This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Consumer was traveling about 60mph on the highway and air conditioner was blowing hot air. Vehicle overheated on the highway due to engine head gasket blowing out.
While driving about 65 mph when vehicle stalled without a warning. Problem was reoccurring. Vehicle was taken to dealer, and they told consumer that problem was with a timing cover leak.
Vehicle just cut off. Consumer had to be told to take vehicle to dealer. Dealer replaced motor and oil gasket. Then, July 6 of 2000 motor went out again. Took vehicle back to dealer, and they said they had to replace motor and crankshaft.
- Gathersburg, MD, USA
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Consumer vehicle had a recall notice for the head gasket. Damage was done antifreeze and oil mix up together and the head gasket blew. And the rear and front bearings were replaced. The engine cracked.
Vehicle has been well maintained and routinely serviced per manufacturers recommenations and does not have towing capability. Transmission would occasionly behave as if it were in neutral when trying to accelerate from a complete stop. It finally lost all drive in first and reverse gears, resulting in a $ 2000 transmission repair at the dealer. The faulty part was a cracked aluminium forward clutch piston, which is now replaced by a steel part.(I have the damaged part.) the transmission troubles started after the main head gaskets blew and overheated the engine. I had to repair the head gaskets myself because my vehicle was 4 months beyond the original recall notice limitations. After I repaired the head gaskets with the new Ford parts, I just recently received the recall extension notice in the mail approx 2 months ago. What lousey timing.
Electrical brake light problem required dealer to pull out dash to repair 8/19/96. Letter from Ford says out of warranty. Failure of auto trans at 59,428 in 11/4/97. There is a service bulletin issued by Ford for forward clutch pistons. Ford refuses again to cover.-- manufacturing defect. In Oct 24, 99 head gasket failure--replaced engine at 87,376 miles. Ford issues recall letter and we receive $3200 from Ford June 16, 2000. Second transmission replacement at 89,021. Mechanic states overheating of engine affected the second transmission. During test drive of third transmission, the speedometer malfunctions. The Ford dealer repairs problem. The total of these repairs alone total approximately $9500!
Vehicle failed on the Pennsylvania turnpike at somerset, pa. Vehicle towed to bedford Ford dealership located in bedford, pa. Service manager (paul weiss) admitted that engine head gasket on 3.8 liter Ford engines are notorious for early failure. Service manager refused to provide any financial relief. Service manager refused to provide name or contact point of Ford district service representative. The Ford customer assistance 800-number is not authorized to provide any financial relief...they can only record an individual owner's complaint. Does NHTSA have any authority to compel Ford Motor Company to take responsibility for a substandard defective engine component and reimburse the owner for a premature head gasket
Was driving to ball game and van lost power and started to make clicking motor noise. Shut off engine and re- started. The engine keep making noise. Drove home at a very slow pace. This reduced noise from motor. Had it towed to garage, who informed me I needed a new engine at a cost of about $3,400. They thought the main bearings where bad but would have to tear it down to find out for sure. Had van towed home. Was afraid to drive van to go trade it in. Paid a guy $300 to put lower bearings in so I could drive it. Lost $2500 on trade in for bad engine. Total lost was $2,990 for towing, work performed and lost trade -in value. A friend of mine had same problem with his 95 Windstar Ford. He took his to Ford dealer and got relief. We did get recall on head- gasket and had that work performed. It was to late, I think it had done caused damage to engine. Ford should have something for people like me who took a hit on trade in because for a bad engine.
I would intermittently smell coolant when my '95 Windstar was stopped and warm. I brought it into to the dealer to check out because I was aware that there have been many issues with head gasket failures on the Windstar (even though I was never notified by Ford Motor Co that there was any kind of "extended warranty" or recall on the head gasket). End result was that the head gasket was not leaking, but the timing cover gasket was. Because I was aware there was the potential for the head gasket failure, I had the dealer replace both the head gasket and the timing cover gasket. The head gasket repair was covered under the "extended warranty" by Ford, however the timing cover gasket was not. After looking into this service issue further, I realize that the timing cover gasket failure is also a very common repair in conjunction with the head gasket repair. I am looking to put pressure on Ford Motor Co to step up and admit that the timing cover gasket is also of poor quality and subject to failure, and am hopeful that an "extended warranty" or "recall" will be issued on the timing cover gasket repair as well.
