AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 12 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2006 Ford Taurus

1 fire 1 of the 12 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.

Reports of this failure 12
With an odometer reading 11
Reports per 1,000 built 0.8 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 9%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 7th

When other electrical problem gets reported

Owners of the 2006 Ford Taurus report other electrical problem at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 73,000 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.

9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 11 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
52,000 miles 65,339 miles 78,000 miles 89,100 miles 125,000 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, 1 a fire is 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 $250–$2,000 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 1,900 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 120,000 miles.

By volume the 1997 carries the most reports, with 44; the 2006 has 12. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

At least 15 times my 2006 ford taurus has shut off on me and my wife while driving. When it shuts off all the warning lights come on and we have to put the vehicle in park it starts up again. It happens mostly in the summer when the A/C is on. We have had it checked but nothing is ever found. This has almost caused us to be in a few accidents. *tr

88,200 miles NHTSA complaint 793374 filed 2010-06-14

Tl*he contact owns a 2006 ford taurus. While driving at any speed, the contact stated that the vehicle would suddenly stall without warning. The dealer inspected the vehicle and advised the contact to have the computer upgraded. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure continued. The manufacturer had not been notified. No additional repairs were performed. The failure mileage was 14,000 and the current mileage was 38,000.

14,000 miles NHTSA complaint 863681 filed 2011-06-24

Tl* the contact owns a 2006 ford taurus. The contact stated that the vehicle would smoke when it was turned on. The oil, battery, engine warning light would illuminate on the instrument panel and the vehicle would make a loud noise. The dealer was notified, but did not assist the contact with the failure. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure was not remedied. The vehicle was not repaired.

52,000 miles NHTSA complaint 870439 filed 2011-07-29

Also reported on the 2006 Ford Taurus

Other speed control problem

107 reports median 102k

Cruise control failure

86 reports median 84k

Other engine problem

29 reports median 90k

Other powertrain problem

20 reports median 88k

Other brake problem

16 reports median 77k

Other body or interior problem

13 reports median 62k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 12 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 electrical problem happen on the 2006 Ford Taurus?

Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other electrical problem on the 2006 Ford Taurus?

12 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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