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.
While driving transmission would come out of gear and cause vehicle to stop operating until gear kicked back in. This condition could lead to a vehicle collision. Transmission was inspected and rebuilt by a independent repairs shop.
While driving on highway about 30-40mph on vacation vehicle failed to shift into gear, ande was engulfed with smoke. Pulled over and had vehicle towed to a transmission shop. Contacted dealer, and had the transmission replaced but it was not under warranty.
We have had the same defects/repairs that most of the other Windstar owners have had. Ford Motor Company will not assist in helping to pay for these repairs. We feel that Ford Motor Company knows that these problems are because of their design flaws, but they are not standing behind their product. Our most expensive repair has been the engine which needed to be rebuilt. Per the Ford dealers, and other sources, this is due to engine coolant leaking into the engines, and has been occurring approx. 10,000- 20,000 miles after the head gaskets have been replaced.
Virtually no first gear. At a complete stop it would hesitate until approximately 2.5 RPM and then take off. Transmission was replaced, but one week later engine head gasket blew.
- Douglass, KS, USA
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For the past week the vehicel randomly would hesitate during accelleration. Today the transmission would not go in reverse. Called the dealer, they said 36,000 miles was the warrenty limit. I asked if Windstar's were having transmission problems. They claimed no. Called several shops and they said they had seen many Ford winstar transmission failures and the repair cost could be between $700 to $3000. I checked your site and I see hundres of windsatr transmission failures. I want you to add me to your list and help me to get Ford to take care of their poor design and manufacturing. Repairing my vehichle and all others in my situation at no cost is the only right thing to do. I will contact Ford Consumer Affairs in the morning and see what they say.
Forward piston axod-E made of aluminum and fails replacement is now steel. This faul causes transmission to fail requiring complete overhaul or replacement
The automatic transmission on the vehicle needs to be rebuilt. At 80,000 miles. I do not tow with the vehicle nor did I abuse it. I am the original owner and the cars has been well maintained.
In the past four months, this vehicle has had the following repairs: 6/17/99: Coolant leak, resulting in replacing head gasket and water pump, rear wheel brakes seized, scheduled tune-up.total cost $1688.21. Cost of tune-up was $272.92. 7/22/99: Remove engine and install re-manufactured engine. Total cost $4,087.88. 8/23/99: Oil leak. Main engine seal leaking: Total cost: No charge. Prior to this we have had a temperature gauge malfunction, new starter motor, ABS brake malfunction, sliding door recall and rear courtesy light would not go off. Now the automatic transmision has failed.
In March 1999 the head gasket failed on my 1995 Ford Windstar.the failure occurred at 75000 miles which was beyond Ford's extended warrenty for this defect by 15000 miles as well as being beyond the Dec.1998 cutoff date.when we contacted Ford's customer relations department we were told this was "normal wear and tear" so we had to eat the $1000 repair bill.in May 1999, on the way home from work after midnight the low oil pressure warning indicator came on.the upsot of this was a complete engine rebuild again at my expense;$2800.last Monday, October 4,1999 on the way back to louisville, ky.from waymart, pa. In Maryland the transaxle gave out 600 miles from home.repair bill for this, $1800.the safety issue in all of this?anytime you are stranded along the side of the interstate away from home after dark your safety is in jeapordy.
I have found a plethera of information on the web about this defective foward clutch piston. It amazes me that Ford has not recalled such an engineering failure! please help. If you need me to send you the web site, please let me know.
Took the car in to the dealer 31000 miles to have transmission checked out becuase it was shifting hard. They said it was fine. 20000 mile later it goes out.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Lakeside, CA, USA