Transmission Failure Problems of Ford Windstar - part 2

The contact owns a 1998 Ford Windstar. The contact was driving 25 mph when the transmission failed and the vehicle would no longer operate. The vehicle was towed to the contacts residence and the dealer was contacted. The dealer advised that there were no recalls and they were unable to assist. The manufacturer was contacted and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was 155,000.

See all problems of the 1998 Ford Windstar 🔎.

The contact owns a 2003 Ford Windstar. The contact stated while driving at approximately 40 mph, the engine began making unusual sounds and the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was towed to a local repairs shop where she was advised that the transmission had failed and would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileages were approximately 113,000.

See all problems of the 2003 Ford Windstar 🔎.

The contact owns a 2003 Ford Windstar. The contact stated that the transmission failed. The vehicle was towed to a local mechanic where the contact was advised that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was notified but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was 76,000. Updated 05/01/13 the consumer stated the transmission has since failed again.

Transmission failure with absolutely no warning. One second I'm pulling on to the roadway with a working transmission the next second my vehicle is sitting in the way of traffic and can not move. As I have researched this,this has happened quite often. This is very dangerous and something needs to be done.

As typical with Ford Windstars my 2000 Ford Windstar transmission malfunctioned in the middle of driving on a major roadway almost causing a severe accident that would have injured me and my wife and three kids and the occupants of the other vehicle. There are several complaints about Ford Windstar transmissions failing and this is not the first transmission to fail in our vehicle. The costly repair for what seems like a problem with numerous Windstar vans should be the responsibility of Ford this issue could kill someone if a failure was to occur on a major interstate when vehicles are traveling at high rates of speeds and drivers do not have time to react to a sudden transmission blowout. This is a very serious safety issue that occurs without warning and Ford should be held responsible especially after they received stimulus money from all of us taxpayers. They should be held responsible for their junk. This will be the second transmission replaced the first one was replaced by a Ford rebuild which is the one that failed. With a pricetag of over $2000. 00 that's hard on people who live paycheck to paycheck.

See all problems of the 2000 Ford Windstar 🔎.

Automatic transmission failure with no warning. Transmission had to be rebuilt.

Transmission failed in the loading zone at the airport. Towed to local transmission repair shop; advised that cost to replace with a used transmission would be $2800. Current blue book for this vehicle is $2125 in fair condition.

1998 Ford Windstar transmission failed. No warning, no problems prior to failure.

Transmission failure without any warning sign. Left on in the road with engine running, but would not move in any direction.

Ford Windstar 2000, transmission failure in the middle of a busy highway. I am 55 years old and have a bad back and had to risk my life to push this vehicle off the road so I would not get hit by traffic on a rainy evening! luckily, my aged mother was not in the car at the time. . Read more...

Transmission failure, pulling on to roadway from gas station , Windstar made it 10 feet, snap, bang then stuck in middle of street, cars around ended up on grass but no accident. Re tried to move nothing car only has reverse, now after searching the web finding out very common problem with Ford Windstar, someone will get hurt / killed from this problem,and Ford knows all about it, now I have to spend 3000. 00 on a new transmission, for a 50. 00 part deep inside the trans just breaks when it breaks. . . . . That obviously has a factory defect that is being ignored, just like the ( tfi module recall of the late 90's).

I'm the owner of a 2003 Ford Windstar. I had my transmission fail while in the middle of driving. The van drifted to the side of the road,the stearing was locked,the lights blinked,my od n blinker flashed off n on. My drivers side window won't go down. Also my abs light absolutly won't go off!!!!. Also replaces,breaks,roaters(which were totaly rusted).

Ford Windstar 2000 - transmission failed at 110,000 and rumor is that Ford knew these were weak but installed them anyway. Power steering pump failed three times between 60,000 and 100,000. Power steering pistons each failed around 80,000. Heater/air conditioning air flapper failed - replacement was $1500 installed. Sliding door release stuck at 80,000. The car is a junkstar. I'll never buy another Ford - they build with plastic and lightweight junk and they just fail - fail - fail.

Automatic transmission failure when stopped at intersection went to accelerate and main drive gear failed. Lost all forward drive gears only reverse gear worked. This latest automatic transmission failure occurred at 87,736 miles on 12-11-2008. Automatic transmission failed earlier on same vehicle at 42,130 miles on 12-3-2004. Both times main drive gear separated from drive cup according to my transmission shop. Transmission required a complete re-build both times. Transmission shop indicated this is common design issue with Ford Windstars and looking at NHTSA web site there are a lot more folks suffering from this Ford design issue. Have the 3. 8 l 6 cylinder engine in this van. Us consumers should file a class lawsuit against Ford for their failure to re-call this known design issue. Have drive gear part that failed if NHTSA would like to analyze part. I will never by another Ford product and advise no one else to buy one. Had talked with Ford on 1st occurrence and Ford refused to stand by their product since it was outside of the 3yr / 36,000 mile warranty. Know wonder why the american auto companies are becoming history. . . .

