elmariachi

Hi, this is my first post on the forums. First of all, I'm not very good with car repair so my description of problems may be off. I finally took it upon myself to ask a friend and search this forum for help on repairing my 97 gl Taurus.

I have 178k miles on it, and, until recently, there haven't been many problems. But, here are the majors:

1. I have the defective coolant reservoir. It is cracked and until I can afford to buy another one (I'll replace it), i'll seal it with high-temp silicone in the meantime. On top of that, my engine may be overheating due to other means. Either a pump failure (how would I know?) or my cap needs to be replaced. Or head gasket? (how would I know?)

2. My exhaust system was defective. After the rear catalytic converter and before that flex pipe area, I developed a crack before the bolted on joint. I've had mechanics try to weld it shut but since they can't get to the top of the crack- it gradually opens up. On top of that, since the metals are seemingly different on both sides (one side of the joint takes a long time to heat up compared to the other), it just re opens. It completely disconnected a few days ago when I was driving through a rainstorm. The quick cooling of the pipe from the rain probably caused one part of the pipe to contract too fast and it busted open. A friend and I welded what we could and covered the rest with JB Weld and some exhaust repair tape. It's quiet now but its only been a day.

3. My rear power windows keep failing. It doesn't seem to be the motors- because every now and then they'll move. I suppose its either a grounding issue or a fuse.

4. The bearings on my front passenger wheel need replaced again, after only maybe a year or two of being replaced by mechanics.

5. I had the brake light/gear disengage problem. One of the wires coming out of the brake pedal broke causing not only my brake lights to fail, but I couldn't put the car into gear unless i started the car in neutral. I fixed this by rigging the wire deeper into the pedal. THis happened a long time ago.

6. Overall, the wiring seems to be crap. My headlights shut off every now and then due to loose wiring in the attachment that connects directly to the lightbulbs.

There are other problems with the rear suspension that I can't adequately describe.