Seven problems related to transmission not go into gear have been reported for the 1999 Ford Windstar. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
I was driving my van. At first the lights beep up for engine and then o/d and then it stops. There was a lot of smoke from the engine and it look like it burns. After that vehicle start but not tacking gear. I found out that transmission went bad.
We were stopped at a stoplight at the corner of 7th Ave. And pike street in downtown seattle. When the light turned green, my husband pressed on the gas pedal. When he did that, we heard a "thunk" noise, and then the gears started grinding and the engine started revving because it would not go into gear. We had to have the vehicle towed back to tacoma to a transmission repair facility.
We were driving on the freeway in ohio without any problems. Upon exiting the freeway we stopped at a stop sign and barely accelerated and the van hesitated and we barely made a slight turn into a gas station when the van would not switch into gear. We managed to nurse it into a parking spot and put it in park and there is where it stayed, unable to shift into any other gear. We were on our way to florida from michigan. The van only had 53091 miles on it and was maintained well. We had the van towed to a dealer and were told the transmission needed to be replaced due to a faulty sun gear. Upon further questioning we were told that something not welded properly just "broke loose" and destroyed the transmission.
The vehicle will not engage into gear, can move lever but vehicle will not move.
Consumer states vehicle will not go into gear. Had vehicle towed. Transmission failure.
Consumer applied accelerator at intersection engine revved, but vehicle would not move. Dealer rebuilt transmission. In July 2002, transmission would not shift into gear at start up, again transmission was rebuilt.
Consumer was at a traffic light and went to take off, but vehicle did not move forward. Consumer's husband worked for Ford, and determined it was due to failure of transmission. Vehicle will not move in drive gears due to metal presence in the transmission fluid.