Transmission failure.

The contact owns a 2003 Ford Windstar. The contact stated that the vehicle transmission was defective and when attempting to switch gears, the vehicle would not accelerate. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who rebuilt the transmission yet two years later, the transmission failed again. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure and the vehicle was not further repaired. The failure mileage was 150,000 and the current mileage was 162,000.

While at a complete stop in my 2000 Windstar I accelerated to cross a busy highway and heard a loud clunk. The transmission failed and left me to drift into cross traffic where I was almost hit by a mack truck. I swerved in an almost u-turn like fashion and was able to pull to the side of the highway next to the road I had originated from. This is the third transmission to fail in this vehicle. The first failed at about 37,000 miles. Luckily I had purchased an extended warranty so the dealership fixed it but they made me produce my original contract to prove I had the extended warranty. The second time was about 15 months ago, after Ford's refusal to help I took it to aamco and I paid $2800 to repair. After being referred to this website I was astounded at how many people have had the same experience. I was almost killed this morning, when is enough enough?.

My wife pulled up to stop and when the light changed she had no gears from the transmission. No warning signs or sounds. We had the van toed to the nearest dealership( champion Ford) it was diagnosed as a internal transmission failure. We were told it would be 3,319. 94 to replace the transmission and flush the system. If we wanted to have the transmission taken apart to find the failure we would have to pay for the tear down and if it still had to be replaced then the replacement cost would be added. What do you do? the van only has about 75k miles on it. I authorized the replacement. Upon talking with a prior Ford mechanic (retired now) I was told that this is an ongoing problem with the Windstar transmission. After doing a little research on the web I see that it is still a problem in vans newer and with lower mileage than my own. There is a problem here Ford. Fix it!.

Complete transmission failure at high speed on highway. Sudden hot smell coming from vehicle. Pulled off highway under power, no appearance of smoke, fluid, or other issue. Attempted to re-enter highway and found that vehicle would go forward with selector in "n"-no other gear positions worked. Vehicle moved to safety off highway (Ford dealership). Complete transmission failure after moving to dealership. Note: this is the second transmission failure in this vehicle. Original transmission was replaced in 2001 with Ford rebuilt trans by Ford dealership.

See all problems of the 1999 Ford Windstar 🔎.

2000 Ford Windstar transmission failure due to sheared off sun gear in ax4s transmission. Failure occurred as vehicle was being accelerated from a dead stop into heavy cross traffic. All forward gears inoperative as van then slowly came to a stop in the middle of cross traffic. After a bit of panicking to figure how to get out of traffic we found that the reverse gear still functioned. Pulled vehicle without accident out of traffic.

Only 28,000 miles on car driven by elderly father a few miles every day for past 7 years. No indication of problem with transmission before this incident. Pulled from stop onto state road at point where a blind curve/no site distance for oncoming traffic-speed limit 45 mph. Car jerked forward and transmission failed, no forward gears, leaving car sideways across 2 lanes of oncoming traffic. Got car to go in reverse to get off road which created an even more dangerous situation for me and all oncoming traffic. Told will cost $2,500 for re-built transmission. Ford sent standard reply to my complaint suggesting go to dealership and have checked out. Amazing that no recall has been issued or anything been done after seeing this and numerous websites with same complaints. So many of us lucky. How many deaths does it take before action will be taken? have been a Ford owner for years and will never, ever buy Ford again.

1999 Windstar ,98k, complete transmission failure. Went into reverse , but not into any forward gear. I've meticulously maintained this vehicle, never towed. Have owned cars for 30 yrs, never had a vehicle this bad. Will never buy Ford again.

I have a Ford Windstar van with less than 50,000 miles and the transmission has failed. Transmission and vehicle have been maintained. Noticed other complaints on the internet concerning transmissions in Windstars.

See all problems of the 2001 Ford Windstar 🔎.

Transmission failure 2000 Ford Windstar. I have a Ford Windstar a couple weeks out of warranty and the transmission failed. I had complained to the dealer about acceleration problems before and now they are telling me they are not going to cover it. I believe they stalled until the warranty was out so they would not have to repair the problem. I looked online and found that Ford has had a history of transmission problems with the Windstar. This is something that should of been taken care of by the manufacturer.

