 2000 Taurus no gauges, engine loses power
This is kind of a lengthy post, but I wanted to be thorough. Please read the whole thing.
I have a 2000 ford taurus ses with the 3.0 dohc. Today (Sunday) I took the car out to drop off my daughter (20 min drive roundtrip). On my way back the I noticed the air conditioning started to get warm. Then all the gauges stopped working, no blinkers, no power windows or locks, the abs light came on, and the engine lost power. I was barely able to limp back home. When I got home, I opened the coolant overlow (you'll understand why in a later paragraph) and saw that coolant was spitting into the overflow (kind of like if you turn a faucet on and off multiple times really fast).
A little background.
We bought the car 3 years ago for our son and daughter to drive back and forth to school. 3 weeks after we bought it, the spark plug blew out of the #4 cylinder. The dealer fixed it after much threatening on our part. (They had done a tune up on it before we bought it.) A week later we found the rear springs were broken. The dealer refused to fix these. So we had it done.
Since the plug incident, every so often the car runs rough. Last year it would not pass the EPA test. The code was engine misfire. We took it to our mechanic who, after replacing plugs, oxygen sensors, vacuum hoses and I can't remember what else, was able to get a variance on the epa test. The #4 cylinder every so often is at 75% normal compression. He thinks a valve is out of round and turns every so often and doesn't seal right. He said the car is not worth it to tear the engine apart.
We also had all new brakes, rotors and drums put on the car.
The low coolant light comes on every so often, whether the car is warmed up or not. The engine light does also - ever since it threw the plug. Other than this, the car was running okay.
Last week my son, father in law (retired ASE mechanic) and I put new ready mount struts and sway bar links on the front of the car (broken spring). The car wouldn't start and we found the battery wouldn't hold a charge. Being under warranty, we got a free replacement.
Friday my son took the car to his girlfriends. He called me and said as he pulled in her drive the car started smoking. I drove out and found that the 3 way connecter for the upper radiator hose had broken.
We were able to track down the parts, replaced the connector and the upper radiator hose. We had some rust and crud in the hoses. We put in a gallon and a half of 50/50 mix of anti-freeze so we could get the car home. We planned on flushing the system in couple of days.
Which brings us the problem in the first paragraph. Normally, I wouldn't have driven the car, but all other vehicles were gone and I thought 20 minutes of in town driving would be okay.
I would appreciate any input as to what may be causing the current issue (and whether we should cut our losses and dump the car)
Thank you. | 
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