but to create an account you need to get past a bunch of warnings that only bona fide auto repair business are permitted to register.
http://www.etis.ford.com/vehicleRegSelector.do
You could also swing by the service department at a Ford dealer and ask them to pull up a build sheet. It would probably only take them a moment, and if you charm them first by showing off your Taurus, they’ll probably be happy to help.
You could probably figure it all out from the Brochure as well.
http://www.auto-brochures.com/makes/Ford/Taurus/Ford_US Taurus_1986.pdf
If you’re lucky, you may find a factory build sheet stuck in the underside of the passenger seat cushion, as I did on my 1986 Ranger.
My brother did that with his FG XR8 in Australia turns out he has one of one built but whats was added or left out isnt made clear.
I am in for Radwood! Hope to see other Curbside Classic followers there.
Congrats. It certainly appears to be in nice shape and all the work the last owner did is a nice bonus. Certainly has to be one of the nicest left.
It’s important to drive what you dig; but can I ask why you don’t want a SHO?
Couple of reasons:
– In terms of the first gen, there are enough people interested in the SHO that I have no worries about them being preserved. As a corollary to that statement, any models even in halfway decent shape already fetch a decent amount of coin, which is a bit of a turn off for me.
– Everyone I’ve talked to says the first gen SHOs are very temperamental and that parts are hard to come by. That will apply to my Taurus to some extent, but it seems like the Yamaha engine is a bit more fussy than the Vulcan.
– Finally, I simply suck at driving stick. I don’t think I’d want an SHO as my first stick car. Although if I win the lottery, I’ll have one in my garage.
If not an SHO then why not a much more interesting Sable? One of Mercury’s most unique modern offerings.
Even though I owned a Sable for nine years, I’ve never liked the styling of any Sable over any Taurus. And I think the first gen Sable’s interior wasn’t terribly good looking.
And now I know the rest of the story. Thanks for sharing how this all came to be. I am very happy for you that your were able to find this car – congratulations! I didn’t know that you wanted a first generation Taurus so much, and this one seems to hit all the check boxes. My dad used to have a compass like that in his vehicles. The ones he had just attached with double sided tape, so they could be removed without causing damage.
My aunt and uncle replaced their problematic ’82 Cougar wagon with one of these first generation Taurus wagons. They couldn’t believe how much of an improvement the Taurus was over the Fox body wagon. Those cars were very popular at the time, and I remember somewhat difficult to get. My Uncle said he had numerous people come up and ask if he was willing to sell the car.
If you bring the car to Carlisle in June, let us know. We could do a mini meet-up there as well. I went last year for the first time ever, and my Dad and I had a blast!
So cool you’re getting a car that you really wanted, Ed. It’s a looker. I love those wheels, BTW. Cleaning them probably isn’t going to be any fun though.
Yes, one needs to get a special brush to get into those. That wheel is very similar to the snowflake wheels on my 626. When I got the car those wheels were a &*!@# to clean. Had to take the tire off the car to get at it from both sides with a brush and special cleaner which did the trick.
Sounds like what I had to deal with on this car….
I recall going to the 1985 Chicago Auto Show with a close friend, Duncan. Ford presented the Taurus in an elevated “reveal” stand. As the curtain lifted, Duncan stood in amazement. He had never seen a soft-edged aerodynamic car shape (not a car guy, so he was unfamiliar with the Audi 5000). After staring at the car for a couple of revolutions on the turntable, I commented that it probably was the sportiest looking 4-door sedan ever. That comment broke Duncan’s gaze. He turned to me and said, “I didn’t realize it was a 4-door. It’s just beautiful.”
Looks like a tidy car good luck with it, A Ford digital dash that works wow they had those on late 80s Fords from OZ but something if not everything always failed.
A very nice looking car!
As a veteran of a similar odyssey with the low-mile 89 Grand Marquis my eldest son bought a number of years back (and 2 tone gray with gray leather just like this one) I can testify that you will have some low-mile problems to sort through. They may be different issues on a Taurus than on a Panther, but you will have them. But this is how you will bond with the car and get to know it.
A good thorough flush of brake lines would be a good idea, particularly if the car has never gotten down far enough on brakes to have any hydraulic parts replaced. That fluid sops up moisture and will eventually rust the steel lines from the inside.
I’m the TaurusLX86 guy who posted the link on the TCCA website there lol. I really want to find an 86 LX Wagon with a medium gray interior just like the sedan here but they are so frustratingly difficult to find. I found one with 74,000 miles in Oregon but my dad was an ass and wouldn’t let me have it. Someone online offered me an 86 with a medium canyon red exterior who also lives in the pacific northwest but I never got a comment notification and by the time I saw it, it was too late. I’m having the worst luck when it comes to acquiring the Taurus wagon I’m looking for.
Thanks for visiting our site! Honestly, I would have preferred a wagon too, but this was just too tempting to pass up. I hope you find a wagon that fits your wants. If I find one you might like I’ll definitely let you know.
Hey thanks! Hope everything goes well with this awesome LX Sedan. I’m crossing my fingers and posting wanted ads in my state, hoping to get lucky one will show up!
I didn’t realize until THIS post that your Taurus is a twin-once-removed of the ’89 Sable we had about 22-23 years ago. Same color and wheels! Ours had the fabric interior, however.
Glad it’s all working out though I was looking forward to a Bay Area CC meetup.
Wow, that’s quite a story! I’m very impressed that you stuck with it through all those ups and downs. I can’t wait to hear more about it when you finally meet your car in person!
And welcome to the Rarely-Driven Older Ford Club… we put about 1,500 mi. per year on our ’95 Thunderbird, and yes, it’s subject to all kinds of age-related problems that most cars never get to experience. This spring, I’m replacing a set of tires that has good tread on them, but they’re dry-rotted. I bought them 13 years ago. Routine maintenance can’t possibly be mileage-based, so I try to keep a good eye on fluids, belts, hoses, etc. But of course it’s not all hassle, because it’s fun to have and drive an older car. And for you, especially, since it’s a car you’ve always longed for.
And it looks great, by the way!
Next month I need to replace my F100 tires with 7,000 miles but just over 10 years showing cracks among the tread.None of my tires ever get to 12,000 miles much less the rated life span because 10 years comes up first.
Edward, congrats on a new ride! It’s a real Taurus, as it was manufactured on May 8! I’m a former owner of ’01 SE with a Vulcan.
As to build options, I think that any body shop can provide it for you by running a VIN.
My late cousin and her husband whose last name was Hull, always installed a Hull brand compass in their cars. That looks like a Hull compass.