Automotive → [Tech] 2007 Ford Taurus stalls when put in reverse

My son wants to give me his Ford Taurus; I really need a car. He says the car wants to die when it's shifted into reverse. My kid is smart, but knows nothing about cars. A mechanic told him that it will need a transmission before another 8,000 miles are up.
He's also been having trouble with the compressor for the AC. I bought a new belt, but the pulley wasn't turning. These same mechanics told me they couldn't bypass the AC, but my mechanic (50 miles away) says he can, and that the kit is $75.
I am a low-income widow, and I would like opinions on whether or not I should invest the money to have it towed to my mechanic (tow-$110, bypass kit, belt, and labor-$330). Any help you guys can give me is very much appreciated, and I welcome your opinions. Thank you!

How about some more information, Karen? I know it is a 2007; what model Taurus is it and what is the current mileage?

Upon what is the transmission "advice" based? Got any maintenance history on the car?

I'm working on that, fixrman; waiting for my kid to get back to me!

I know his car hasn't been very well-maintained, and it has (I think) about 100,000 miles on it. Thank you so much!

The transmission "advice" was from a mechanic my son had spoken with. From looking around online, I see that other things can make the car want to stall when changing gears. I also wonder if that alternator belt that I had to replace might have had something to do with the stalling. Because the pulley to the AC compressor wasn't turning, that belt burned up again, after he drove the car several blocks to get it back to his house.

Again, thank you!

I don't know how much stock I would put in someone's claim that in 8,000 miles the transmission is going to need to be replaced. Why not 5,000 or 15,000? I never had a crystal ball like that. Unfortunately, the Taurus still has a reputation for transmission failures. I'd have expected that one to have failed long before 100K though based on reports from the field.

I think I'd like to spend maybe an hour's worth of labour on it to find out if it is worth having. If you pay to tow it and the car is too expensive to fix, then you have the liability of getting rid of it. If the oil has been changed somewhere around 13 times, or 10 times if using synthetic, I would feel OK about the engine at least from a maintenance standpoint.

Thank you! This gives me a great starting place.

Reminds me of some different make vehicles that had cracks in the air hose between the airflow meter and the throttle body.

Come on down to the TaurusClub forums, there's more Bull owners that should be able to give you a hand over there.

Stalling going into reverse can be caused by a few things, but I've always found it to be a wiring issue. The engine moves and an intermittent wire moves just enough to break the connection. Bad motor mounts exacerbate the problem. Often it's the ground wire from the engine to the chassis, or the wire to the crank sensor or something. I've even seen loose transmission mounting bolts on a Cherokee allow the transmission to shift enough the the crank sensor in the bell housing stops working.

Not 100% sure which engine you have, but looking at a belt routing diagram for the 3.0l engine it seems like you could just remove the a/c compressor and use a shorter serpentine belt.
»www.justanswer.com/ford/ ··· -se.html

They also do make a/c elimination kits that substitute an idler pulley in the same location as the a/c compressor. Cheaper alternative might be just bolting in a junkyard a/c compressor that had good bearings.