08 Sable review

Didn't see a "review" section for the 08+ Sable/Taurus so I figured I'd post here:

Recently bought an 08 Sable Premier for the wife. A quick summary:

Pros:

Engine: Great power, very smooth and peppy and gets good fuel economy. Nice sound to it under acceleration. Very quiet at cruise and idle. Gets up to speed so quickly and smoothly that you could get a ticket if not paying attention.

Steering/suspension: SMOOTH ride, nice easy steering. Strong brakes with good pedal feel.

Interior: Understated yet very classy looking. Nice leather seats. Simple controls. Decent stereo. Except for the cheap feeling/looking door panels, the interior seems well put together. TONS of room. Love the moon roof. Wife loves the “Sync” thing.

Exterior: Sharp looking car, seems well put together. Panels all line up nice. The big 18 inch chrome wheels look cool. Looks a lot better than the previous 500/Montego, IMO.

Cons:

Transmission: Not digging the way it shifts at takeoff. Seems like it spends too much time going through gears. 1st to 2nd shift is especially annoying as it is very slow. 1st gear is geared very low so it’s shifting to 2nd almost immediately. This is my first car with a 6 speed auto so I’m wondering if this is normal or if there is a fix for this.

Steering/suspension: Its smooth but also very floaty feeling driving around town. Steering is easy but on the touchy side.

Interior: The seats are comfy but even with an 8 way power seat, I can’t find a good driving position because the steering wheel doesn’t extend outward. I’ve read of this issue in other reviews. The dead pedal sucks. I like that area to be more open. The lack of an 8 way power passenger seat is pretty lame in a car in this price range. Hard and ugly door panels. A little leather or soft vinyl padding in the right places on the door panels would have resolved this. Speedometer is a bit hard to read.

Exterior: The chrome rims are nice but the plastic cladding is cheap and easily damaged. The “lip” of the plastic part is damaged on 3 of the 4 rims. However, it WAS a previous rental car so who knows what kind of hell it went through.

But overall, a nice ride. Perfect for my wife's job as she has to travel all over the state.

I'd also like to add the OE tires are JUNK. The front ones were brand new when we picked it up with 21K miles. The dealer put them on before putting it up for sale. However, the rear tires are VERY noisy, sounds like a dump truck. I suspect the front ones were replaced for the same reason. We had the same issues with the Pirellis that came on our 07 Focus. Going to call the dealer after we get back from vacation and hope they will do something for us, but I'm doubtful.

Good luck on that one - there are countless threads on this forum, and the parallel www.myfordfreestyle.net about the cr*ppy P6 tires and dealers doing virtually nothing - just the way they are. The day I put the Michelin Primacy MXV4's on our Freestyle I could have sworn I'd gone deaf - I could hear nothing at all. Heck, even the Blizzak WS-60's I ran on the FS during the winter were quieter than the P6's. Now, if I can only justify replacing the P6's on the Montego - they're sounding more and more like a set of Firestone Town and Country snow tires every day...

andy

I have the Continental CH95's on my '08 Taurus. The ride is a little stiff and noisy, but I have to give credit where credit is due. They are excellent snow tires. I have a short hill from the street to my garage. During the snows last winter, those tires pulled me up like there wasn't any snow at all. They were the first tires to do that in a while.

I have 23K on my car, and expect another 10K - 15K miles before replacement. I will get my money's worth out of them. I have never liked Pirelli tires. They always went bald quick and the grip was suspect. The sole exception was the P5's that were on my Dad's 80's XJS. Those were some good tires.

I'm not sure whats going on with this thing but when we looked at the car, it had brand new front tires on it. I mean NEW, with the little nipple things still all over the tires. We had to take the car back the other day because there was a shake or shimmy in the steering wheel around 60 mph and also very bad shaking when applying the brakes.

So they machined the front rotors and rebalanced all 4 tires. Drove it around a few days and it seemed fine. Today, we load up the car with luggage, my wife, her parents and myself and hop on the highway to head to Denver for a wedding. As soon as I got up to around 60mph, the wheel starts shaking again!!! WTF. Once the car gets up past 65-70, it goes away for the most part....

Could they really be that incompetent as far as balancing the tires goes? Is there something else going on such as a bent rim? The tires are crappy but they ARE new. They could be bad I suppose but I would think a spin balance machine would pick up on that AND a bent rim. Just the fact the dealer put new tires on before selling it makes me suspect this problem was there before and they attempted to fix it (or cover it up).

Also, could having a "full house" in the car (trunk packed with luggage, 4 people in car) cause this? As I mentioned above, it seemed alright after the dealer until we left on this trip. Even with a lot of weight lifted off the front wheels due to the load in the car, I don't think it should cause this.....

Couple of things. First, the only spin balance machine that can detect a bent rim is the Hunter Road-Force balancer, which checks nearly every aspect of the tire and rim during the balancing process. Most normal spin balancers would be able to to balance an egg-shaped tire if the machine could compensate with enough wheel weights. The key is to have a visual inspection of the wheel/tire when spinning - and I'd say less than 10 percent of the techs who do this actually check - the rest just "trust the machine".