Overdrive light blinking, we brought vehicle to Ford dealership. The transmission needs to be replaced at a cost of $1500-$2100 (2 quotes from 2 different Ford dealerships). Told us that the transmission was only covered up to 75K under special warranty, we had 80K. We choose to let the vehicle sit in the driveway. A week later check engine light came on. Took it to another Ford dealer, told us the head gasket needs to be repaired again (we repaired it last year). Ford won't let us use the buy-back option as stated in the March 2000 letter to Windstar owners who have head gasket failure. The dealership and a Ford Motor Corp customer service rep said that once we accepted the reimbursement for the first head gasket repair, subsequent head gasket failures could only be repaired, the buy-back option was no longer available. The letter from Ford does not state this and we were not informed at the time of the first repair that this could be a reoccurring problem and that we wonT have that option later to use the buy-back program instead of repairing the vehicle. Car is now sitting in driveway until we figure out what our rights are. We would like Ford to buy back our Windstar for what we owe.
We purchased this used 1995 Windstar and a bumper to bumper warranty in April 2000, and our first MINIvacation to boulder city, the engine failed in the city of barstow California. We had seven passengers in the van at the time, and had to drive to the nearest Ford dealer in barstow to find out the engine was blown. We then had to rent a mini van, and was told my Windstar would be fixed in about a week. After two weeks and a rental charge of $1058 the van was not repaired. We then contacted the dealer where we had purchased the mini van ken grody in the city of buena park, they had picked up our van from the barstow Ford dealer on May 3, 2000 and was promised they would install a new engine within a few weeks. Now it is June 8, 2000 and today I had called for tenth time to the service department and was told the engines are still back ordered. We are very frustrated because we had far in advance made reservation to go on vacation to Arizona to the grand canyon with our four children and we are now told we will not have our van for this trip. Ken grody Ford has given us a rental MINIWindstar van to use, but the rental agreement prohibits us to leave the state of California. We need a vehicle to go on our family reunion in Arizona. This chaps our hide. We need help!! we had looked on the web site under Ford and found out there is a problem with the engines of the 1995 Windstar, and was not told of this problem when we made the purchase, and did not receive any inforamtion from Ford regarding a recall. What is the next step we take to get satisfaction" we had notice that Ford motor was offering $4000 towards a new purchase, but we just had purchased the vehicle for $16,000 and owe $10,000, this is not a very good incentive to move forward to another purchase. We don't know when we will ever see our van again. I feel now we should recieve a new complete drivetrain to include the transaxle. Please help us in this matter, again what should we do"
Where's Ford's accountability? I've changed a gasket in the motor 2 weeks ago and now that $801 repair will be thrown out when the motor is replaced. Ford built tough & to last has now died at 99001 miles. I think Ford should pay for a new motor and reimburse me $801 for a useless gasket., plus $450.50 for a new catalytic converter and hose that got blown bec. Of it.
Just had timing cover gasket replaced before holiday vacation. I believe repair had direct impact on why engine failed. Engine was more sluggish after repair. I noticed problems (lack of acceration) going up hills after the repair. This vehicle's engine is definitely a lemon. This has happened to many others. I'm hoping (praying) Ford will do something. NHTSA should force Ford to cover their mistakes on this model and year.
The last incident reported dated 1/07/00 I was told a very common occurrence with the 3.8 liter engines. Commonly seen in the 95 Windstar and the Ford taraus. I had a coolent leak and had to replace the timing cover, and gasket. This was extensive work with required replacement of the front crankshaft, oil seal and new timing belt. This also did damage to my water pump and I had to have this replaced also. I have copies of my invoices for the services completed and would like to know how to report this to Ford directly.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Eureka, CA, USA