1998 Taurus Need Your Help

Good morning friends. This is a little off topic but it is a Ford! My sisters husband died about 4 months ago and I've been taking care of things for her and my niece. My niece has a 1998 Ford Taurus with a 3.0.The other day while going down the road she said it seemed like it was getting harder to mash the gas pedal. Then she said all of the warning lights came on and it sounded like 2 symbols rubbing together and it sounded like it came from the passenger side and she though she smelled rubber burning. Well they got it towed home and I looked at it and I don't see anything wrong looking at it and I put my spark tester on a plug and it lit up when I turned it over. I can hear the fuel pump running when I turn the key on. I'm going to try some either in it to see if it hits or not. Any ideas? They can't afford to take it some where and I need to get it fixed for them. Any help with things I can look at or try will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
I don?t know anything about the Taurus 3.0 but had exactly same symptoms on another car when the belt idler failed and it let the idler pulley ride against the engine drive pulley. Same sound, dash lights all on, burning rubber as it chewed up & took out the serpentine belt.
 
It may not be obvious. On ours, the back of the belt was shiny and the outer edges of the idler pulley were scraped clean of paint, and actually sharpened a bit from the rubbing. I initially thought the belt had stretched, replaced it ($s) and the noise went away for just a day or so. Noise came back & I had to look more closely to see what the problem was. Yes, got to spend more $s on another belt, as well as the idler mechanism this time.
 
You make it sound like the car won't start, is that the way it is?
Do not use ether on it!
If you have spark I would put a fuel pressure gauge on it to see if you have fuel pressure. Next step is to put a noid light on an injector wire or try listening with a stethoscope or the screwdriver to the ear and see if the injectors pulse. Pull a few plugs and see what they look like.
There's a possibility the exhaust is stopped up. If you suspect it you can drop the pipe at the manifold or pull the oxygen sensor to relieve the back pressure and see if it starts.
 
I had one of those Fords. The comments about bad idler sounds right on. Would be a quick check anyway. Loosen the belt and see if rotates. If it was bad enough to be your smoking gun you won't be able to turn it.
 
While the belt is loose check the PS and AC shafts to ensure that they turn as freely....on the AC not just the clutch, but the actual compressor shaft too.
 
Thanks for all of your replies. Yes it turns over but just won't crank up. I'll look at it more on Saturday and let you all know if I find the problem Thanks again for the suggestions.
 

As others have stated, check the idler. I had a Taurus once that had the air conditioner compressor sieze up. Just driving down the road and like you describe there was squeeling and rubber burning. The compressor was fried but the clutch bearings were OK so simple fix was pulling the electrical connector on the clutch so it wouldn't engage. I had a much smaller budget back in those years so the car only had 4-60 air conditioning after that. (four windows down, going 60 MPH)
Good luck!
 

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