1996 MERCURY SABLE 65,000 MILES ON SPEEDO. TRANSMISSION STARTED TO SLIP ALSO RUST UNDER VEHICLE. LINCOLN MERCURY STATED REPAIR WOULD COST 4 TO 5 THOUSAND DOLLARS AND YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUNK THE VEHICLE

If that transaxle has been in the car since
2003 & never been rebuilt, it is due now

Taurus transaxles avg is about 65,000 miles
over the last 25 years or so,that info is avail
on the internet

I also owned a trans repair shop & over 50% of
my work was caravans & close behind taurus

Well anything is possible, but I would expect the transmission to work given the time and mileage.
Is there any way you could drive it a short distance before spending much money ?
I am assuming you are having the fuel tank drained and the cooling system flushed among other things.
I would change the fluids and try to drive it a few blocks before spending money on much else to see what it will need.

check for a problem oil line to the oil cooler in the radiator or loose connections at the transmission
the oil is probably running back from a different position to where the spot on the floor occurs

It's done

No fix but to replace or rebuild

Why would you drive it with a leaking condition?

At best, the avg life of that transaxle is 65,000 miles

The average life of a taurus or sable transaxles is a
surprising 65,000 miles,then you have to rebuild it
I only recently read that

In the early 1990's I owned a trans repair business
& over half my work was taurus & caravans
The rest was japanese

I can not see that being the original transaxle from
1995, but I wouldn't hold out hope of any type of
simple fix

There are non to my recall ,other than a cable on
the throttle body & I don't even know if they still exist

This is a front wheel drive vehicle and has no power-train components in the rear of the car. The noise coming from the back is not related to your transmission. I would highly reccommend going to a ford dealership as these are typically trust-worthy and always use OEM parts. I also have an 03 sable with 101k miles it has always been reliable and has original transmission. It is possible something else is hard ****.

I am not sure.  I know my brother in laws 2000 ford taurus speedo quit working and come to find out it was the sensor on the transmission.  Cost 15 bucks and is working now.

Coil pack failures are pretty common on these vehicles. If your vehicle has less than 100k miles they maybe covered under Customer Satisfaction Program no. 07M07.The repair would have to be performed at a Ford or Lincoln/Mercury dealership.

To replace the transmission you will need to:

lift the vehicle
support then engine using a hoist
Support the transmission using a hoist
Unbolt the motor mounts (There are 4 of them)
Lower the engine 8 - 10 inches
Unbolt the transmission
Lower the transmission
Raise up the new transmission and follow the steps in reverse.

Trust me, this is NOT fun :( the top transmission bolt is REALLY hard to get to.

I hace a 19196 sable-the problem is the transaxle speed sensor-this part sends all speed info to the computer ..-First symptom(speedometer stops working and then transmission shifts erratacially and power steering becomes hard and engine light comes on..The computer on this all eletronic car cannot send proper signals to the speedo-trans-power steering and other functions without knowing how fast or slow the car is going..Have the SPEED SENSOR mounted on top of the tranaxle replaced and all will be well.Part is not to expensive.labor can vary depending whether you have 3.0OHV or DOHC engine-some cars have to have exhaust dropped to get at it-Good Luck All