Automatic Transmission Problems of Ford Windstar - part 2

Driving on highway & suddenly lost power, although engine was still on. Towed to dealer & transmission needed to be replaced.

See all problems of the 2004 Ford Windstar 🔎.

While driving on highway , my wife and two children were in a 2002 Ford Windstar minivan. Suddenly the vehicle lost all power, it was like it went into neutral and stayed there. After coming to a complete stop in fast lane on highway at night, they were almost rear ended by a truck. Luckily they escaped harm. The vehicle has low mileage and gave no problem of tranny problems before. Brought car to garage, it needed a complete overhaul of transmission at a significant cost. Please look into this for us, I don't feel this should happen to a minivan that has been as wall taken care of as my wife's. Thank you very much.

See all problems of the 2002 Ford Windstar 🔎.

The contact owns a 2000 Ford Windstar. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds the vehicle would shift in and out gear and then began to shift much extreme force. The radio also came on and by itself. The dealer had not been contacted and the failure was not diagnosed. Prior to the failure the vehicle was in the transmission shop to replace the gear shift box and a seal was added to assist with the transmission leak. The failure mileage was 120000 and the current mileage was 140000.

See all problems of the 2000 Ford Windstar 🔎.

Od light flashing, abs light on, speedometer not working, odometer not working, air conditioner not working, smoke underhood, engine light on this all happened to my wife while on the interstate about 90 miles form home.

See all problems of the 2003 Ford Windstar 🔎.

There was no crash. There was no warning what so ever. I was driving a client home from a picnic and pulled into a parking lot to park and smoke started rolling out of the engine compartment. I got my passenger who was in a wheelchair to safety and opened the hood to find flames coming from the top of the transaxles. I put out the fire. The "transaxles range sensor" and plug just forward of the range sensor were the cause of the fire. The wiring harness above coming out of the black box(fuse box) was also burnt. This problem has not been repaired.

See all problems of the 1996 Ford Windstar 🔎.

The contact owns a 2000 Ford Windstar. While driving 25 mph, the vehicle began jerking extremely hard. The contact was able to drive to her residence where she discovered a leak in the automatic transmission. The vehicle was towed to a local repair facility where she was advised that the transmission would need to be replaced. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was contacted. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was unavailable. The failure mileage was 119,000. Updated 11/16/10.

I was driving my mother-in law to a restaurant with my husband and 3 children. On the way there was a squealing sound from the rear of the vehicle and we assumed it could have been a low tire. We stopped added air and went on but the squealing continued. We went around a very winding curve at 25mph [way below the recommended] and the van was almost uncontrollable. As though someone covered the road with oil [by the way, it is 92 degrees and very sunny here]. My husband thought that maybe we had a busted shock. When we came home, my husband removed the rear, driver's side tire to find that the tire had been rubbing the fenderwell - alot [which explains the burning tire smell on our way home]. Upon inspecting the rear end of the van, the rear axle is almost in two!!! we never had any problems with the rear of the van before and actually just had tires put on 3 months ago and it was not noticed!!! I cannot drive this vehicle until it is fixed and don't know when that will happen because of the cost of this major repair. We could have all been killed if this would have happened on our way home, or on our way out-of-town tomorrow!! thank god we found the problem today!!! I find it very irresponsible that Ford has not recalled this - they have recalled seatbelts, airbags and gas pedals due to safety concerns - why not this? I am not the only Windstar owner this has happened too. There are others and their complaints I'm sure you have also received- they are posted on numerous sites on the internet. I would understand it not being recalled if I was the only one it happened to - but I'm not!!!.

See all problems of the 2001 Ford Windstar 🔎.

1999 Ford Windstar 3. 8l v6 99k miles driving to work transmission stopped working to make the vehicle move forward. It only would work in reverse. . Read more...

See all problems of the 1999 Ford Windstar 🔎.

No problems with 2003 Ford Windstar transmission. Vehicle has approx 88,000 miles. Vehicle running at highway speed when transmission whined and quit. Left occupants stranded. Upon online search, hundreds of issues with the make and model having issues with the same part.

The contact owns a 1998 Ford Windstar. The contact observed red liquid leaking from the vehicle while attempting to park. Through online research, she discovered NHTSA campaign id number 97v097000 (power train:automatic transmission), but was unaware if her VIN was included in the recall or if previous recall repairs had been performed. The failure and current mileages were 124,528. Updated 02/24/09. Updated 02/24/09.

