Something is poorly engineered in POS Ford Taurus, wow, amazing.
taurus's were crap in the 80's, till about 93 or 94 or so. then ford got it right. they had decent engines(although the 3.0L DOHC is a pain in the nuts to work on), finally overcame the transmission problems they had, and they were dependable cars.
i've got a 95 with the 3.8L(junk compared to the 3.0L) with 153k on the clock. she cruises at 80mph easily, gets to that speed nicely, and averages 30mpg. comfortable to drive, comfortable back seat, handles very nicely.
there's nothing wrong with the later taurus's.....'cept that dam heater hose assembly. and primitive or advanced doesn't matter. what matters is function. the old style thermostat housing with the bypass hose built into it that's worked flawlessly for decades was simpler, easier(read that cheaper for the customer) to service, never went bad(unlike this design. i should note that the dealer had it in stock. when a dealer stocks something, that generally means it's a common failure.)
so we're back to this. this design did not improve functionality. it did not improve service costs for the customer. it did not change anything for the better. so what purpose other than to raise the customers cost does this thing really serve?
oh yea.......bigrat was right....it DOES help allow more sediment to settle into the heater core......i flushed this one before i put that mess back on the car.