Now, in your case, it could be a bent wheel - but you'd pick that up at various speeds, especially the 65+ speed since that's when you get tire/wheel integrity vibrations. The 55 mph shake is definitely balance - that's the zone where you pick it up - especially if you can drive out of it.

Now, some questions. You said it has (or had) new tires on front when you bought it. Did it shake at these speeds when you got it, and then picked up the shake? When you brought it back and it was smooth - could you tell if they moved any of the tires around? And was it simply "fully loaded" that the shake came back? Does it do the shaking with the car not "fully loaded"? There are certainly other aspects which can cause vibration - loose wheel bearings, loose suspension pieces, mis-alignment - in addition to wheels/tires.

If you can do a little debugging on your own to narrow down when the problem comes and goes, it would help us and the dealer to narrow it down. Or you could bring it to a place that you trust to check it out..

andy

It shook the day we brought it home. Didn't notice it on the brief test drive, unfortunately.

It seemed to be smooth after I picked the car up when they supposedly rebalanced it. All 4 wheels were in the same place but I forgot to "inventory" the wheel weight positions/quantity prior to dropping it off at the dealer to see if anything changed after.

A few days later, we loaded the car up and as soon as I hit around 60 on the interstate, the steering wheel started to shake/shimmy. Near 70 or above, it goes way but it still does it a little on long sweeping curves. Wierd. Once I get to my destination and unload everything, I shall see what happens then.

My guess is that as a rental, the tires were never rotated and the insides were worn.

I bought a 94 Sable in 1995, same thing, I test drove the car then looked under neath, front tires worn to the steel threads inside. Found out later it was a rental, therefore probably never rotated. Later, when I worked for Enterprise, the maintenance department asks our service providers to Change the oil and filter, and rotate the tires. We paid them 20-25 bucks. Guess how often the tires were actually rotated?

I could see that happening but in my case, the front tires are brand new. They were put on before the car was put up for sale and still had the little nipple things all over them. Back ones are not new but look almost new. The back ones sure don't sound new, they sound like a dump truck going down the road, lol.

EDIT: nevermind, I think you were offering a reason as to why they were replaced so early. My bad.

OK. I took it for a quick ride down the highway with no luggage and just me in the car. It shook less but it's still there. It gets worse when you hit the brakes at high speeds, just like before the dealer machined the rotors and lubed up the caliper pins so I'm thinking its shifted/seperated belt(s) in one or both of the front tires. BRAND NEW tires, unreal.

You have warped rotors. Your key is that you said that when you hit the brakes at highway speeds it gets worse. Classic sign that it's the brakes and not the wheels/tires. When the dealer turned the rotors before you bought it, likely they turned them to the point that the thickness is now an issue, and while it was smooth for a while, after use and heating/cooling, they started to warp again. I'd replace the 2 front rotors before you do anything else. And, yes, I have seen this on newer vehicles before. Good news is that rotors are fairly short money - and even if you had to buy them and get the dealer to install them at no cost (unless you want to ahve them eat the whole cost) - you won't be out much at all.....

At least that's my view...

andy

No, they machined them AFTER we bought it, when we took it back to the dealer for the shimmy. I've never heard of rotors causing a shimmy when just cruising along. Also, the brakes don't pulsate at all below 50mph. Usually you will feel it pulsate almost to a stop when braking, in my experiences anyways. But who knows, we'll see what they say at the dealer when I get to my destination.

Hey guys. It SEEMS at this point it was indeed the front rotors.....

Took it to the local Lincoln/Merc dealer here in the Denver area today. He found the front rotors were STILL out of spec and he also re-checked the wheel balance, which he found to be OK. I was doubtful machining the rotors would do anything but it SEEMS to have fixed it.

He also said the rear rotors are out of spec but I'm not really feeling anything back there and I don't think my "home" dealer would pay for that one. So I told them to just do the fronts. He said the rears don't have much margain as far as machining them so I may just replace them at some point.

I don't get it. My home dealer machined them but apparently not enough/correctly. Think they were afraid of taking too much off?? I've also never had a warped rotor cause a vibration at speed WITHOUT the brakes applied. I've had seriously warped rotors on past cars that made the whole car shake violently when braking yet it road smooth when cruising along. Wierd.

Another problem that seems to be developing is the trans has a big time delay between 1st and 2nd. I think the correct term is a "flare". It also shifts very hard on that same shift under light throttle but not always. The "flare" seems to go away with a load in the car (passengers and luggage). WTF, lol. Car only has 25K miles now....

Sometimes an out-of-spec condition on a rear rotor can cause a feeling thru the vehicle, so it might be contributing. But you've now turned the front rotors twice - and a dealer has said the rear rotors are otu of spec - only one solution is 4 new rotors. I'd demand satisfaction with that approach, and I'm willing to bet the car drives like a limo after you get done with that.

Can't comment on the shift point issues - I've got the CVT...

andy

It seems to be fine now so I'll sit on it for now. Shaking rear wheels/rotors is usually felt through the seat. This was all in the steering wheel.