See all problems of the 1998 Ford Windstar 🔎.

Abs light, brake light, and traction control light come on at once.

The Ford Windstar stop suddenly without warning. If you are in traffic, this could be fatal.

71,000 automatic transmission in need of being rebuilt. Frequent problem according to internet search. Ford should recall.

I was in my garage. I placed the Windstar in park. I left the engine running, opened my door and walked to the back of the van. I heard a clunk which apparently was the transmission shifting into reverse. The van immediately took off and the door caught me and slammed me into the garage wall and broke backwards. It drug me out the garage and I fell off. The van then proceeded down the driveway across the street. It damaged the neighbors yard, mail box, cable box and shrubs. It slowed on a berm and I was able to jump in and stop it. I moved it from reverse to park, turned off the engine and went to the emergency room with bruises and sprained wrists.

I have a 2000 Ford Windstar lx and it has 83,000 miles on it. It was kept up well and the transmission went out of it and will cost about $2000 dollars to replace it. I feel that Ford should resolve this problem since it seems to be a recurring problem with the Windstars.

Pulled up to an intersection, put the van into park, got out to close the rear hatch. Got back into the van put it into drive and I heard a loud thunk and the van rolled into traffic. I hurried up and put it into reverse and thank god it worked. I was almost hit by another car moving at about 50 miles per hour. The shop that's rebuilding the transmission said that the (sungear) welds had broke and that they had repaired several Ford Windstars with the same problem of broken welds on the sungear. It seems that Ford has known about the problems with their transmissions, but have not offered any recalls for their defects of these bad welds on the sungears or the other defects in their transmissions.

My wife was at a stop sign on an incline, pressed the gas pedal to turn and experienced what sounded like a crash. The van would not go forward, only reverse. She coasted backwards down the hill, we got a tow truck and went to a repair shop (after business hours). They called the next day and said that the transmission basically exploded on the inside. One site I have visited has 41 complaints of the same nature, yet Ford is doing nothing about the "design flaw" in the 2000 Windstar van transmissions.

I bought a 1998 Ford Windstar 3. 0 l in 1999. In 2002 I received a recall to install front shields over the coil spring so I did. Yesterday the front coil spring punctured the front tire and broke the struts as well. When calling Ford, they inform me that they can not tell me when my vehicle was manufactured, just that they will do nothing about it. They issued the warranty for 10 years from manufacturer date even though the recall did not take place until 3-4 years after manufacture date and I took my vehicle in for the recommended cure to the problem.

Transmission went out at 68,000 miles. Driving down highway at 70 mph, when engine revved and we lost all drive. No forward or reverse gears.

I have a 1998 Ford Windstar van sv, I Ave some transmission issues. I have to have a whole transmission overhaul done. I fount out that alot of the other owners of this type of vehicle has suffered the same. What we have fount out is that that model of vans have default transmissions in them. I want to know if I could at least have the transmission repaired or to know any information that will help.

Intermittent failure of the abs and traction control system. When the engine heats up a little the abs and traction control lights come on indicating that they are no longer working. In the morning when the car is first started the light are off for awhile until the engine has had time to heat up.

The park pawl shaft occasionally does not engage when the transmission selector lever is placed in the park position or other position. Therefore, the vehicle either does not stay still or does not move when placed in gear.

The contact owns a 2001 Ford Windstar. While driving 25 mph, the vehicle stalled without warning. The contact restarted the vehicle and drove to his residence. The dealer stated that there was no recall for the vehicle and repairs would only be made at the contact's expense. The transmission was the cause of the failure. Through online research, the contact found numerous reports from consumers who were experiencing the same failure. The vehicle has not been repaired. The failure and current mileages were 154,000.

The contact owns a 2001 Ford Windstar. From time to time he was unable to shift gears out of park without some maneuvering. The dealer stated that there was a safety recall and that it was performed with the first owner. The current mileage was 129,500 and the failure mileage was 124,000. Updated 06/25/08 the dealer informed the consumer the problem he experienced was not due to the recall, and that his problem was originated from somewhere else. The consumer wished to withdraw his complaint. Updated 06/25/08.

