Two problems related to brake light on have been reported for the 1997 Ford Taurus. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
When driving the car at a low rate of speed a few miles from my neighborhood, I noticed that the brake light indicator came on. I slowed down to look around the car but could not find anything. I drove the car home and just as I was driving into my neighborhood, the brakes stopped working. Very luckily, I did not get into an accident. It turns out that the metal rear brake lines running underneath the driver's side front door were completely corroded and one of the lines had burst (the one affecting the diagonal brake circuit for the front driver side and rear passenger side). This came without warning, and I could have easily been stranded (or killed) on a busy highway out of control. This is a safety issue justifying a recall. Amazingly, the other underside components of the vehicle are in much better shape than the brake lines. Why Ford would fail to properly coat or protect a critical component like the rear brake lines so that they would not corrode is an inexcusable safety hazard. I have read of this rear brake line issue elsewhere being extremely common for this vehicle, so this is not a "one off" event. Sooner or later, someone will get into a serious accident or be killed!.
Driving at 55 mph I applied the brakes lightly and the car started to accelerate, I stepped on the brake pedal but it would not slow the car at all and it was hard to steer , the steering wheel seemed to try to pull to either side, back and forth but I kept it going as straight as I could,then the abruptly pivoted 180 degrees about the left front wheel and the car slid sideways accross the right lane and hit the guardrail with the left front corner and left side of the car.