I was working on my 2004 Ford Taurus the other day when I tried to start the vehicle my starter cranked slow, and I didn’t understand what was going on. After I did some research, I found out that my starter could be going out, and I need to have it tested. So the question that came to my mind was How do I replace the starter on my 2004 Ford Taurus? Here is what I found from my research on the topic.
Your starter on the 2004 Ford Taurus is going to be located under your oil filter on the front side of the engine. This starter is held in by two thirteen millimeter bolts, and you will need to disconnect your cables that are attached to your start solenoid as well. Before you start taking the cables off, make sure you disconnect the battery first. So here is the order the removal is going to be.
Use a chock block and chock the rear wheels. Then with using a floor jack, you will need to jack up the front of the vehicle and place jack stands under the lift points on the front of the vehicle. Disconnect battery; the negative
terminal only will be sufficient.
Then take the red power cable and the smaller remote wire off of the starter solenoid. Then you will remove the two bolts that are holding the starter in place.
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What do I need to use when replacing the starter on my 2004 Ford Taurus?
When it comes to replacing your starter, you will need a few tools. You will need a ½” drive ratchet, a thirteen-millimeter deep well socket ½” drive, a ten-millimeter deep well socket ¼” drive, floor jack, two jack stands, and a ¼” drive ratchet. If you need any of these tools, I put them in the Tool Library for you that is linked to Amazon, which I found great prices for them!
When you have the starter bolts out, and the starter is ready to come out, I would suggest you have a rag on standby or be wearing some gloves, due to the location of the starter.
I don’t know what Ford thought when they decided the location of the starter, because the area is below the oil filter. You change the oil filter a lot more than you do the starter.
So when you take off the oil filter to replace it during your routine maintenance oil change, the oil runs out and all over your starter. So gloves or a rag will keep this mess off of you while you work.
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Where do I replace the starter on my 2004 Ford Taurus?
Where you replace, the starter is going to be totally up to you. This is a beginner level repair, so if you feel comfortable with it, then you can do the repair and save yourself some money. In the case that you do not feel comfortable doing the repair, then you can take it to an auto shop.
The price of this repair at a repair shop depends on where you take it. I called five different shops to see the average of the repair, and it ranges from $379 and $481. The automotive shops I checked with were three nationwide companies and two local shops.
The nationwide shops surprisingly were the average priced, but we’re still higher than I would like to pay for thirty minutes of work. One of the local shops must be drunk because they wanted $658 for the repair. So it all depends on where you take your vehicle if you are not comfortable with doing the repair yourself.
Why do I need to replace the starter on my 2004 Ford Taurus?
You need to replace your starter due to the wear and tear that has caused your starter’s internal parts to wear out and start to fail. The crazy part is when I was working on my Ford Taurus on a no start issue the auto store I took it to Advanced Auto and Autozone to test my starter; both shops said the starter was okay. That was because when the auto part stores check the starter, they do not put the starter under a load.
The shop puts it on their starter test machine, and they are looking to see if the clutch will pop out the centrifuge to crank the engine. In the case that it does that, then the starter is good, and nothing is wrong with it. Sadly that is not all you need to do to your starter to see if it is operational.
That is like testing your battery for a charge, but you only check the surface charge, it will not get you anywhere, and the same goes for that starter test. So you need to find a shop that does a load test when checking the starter. That will tell you if your starter is still good, and for mine, it was not and it needed to be replaced.
This was because of a slow crank that I would not let this problem go and thankfully I didn’t, or the starter would have given out when I was away from my home, and it would have stranded me. Can you do a load test yourself on the starter you might ask yourself? Yes, you can if you have a remote start switch or another person is helping you. 
You can crank the car while having your multimeter on the starter terminals and if the starter goes from 12 volts to anything below 10.5 volts then the starter is needing to be replaced. Of course, in the case that the starter stays above the 10.5 voltage mark, then it is still good.
This is key when it comes to testing your starter, and it has to be under load to see if it can do its job correctly. I wish I knew that before wasting my time chasing ghosts in the engine.
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When do I need to replace the starter on my 2004 Ford Taurus?
A great indication to when you need to replace your starter is when the engine does not crank, and you have fuel and a new battery already. Also, a little tip as well is to keep a close eye on your cables leading to the starter.
The cables corrode due to water getting in the cable. Any corrosion in the cable causes resistance and resistance does not let electricity pass through, and no electricity means no cranking.
Engines are quite simple after you remember the basics. The hard part is remembering the basics when your vehicles are not running correctly. Those basics are that your car relies on five things fuel, air, spark, compression, and timing. The starter falls under a couple of those categories as vital to that categories existence.
Compression cannot happen unless your starter crank starts the engine to build pressure. Air is sucked in due to pressure dropped to form compression, fuel is sprayed in at the right time that was set by the timing, and the timing and the starter have to be working hand in hand to get everything else on the right foot.
So as long as you remember those five things that are needed for an engine to work correctly, then you can diagnose any no crank no start car out there. Just remember the basics when it comes down to needing the information at that time.
I hope you enjoyed my article and it helped you with the problem you were having. I hope you catch out my next piece!