My wife was driving home from picking up the kids when the transmission failed without warning. She was able to put the car in neutral and roll backwards to the side of the road. Had the transmission failed 5 minutes earlier, she would have been turning off a busy street and could have been hit by oncoming traffic with two kids in the car. The dealer diagnosed the problem as a failure of the tourque converter and valve body due to excessive wear on the rod leading into the valve body. The van has 51,000 miles on it. The replacement will cost $3,000. I don't believe that the transmission should go at this point in the cars life.

The contact states that 1999 Ford Windstar lx had a transmission failure. The van was at a red light and when the owner pushed the accelerator to go, there was no power. The owner had to push the van to the side of the road. The van has not been taken in for repairs. There are no available openings in dealerships. The owner has not contacted Ford.

My transmission failed in my 99 Ford Windstar with onlly 55,ooo. I stoped at a stop sign, when I hit the gas I heard a thud and the van would not go forward. I only had reverse. I hear this is a common failure of Windstar vans.

I drove my 1999 Ford Windstar lx with my mother and my family (my 2 children, my nephew and my daughter's friend) to erie, PA to visit my sister's family for 2 days, then to splash lagoon for 2 days. This was a 230 mile trip, each way, from my home is elmira, NY. We arrived there without incident. All fluids were checked before we left and were in prime condition. The following day, we got in our vehicles to go see the 15 miles of beaches along lake erie. About a mile down their road, we went to cross a 4-lane high-way, when my vehicle stopped dead in the middle, almost killing all of us because traffic was coming from both directions. My vehicle woudn't move forward no matter what. The transmission failed, abruptly, without any advance notice, whatsoever! after much online research, I soon realized my unfortunate situation isn't unique to Ford Windstar owners! this "sudden transmission failure" is very common. We could have all been killed. My brother-in-law had to drive my vehicle back to his house in reverse, as that was the only gear that worked. After the failure, the fluids were checked again, and all was still full and in good condition (we saved these), however, he thought that maybe the filter might need to be changed, so he did so, replacing the used transmission fluid with brand new. Knowing we should not have work done to the vehicle for risk of voiding the $1,948. 00 extended service warranty I purchased from the dealership at the time I bought the vehicle (less than 3 years ago), we decided to have the vehicle towed home.

Van will stall when decelerating into a turn, ocurrs 2-3 times per week. Automatic transmission failed at 84,000 miles costng $1,700 to repair. Van would vibrate and stutter when aceelerating from a complete stop. Had van to dealer 3-4 times for stalling problem, they claimed they could find nothing wrong.

Car only has 72000 miles. Had car at dealership from March 17- March 24 for various problems. They replaced a tie rod, 2 control arms for $1100 and when that did not fix the problem, replaced the power steering pump and the steering rack. Car was still not right - had appt to bring back in on Friday April 1st. On March 30th, I was accelerating at a stoplight and the vehicle had an abrupt transmission failure. (when we got it back from the dealer it had a vibrating issue but we did not have warning this was coming) just a huge bang and then it wouldn't move. The police had to help me remove the vehicle from the intersection and assist with my two small children. It had to be towed at my expense $70. Warranty expired at 60k. Took it to another repair establishment (due to issues with the dealer) - will be $2200 to rebuild entire transmission. Will be contacting manufacturer.

While driving 45 mph transmission failed. As a result, the forward gears became inoperable.

Power train:automatic transmission transmission failed at 63,000 mi. Mechanic informed us the planetary assembly has catastrophically failed,total will be about $2,500 for a rebuilt trans. Preformed all maintance for the trans. At 40,000 mi. This should not happen at such low mileage. Will Ford have the integrity to stand behind its products? will NHTSA force a recall due to the high number of failures on these vans? ps. Ford says no to any help. I even offered to pay for labor if they paid for the transmission. Still no.

The transmission failed after 43,00 miles and had to be replaced. I spoke to a local aamco transmission store and they told me this was the fourth such problem with 2003 Windstar's they had seen in a month.

My wife was stopped at a stoplight. Light turned green, she went to make a left hand turn. About half way thru the turn, there was a loud clunk. At that point my wife could only coast thru the intersection. Stepping on the accelerator did nothing. Had van towed and looked at. Transmission failed. Mileage at 72,000.

I was stopped at a 4-way stop, started to accelerate and heard a loud bang from the engine compartment. I then had no forward gears, but reverse still worked. The vehicle was towed to a local Ford dealer, who informed me that I needed a new (remanufactured) transmission at $2500. The vehicle has only 43,423 miles and has been regularly maintained. I contacted the Ford customer relationship center, but was offered no assistance or "goodwill" because the warranty period had expired. The number of 1999 Windstar transmission failures reported at NHTSA and other websites appears to be inordinately high.