Six problems related to strut failure have been reported for the 2002 Ford Taurus. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2002 Ford Taurus based on all problems reported for the 2002 Taurus.
Coil spring in driver's side front strut failed suddenly when vehicle was being driven on residential street in sister bay, WI. There was a loud bang when spring fractured and suspension collapsed. Failure of coil spring occurred at about 10:15 am on Thursday June 29, 2017. After vehicle was safely parked in a bank parking lot the owner then jacked up front end and removed wheel/tire. Owner noticed how energy released when coil spring fractured drove spring violently downward to front wheel knuckle assembly. Fortunately when spring was driven downward it did not puncture tire. The next day vehicle was loaded on a transporter and taken to jim olson express in sturgeon bay, WI, for repair. Subsequent repairs included replacement of both front struts and alignment check/adjustment. Total cost of repair including charge of usd 165 by transporter company was usd 1,010. At time of coil spring failure the vehicle had 134,128 miles on the odometer. Visual inspection by owner of broken piece of coil spring did not reveal any surface corrosion. Owner speculates coil spring fracture may have been due to 15 years of stress loads on the spring or perhaps there was a defect in metal of coil spring.
Left front strut spring failed as I was parking the vehicle causing the front tire to blow and locking the steering new strut and spring assy was installed along with a new tire.
2002 Taurus lx driving and rear strut assembly failed spring broke and punctured the tire, vehicle towed for repair. Rear coil springs defective, final cost of new tire and parts and labor on struts approx $875- in repairs.
My Taurus experienced a strut coil spring failure which resulted in the cutting the inside wall of the right front tire. Both struts had to be replaced. If this had happened the highway it would have been extremely dangerous. I replaced one strut last year sametime and other this week.
I woke up in the morning to go to my car and found that the tire on the front driver side had a flat tire. My son went to help me put on the spare tire, but after he took the flat tire off he saw that it had been punctured oddly, and saw that the cause of the puncture was a broken coil spring which is part of the struts. The coil spring was broken so badly that it had a sharp point where it was broken, and a center portion- about 4 to 5 inches of the spring actually had been broken off completely. The whole front end of the car fell and almost broke his hand while he was examining this, luckily he was quick enough to move his hand away. He was able to put the spare tire on, but the coil spring was actually touching and rubbing on top of the spare tire. I drove the car, very cautiously and slowly to a repair shop. They found that all my struts were bad, and the coil spring on the back passengers' side was also broken and actually rusting away. The total estimate for everything,including 4 new coil springs and struts, new tire, new tie rods was $1,239 plus tax. I had to have it fixed, there wasn't any way I could take the chance of driving this car out of the repair shop. I was laid off of my job this past January, so this is a big set back financially for me. I am lucky this didn't happen when I was driving at a high speed, it could have caused a bad accident.
June 2007 discovered both rear springs on our 2002 Ford Taurus were broke resulting in rear strut failure (47124 miles). June 12, 2008 (54193 miles) right front spring broke puncturing the tire. Car was again repaired at c & m Ford in massena where I discovered 1) that there was a recall on 1999-2001 Ford Taurus for this problem and 2) that there were three (3) including myself 2002 Taurus' that had broken front spring this week. Three failures in one week for the same model and year seem extremely high for a small town like massena, NY. When I researched the web I discovered numerous reports from all over.