Other engine problem on the 2002 Ford Taurus
4 crashes 2 fires 1 injury 7 of the 32 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Ford Taurus report other engine problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 24 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 88,705 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
21% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25,845 miles | 39,750 miles | 69,000 miles | 83,742 miles | 114,550 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 4 a crash, 2 a fire and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $300–$4,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 23 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2014 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 1996 carries the most reports, with 126; the 2002 has 32. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
While driving on a major highway my car stalled. The car began to decrease in speed and shake profoundly. There were no warning lights on to indicate the problem with the car. More pressure was applied to the gas pedal and still no increase in speed. After several attempts to accelerate the car increased to 40 MPH and then continued to decrease in speed. I pulled off to the side of the highway were my car was struck by another vehicle. After the incident the car did start and accelerated as if nothing ever happened.*jb
I bought my car new in nov 01. I noticed a stale smell and complained to the dealer and they changed a filter. Two days later the smell was back. This month,after a heavy rain, there was 1 1/2 inches of water on my passenger floor and water in my heater blower which within a matter of minutes killed my blower on all positions but high. I called ford and they said there was no recalls on my vehicle. I did some research and found that my car was manufactured in oct 01 and there was a recall on the windshield. I took the car to the dealership and they told me it was probably not the windshield put a design flaw and they had a kit that would fix the problem and they would put a new blower in. I informed them that I was not going to pay anything for this they said they would contact the rep. I scheduled an appointment and in the meantime called ford and told them that I was not paying for it because it was a design flaw. I talked with gloria and she took all the information and she told me that she would advise the dealership and also throw in a carpet shampoo and deordorizer treatment. When I picked my car up I was charged $36.66 for…
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 ford taurus. Each time the contact's foot was removed from the accelerator pedal the vehicle would stall. There were no warning indicators at the time of failure, and the weather and road conditions were not a factor. In order to repair the failure several valves had to be changed. The contact attempted to speak to the dealer, but was unsuccessful. The contact possesses copies of the repair invoices. The failure mileage was 31,000. *ak
Also reported on the 2002 Ford Taurus
Strut, shock or spring failure
Other suspension problem
Blower motor or climate control failure
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other visibility problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 32 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other engine problem happen on the 2002 Ford Taurus?
Across 24 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2002 Ford Taurus?
32 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed