Two problems related to instrument panel have been reported for the 1999 Ford Taurus. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Was driving my 1999 Ford Taurus at a speed of 30-35 mph after driving at 70-75 mph steady for about an hour on the hwy and then without any notice while driving, the speedometer dropped from 30-35mph to 0-5 mph and stayed at that for about 3-5 seconds and my car tried to downshift and deexcelerate and also drop the transmission into a lower gear all on its own without any attempts to brake or slow down from my current speed of 30-35 mph. It did this twice within 90 seconds of each time. Since I was less than a mile from my destination I made it safely to my location and haven't drove it since. This activity did not occur at all while I was driving on the hwy (41 north) about 10 minutes prior to driving at city speed of 30-35 mph after exiting for about 2 miles to my final location which did not require any stop and go driving except when I got off the hwy and slowed to 30-35 mph onto prospect Ave in appleton, WI. I did notice a similar thing happen to my car about a year and a half ago, but at that time the only thing that happened was the speedometer dropped from about 55 mph to 0 a few times within 5-10 seconds but it did not try to shift to a lower gear like this time when the speedometer and rpm indicators quit on me while in operation.
The contact owns a 1999 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that there was smoke rising from the fuse box under the instrument panel. The contact safely extinguished the fire and did not notify police. There were no injuries. The dealer was not notified. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was also not notified. The failure mileage was 200,000.