On the first of December, I had self-serviced my van- oil change, new wipers, headlamp restoration, cleaning battery terminals and anti-freeze change. I disconnected the battery to do a thorough cleaning. At the end of my TLC moment with our van, I reconnected the battery. The interior lights came on for a short time on their own and eventually went off. I shrugged this off as nothing to be too concerned about. The next day after travelling near 80 miles to work, the lights came on again after turning the engine off. I took the keys out of the van and lights went out. While waiting in the van ( I had 20 minutes to kill before clocking in), the lights came on and turned off twice three times before I decided to disconnect the battery for concern my battery would die before my 10 hour shift was over. No problems after that episode until early this morning when my wife went to take our baby girl for a Dr. appointment. She had the L/H slide door open and was placing our daughter in her car seat when the overhead and door lamps would intermittently flutter off and on.
After cruising the web, there apparently is a lot more to this problem with all Windstar models that are not reported. Surely, the manufacturer would know this, gather their little electrical 'genius' engineers and create a solution to this for currently owned models, not just to pass on the corrections to new models or products. Ford made good products until somewhere in the 80's. I don't know if it was because of the computer technologies in our vehicles or factory layoffs. But after 30 years, all the companies, not just Ford, should have the 'bugs' out of the systems by now. Just because my vehicle is 12 years old and has more than 125,000 miles is no excuse for glitches and major failures. Our van is our livelihood for now as my family has two special needs kids and we don't have the income to replace it nor commit to costly repairs. I would love advice on cheap and EFFECTIVE repairs- some DIY and some take it to a serious pro (not the ones that say it's ok for for abs lights to stay lit).
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
On the first of December, I had self-serviced my van- oil change, new wipers, headlamp restoration, cleaning battery terminals and anti-freeze change. I disconnected the battery to do a thorough cleaning. At the end of my TLC moment with our van, I reconnected the battery. The interior lights came on for a short time on their own and eventually went off. I shrugged this off as nothing to be too concerned about. The next day after travelling near 80 miles to work, the lights came on again after turning the engine off. I took the keys out of the van and lights went out. While waiting in the van ( I had 20 minutes to kill before clocking in), the lights came on and turned off twice three times before I decided to disconnect the battery for concern my battery would die before my 10 hour shift was over. No problems after that episode until early this morning when my wife went to take our baby girl for a Dr. appointment. She had the L/H slide door open and was placing our daughter in her car seat when the overhead and door lamps would intermittently flutter off and on.
After cruising the web, there apparently is a lot more to this problem with all Windstar models that are not reported. Surely, the manufacturer would know this, gather their little electrical 'genius' engineers and create a solution to this for currently owned models, not just to pass on the corrections to new models or products. Ford made good products until somewhere in the 80's. I don't know if it was because of the computer technologies in our vehicles or factory layoffs. But after 30 years, all the companies, not just Ford, should have the 'bugs' out of the systems by now. Just because my vehicle is 12 years old and has more than 125,000 miles is no excuse for glitches and major failures. Our van is our livelihood for now as my family has two special needs kids and we don't have the income to replace it nor commit to costly repairs. I would love advice on cheap and EFFECTIVE repairs- some DIY and some take it to a serious pro (not the ones that say it's ok for for abs lights to stay lit).
- jholloway, LESLIE, GA, US