general problems of the 2001 Ford Windstar

Driving the vehicle became uncomfortable at both low and high speed; therefore, I started investigating to try to identify the cause. 1st I found one of the rear shocks was very bouncy, the rear tires were not straight and both rear tires were wearing on the inside. Replaced both rear shocks. That didn't solve the problem and the rear tires were still not straight. Next I went to mike naughton Ford dealership and talked with a service representative about the problem and asked if there was a recall. The technician said that I needed to bring the vehicle in for an alignment and have the rear cambers shimmied so that the wheels would be straight at a estimate cost of $200. 00, that there were no recalls to have this work done. Last night (10-13-2013), I jacked the vehicle up to look under to see how difficult it would be to perform the work myself. I decided that I would take the vehicle to Ford and pay them to do the work. I was jacking the vehicle up to remove the jack stance and both tires fell almost to the floor. I look under the vehicle to identify what happened and found the axle housing bent/broken in half. It appears that it has been cracked/broken for some time because the initial break was rusty. Have not been able to follow-up with the Ford dealer yet - I believe that the service department might be closed today (columbus day) because I haven't been able to reach anyone by phone.

Tire failure.

- while driving at about 65 mph on 12/26/06 the contact heard a loud noise. He proceeded to pull the vehicle over to side of the road and noticed it had a flat tire. The contact stated that the road conditions were good and the evening was clear. The contact said that he then returned home and inspected the tire and found no punctures in it, but did notice a bump in the tire. The contact stated he took tire to firestone tire center the next morning , and the technician said that the tire was punctured by a nail, but there was no nail in the tire. The technician did show him an imprint of the nail on the inside of the tire. The contact called to find out if this tire had any safety issues. The information on the tire was: 214/65r16, model # fr380 and dot# w26v38b2306. The contact has the damaged tire, and firestone did replace it with a new tire. The technician told the contact that they had to scrap the inside of tire and clean it up before they gave the damaged tire back. Updated 02/06/07.

Tires were replaced with wrong size by 2 separate dealers causing tire sensor light to be on . After over 25 service visits problem discovered . Dealer sent home with known safety problem "would not correct properly" 4 days later accident resulted.