1998 Ford Taurus SE 3.0L ohv 168,000 miles

Car can rev but won't move.

Ever since I bought the car you can put it in reverse, back up, put it in drive and the car will pop when you try to drive forward. Over the past two days, when you press the gas from a dead stop the car will make a metallic deep machine gun sound. I'd take my foot off the gas for a second. It'll then drive fine. That exact same problem happened today except after driving a 1/2 mile the car lost all power and came to a complete stop. I checked the trans fluid. It was full and good looking. It idles fine but pushing the gas only revs it. It won't drive.

It sounds like you probably have an internal trans problem. A few thing that you could check just to be sure would be to look at the axles when it's not going forward to see if one is spinning while the wheel isn't turning. does the speedometer register speed while in drive and the car isn't moving?

The speedometer moves up and down fine with the throttle. Autozone also said that it was: A) the differential, B) some other part (I'm not mechanically inclined LOL) or C) the tranny. However, my Haynes manual said it may be the CV joint or universal while Pepboys says it could be the CV joint as well. Could any of those be possibilities? I'm thinking it's the tranny as well but I just want to make as sure as I can before I start dipping into my pockets. Thank you soooo much for your help and advise.

Yes it's very possible it could be an axle (cv joint). The few suggestions I offered would help narrow that down. If you can look under the car and see one of the axles actually spinning but the tire isn't moving while in drive, then there is a problem in that axle. If you are sitting in the car with it in drive, giving it gas and its not moving but the speedo is saying you are doing 30mph (or whatever speed) that indicates the output shaft in the transmission is rotating and again I would be looking at an axle.

Just on a side note if it is a bad axle, I would also check the motor mounts because a broken mount can cause an axle to go bad due to too much engine movement.........Also you need to use care and all precautions when looking under the car. Keeping in mind if it is a bad axle & it "catches" an unsecure car will start moving...........quickly...

will check that tomorrow. Thank you for the help.

Hello, I have the exact same problem with my '97 Ford Taurus. It happened about a week ago... and I am wondering if you ever figured out what your problem turned out to be? I'm desperately hoping i dont need to replace the whole transmission as i hear it can be easily 1000 dollars... and well im a university student and would find it hard to afford that... anyways, if you found out what it is could you let me know... thank you.