Six problems related to blown head gasket have been reported for the 1997 Ford Windstar. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
I own a 1997 Ford Windstar minivan (VIN# 2fmda514xvbc98040) that contains a 3. 8 v6. At 82,000 miles, the head gasket has blown. The dealer tells me that it will cost between $2000 and $4000 to repair. After doing extensive research on the web, it appears that the 1995 and 1996 models also had head gasket problems due to an admitted design flaw. Ford claims to have corrected the problem-but there are increasing numbers of owners of 1997 models that are experienceing the same problem. Repeated visits to the dealership-as well as numerous calls to Ford-have resulted in dead ends. I get responses such the warranty has expired, there are no recalls on your vehicle at this time, etc. But since this is clearly due to a design flaw in the engine, then shouldn't this still be covered and corrected? Ford offered a brief program to repair the earlier models-so why hasn't this been offered on the later years? Ford claims that they have fixed the problem-which they clearly have not-yet they expect people to simply pay for the repairs. I believe that Ford needs to be held accountable for this, and that they should offer to perform the work at either a discounted rate, or for free since this is due to their engine design. Even the manual claims the head gasket is expected to last for at least 120,000 miles, and I was told that this was the case with this vehicle. Had I known of the problems other owners were having, I would have reconsidered my decision to purchase this van. To that end, I feel that I was misled somewhat. It is my hope to have Ford admit to the problem and offer to repair my vehicle at no charge. Given the circumstances-and the amount of evidence supporting the claim of negligence on the behalf of Ford-this should not be an unreasonable request.
I own a 1997 Ford Windstar minivan (VIN# 2fmda514xvbc98040) that contains a 3. 8 v6. At 82,000 miles, the head gasket has blown. The dealer tells me that it will cost between $2000 and $4000 to repair. After doing extensive research on the web, it appears that the 1995 and 1996 models also had head gasket problems due to an admitted design flaw. Ford claims to have corrected the problem-but there are increasing numbers of owners of 1997 models that are experiencing the same problem. Repeated visits to the dealership-as well as numerous calls to Ford-have resulted in dead ends. I get responses such "the warranty has expired", "there are no recalls on your vehicle at this time", etc. But since this is clearly due to a design flaw in the engine, then shouldn't this still be covered and corrected? Ford offered a brief program to repair the earlier models-so why hasn't this been offered on the later years? Ford claims that they have fixed the problem-which they clearly have not-yet they expect people to simply pay for the repairs. I believe that Ford needs to be held accountable for this, and that they should offer to perform the work at either a discounted rate, or for free since this is due to their engine design. Even the manual claims the head gasket "is expected to last for at least 120,000 miles", and I was told that this was the case with this vehicle. Had I known of the problems other owners were having, I would have reconsidered my decision to purchase this van. To that end, I feel that I was misled somewhat. It is my hope to have Ford admit to the problem and offer to repair my vehicle at no charge. Given the circumstances-and the amount of evidence supporting the claim of negligence on the behalf of Ford-this should not be an unreasonable request.
Head gasket blew out at 68000 miles.
Consumer states head gasket blew, consistent with historical problem on this engine, dealer initially paid one half of repair due to history.
We have a blown head gasket at 115,000 miles even though we had the van to the dealership several times when it was under warranty with concerns that the head gaskets were blown. They blew us off like we were idiots!! we had to have the door windows repaired because they were installed incorrectly, the latch assembly on the hatch broke we took it in and had repaired then approximately 1year later it broke again! of course that time it was not covered because we were under the extended warranty and they refused to replace the latch, instead they wanted me to pay $250 to replace a piece of plastic that could not be purchased seperately! the rear windshield wiper quit working. We also have to periodically scrape and clean the sensor for the sliding door otherwise it will not stop dinging. The driver side mirror cracked the first winter, it was replaced and the replacement cracked the next winter. Right now this van is not running and we had to have the head pressure checked and resurfaced, will have to replace the head gaskets, etc. . . If we are lucky we will have a van that runs if not we will have to replace the engine which will be around $4500 or more. We have already spent several hundred. I feel Ford should be paying for these services especially since we took this van to the dealer several times and were told there was nothing wrong except we needed to replace our O2 sensors!! Ford is junk!!!.
At 67,000 miles the head gasket has blown, causing the vehicle to become inoperable. Cause unknown. Please give any further details.