A SHO Story

I see you have stumbled across the link for this page. This is the story of the trials and tribulations I have experienced with my car. As you probably know it is a 1993 Ford Taurus SHO. It is amazing to think that as of right now, I have owned this car for less than a year and it has already put me through quite a bit of headaches and many nights of frustrations.

    I first saw my baby sitting on one of those car ramps at a used car lot. At the time, I knew very little about the Taurus SHO. A guy I worked with had a '95 Silver Frost MTX, but beyond that I knew nothing else about the car. I knew there was something about them and I knew they were rare. The color of red caught my eye and I knew I had to own that car.

After a few times driving by on my way to my uncle's house in my POS '87 Chevy Celebrity I asked him to take a look at the car. I opened the hood and immediately fell in love with the vehicle. We took it for a test drive around his area. He floored it and that is when I first saw what was known as "Torque Steer". He said "Its got some pickup!" We looked it over a few more times and he gave the OK for me to purchase the car. I did a little research, found that the price they were asking was reasonable. Next was the girlfriend.

She drove it and she just smiled. She drove it some more and laughed. She mentioned that she had always wanted to get a "SHO". She soon gave her "ok" for the car as well. So back we went to the lot and bought the car. Before we took possession of the car the lot was nice enough to replace the leaky radiator, (without me asking) the tires and a few other small details. Seemed like a good deal to me.

Then the fun started. Like all things I buy, I research them after I buy them. I started looking around on the internet for information on the "Taurus SHO". I found a few personal web pages, hints and tricks, but nothing that truly satisfied my questions about the car. I still had an idea that the car was special, but how special?

Then one day, I stumbled across SHOTimes. BAM I FOUND IT! It was a like a fountain of knowledge all dedicated to this one vehicle, the SHO. I spent a few hours reading the site and becoming very familiar with the pro's and con's of the car. Still not scared off, I started looking into things further. I went into eBay and did a search on the car. Up popped 3 pages of stuff for the Taurus SHO. One of those things was a tiny little sticker that said "Yamaha Inside" and at the bottom of the page was a little link for the SHOForum. Curious, I clicked the link and BAM! Once again I struck gold. The forum was one of the most single useful tools when it comes to this car. I found out tons of information from this site. I registered immediately and started asking questions right away.

Then one day I read a thread about a group buy on some suspension parts. Someone started a group buy on Koni Strut/Eibach Spring combo. I talked it over with my now Fiancé and she agreed to let me get in on the group buy. The car's rear was sagging and when I went over a bump I would get a bad rattle. So I figured since I need to replace them, why not go with the best? Sounded logical right? I figured my uncle can give me a hand in the installation and it should only take a day to do right?  WRONG!

Finally the parts arrived. My fiancé suggested that a friend she knows work on it, but I wanted to do this with my uncle. We got all the tools together and we were all set to get it done. Got up early the next Saturday, ready to do the job. We started working on the rear. Got the car jacked up and removed everything. That is when everything started to snowball. We got to the spindle bolt and the worst possible thing happened. While backing the bolt out, I snapped it! A few more things happened and we gave up.

I went through a big production (fight) with my uncle about respect, blah blah blah. I knew he wouldn't put the car back together so I could limp it back home. I had to find another way to get the job done. I decided to listen to my fiancé and ask her friend to help me get the car back together. I met him a few weeks prior and he seemed like an honest and ok guy. He was able to get the car together quickly and we got it back home. He told me to give him a week or so, so he could finish up something he was working on in his shop.

A few weeks later, he said he had finished up and I could bring my car over that weekend. I brought it over and the work started. This time I was letting him do all the work. While he was working I decided to go ahead and pull the intake off and clean it. I got directions from SHOTimes and followed the procedures. He took one look at the intake gaskets and said that they would need replacing. So I started to look for prices. I quickly found that it wasn't easy to find parts for this car.

After searching all over town for those gaskets and finding they weren't cheap, I decided to get on the internet and call a few places. I found that it was cheaper to buy a gasket set then buy them separately. In my divine wisdom I also found that now was the time to do the infamous 60K maintenance on my car. Tony said he shouldn't have a problem doing it. He usually works on GM products, but how hard could it be? So we ordered the parts and then work started to stall.

He worked as a manager at a Pizza place so he had to juggle work and working on my car. Time passed slowly and work progressed even slower. To make a long story short, after a few heated arguments and some calls to the owners of the place where he worked, we finally got my car reassembled, albeit 2 months later. The suspension was all put together and the engine reassembled and ready to go. Added all the fluids, tranny fluid, coolant, oil (not in that order). After we got the firing order correct the car fired up. Everything seemed fine.

Everything seemed normal and out for a test drive we went. Then it happened. Something started acting weird. To this day I am still not sure what that noise was, but it sounded like a brake was dragging. After a short 2 or 3 mile drive we pulled over into a parking lot. He looked under the car and yelled at me to turn the car off quick and pop the hood. He quickly opened the hood and then I saw it. FIRE!!!!! He tried blowing it out. We ran over to a motel that was close and got an extinguisher. When we got back the flames were about 2 feet off the top of the engine. We put the fire out and called the fire station, which just happens to be 50 yards down the road.

What a night, I was tapped, mentally and physically. The next day, I started to call the insurance company and the tow company and had it towed to the dealership. After a few hours of being very concerned I got the estimate for the repairs. Needless to say, the insurance company totaled out my car. I realized that I would have to buy the car back. I sunk far to much money into parts and time to let it go to the junk yard. My next decision was figure out whether or not I should part the car out or repair it. I only had the car a short time at this point. I was not ready to let it go so I decided to repair the car.

In the end it only took half of the original estimate, thanks to a, now good, friend of mine at the dealer and a few people from the SHOForum. After only a week or so, my girl was back in my hands, still showing signs of carbon from the fire and a damaged hood.

Now that I look back after a few months, a few grand and a few problems here and there, the car is finally running great. The transmission went out, spark plug wire failure and a few other minor bugs (still chasing down a few), I am still in love with my car. Some people call that lunacy, but I call it fanaticism of the SHO!

-Prophet-