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What 45 owners told NHTSA about the 2018 Ford Taurus

These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.

All (45)Crash / fire / injury (4)Backup camera & sensors (10)Body & structure (9)Electrical system (7)Suspension (6)Transmission & drivetrain (6)Engine & cooling (4)Engine (3)Visibility & wipers (2)Brakes (1)Child Seat (1)

3 of 45 complaints match · Engine · clear filters

Dec 11, 2024Engine

This 2018 Ford Taurus had a water pump fail. This vehicle has a water pump inside the engine instead of attached to the outside of the engine like usual. When it fails, coolant fluid gets inside of the engine and ruins it. Normally, when a water pump fails, coolant would leak but not inside of the engine. This is a design flaw. This 2018 Taurus was bought new and maintained with excellence at Ford dealerships. This is a loss of worth of $6000 to me. The dealership states it would cost $10000 to replace the engine so it is not worth fixing. We will be getting rid of it so there will be nothing available for inspection especially since you would have to take the engine apart to get at it. Safety was not a concern. I am reporting this to you at the suggestion of Ford Customer Relations. Interestingly, today the service advisor at the dealership said he had 2 other Tauruses at the dealership at this same time with the same water pump failure/engine destruction. It seems unlikely that this is a coincidence. There should be a recall so that others do not suffer. A warning light did come on. AAA was called and the vehicle was towed to the dealership.

NHTSA ODI 11630194

Nov 27, 2023Transmission & drivetrainEngine

After exiting thruway after driving 10-15 minutes, car shuts off at a stop sign/traffic light. notice on screen right hand side state transmission not in park. I put car into park then restart vehicle. This has happened three times in last 6 months. Taken to dealer and they cannot reproduce problem or when scanned, no problem shows up.

NHTSA ODI 11557073

Jan 8, 2019Transmission & drivetrainEngine

TURNED OFF ENGINE BUTTON W/O PUTTING IN PARK AND CAR ROLLED BACK ON MY DRIVEWAY

NHTSA ODI 11165053

Working with the data? Download all 45 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 21, 2026

How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the full 2018 Ford Taurus verdict →