The contact owns a 2003 Ford Windstar. The contact stated that when when the vehicle is cold and driving in reverse, the gear locks and the vehicle continues to move in reverse. The contact continuously placed the gear into drive in order for the vehicle to drive in reverse normally. The vehicle has been taken to a dealer four times, but they could not duplicate the failure. The speed was unknown. The current mileage was 85,873 and failure mileage was 85,273.

I have a 1999 Ford Windstar minivan with just over 68k miles. I have just recently been told that my Windstar is in need of a new transmission. I have had it in and out of the shop over the last 3 months. I have spent close to $1000. 00 in repairs and now my transmission just drops. Why do I have to replace a transmission in a vehicle with less than 100k miles? I have heard from several people that this is common in this type of vehicle and I want to know what Ford is going to do about this. I am not happy!.

I and my wife were returning home from a long trip to settle my son at a rehabilitation center for kids with retardation when the transmission stopped working without any warning at all. It was raining and a tornado warning was issued for where we were. I had to coast to a stop on the side of the road without much available space to clear traffic. I then proceeded to walk to the nearest house which was about 1000 yrds away due to the fact this happened in a rural area and with considerable risk to myself approach a home of people who did not know me, during a period of darkness and rain, and ask for help getting a tow truck. Meanwhile my wife and brother were back at the van with 18 wheelers whirring by during a severe thunderstorm. The chance of a collision due to poor visibility was most definitely a possibility. When the tow truck arrived he had to hookup my van in pouring down rain and tow the van to a safe place until morning so I could then have it towed home. At this time I believe the transmission needs to be replaced but I cannot afford to have it done. Upon research on the internet I discovered that this is a common problem with the Ford winstar.

There is a check engine light on and the van runs rough and almost stops running. There is an error code p0171 and p0174. After taking it to the Ford dealership for the axel recall, it was noted that there is something wrong with the transmission, too. It seems like these are all defects that Ford is aware of, but does nothing to fix for the consumers of their cars.

While driving, the vehicle started to loose forward speed. Then transmission fluid began to pour out from the transaxle, apparently contacting the catalytic converter or engine manifold. The latest caused the vehicle to catch fire, resulting in total a loss and damage to third-party property. At the time of event the vehicle was only 4 years old. This is a serious defect.

The contact owns a 2000 Ford Windstar. While driving approximately 25 mph in the driveway, the contact depressed the accelerator pedal and there was no response. The failure occurred without warning when the gear shifter was placed into drive or reverse. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic for diagnostic testing. The technician stated that the failure was related to the automatic transmission. A rebuilt transmission was installed in the vehicle. The failure mileage was 42,000 and current mileage was 50,000.

The contact owns a 2003 Ford Windstar. While driving approximately 45 mph, the vehicle stopped accelerating without warning. The contact pulled off the road and shut off the vehicle. The vehicle was restarted and placed into gear, but it would not move in drive or reverse. The vehicle was towed to a transmission shop and they stated that the transmission needed to be replaced. The dealer has not yet been notified. The VIN, engine size, and number of cylinders were unknown. The current and failure mileages were 99,824.

The contact owns a 1998 Ford Windstar. While driving at an unknown speed, the contact noticed smoke. She parked the vehicle, checked under the hood, and found that it was very hot and smelled like burned rubber. Fifteen minutes later, there was an engine fire underneath the hood. The vehicle was destroyed. A fire report was filed. Nhtsa campaign id number 97v097000 (power train:automatic transmission) was referenced. The purchase date, powertrain, and mileages were unknown. Updated 04-08-08 updated 04/08/08.

There have been no problems with the van since purchase, but then randomly while driving home from work the od light started flashing. The transmission seems fine, shifts a little roughly into first gear, but all other parts are fine. I have had the transmission serviced, and the light still flashes.

Driving southbound on i65 in lebabnon, in on way to work at about 65-70 mph. Suddenly the vans tarted to slow even though I was maintaiing pressure on gas pedal. Van continued to slow with tractor trailers racing up behind me, swerving sorund me and hrons blaring. I was bale to get off at the next exit an made it to the end of the ramp where the vheicle just stopped moving.

For the second time in 2 years I am replacing the transmission on the 1999 Windstar. Both times it just stopped working,, but was able to get car to safety. Now on second transmission overhaul at a cost of $1700 for he first time , and 1$400 the second. The mechanic said there was no reason for the failure.