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.
I am a letter carrier for the United States postal service in whitestone, NY. We have 33 1998 Ford Windstar in our fleet. I have noticed 3 recurrent problems in our vans, in the three years that we have had them. First, the vehicles have manual crank windows, not power windows. The driver side window regulator has failed on several vehicles, perhaps 6 of them, and on a few of them, failed more than once. There has got to be better material used in these window regulators for the future. The failure rate is really unacceptable. The second problem that I have noticed, is a squealing noise coming from the front suspension. I have heard this on many vehicles so it seems that this is also an engineering defect. The third recurrent problem is a strange one. When the weather gets warm, the computer reads that there is an open door, yet all of the doors are securely locked. The reminder chimes will ding, the icon will appear on the dash, and the interior lights stay on. Strangely enough, when the speed is over 15mph, the chimes will stop dinging, but the dashboard icon will stay lit. One of our vehicles has been to the shop 8 times for this problem, and they still can't figure out what the problem is! if I see these recurrent problems on a small sample of 32 vehicles, I can only imagine that the same problem must happen all over the country wherever Windstar are being used. Somebody in authority, please investigate these problems! thanks.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Little Neck, NY, USA