Ford Windstar

[Soccer Pa]

I remember seeing a post about towing with a Windstar. My wife is looking into buying one, but has heard that there is some sort of tranny problems at about 30,000 mi? The local T.V. problemsolver did a piece on this. Have any of you experienced this? Or do you know where I can look into this on the net?
Thanks

[DJW]

Type in ford windstar and get off the fishing site. You'll learn a lot.

[Mud Duck]

If you are buying used stay away from the '95 with the 3.8L engine. Big time problems with the head gaskets. We had to have ours replaced & 4 other friends with the same van blew theirs as well.

[Thanks]

Thanks for the help, flathead. I am merely asking a question, if you have nothing to say, than dont say it. I am well aware of the name and purpose of this site. What is wrong with asking for directions from friends on this site.

"It is better to let them think you are a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

[Starfish]

Unless you're towing a very light boat, most people recommend not towing with a front-wheel-drive vehicle. Part of the reason is that the weight on the back of the rig takes some of the weight off the drive wheels; I'm not sure of the rest of the reasons. I had good luck towing with a Ford Aerostar AWD (built on a rear-wheel-drive platform) but after switching to a truck (Super Duty F250) I'd never switch back. (But I do keep the hitch on the van just in case...)
Good luck

[jimbo2]

I just purchased a 96 Windstar for my wife and did some checking ahead of time, mostly on towing but all other things as well. My nephew is a lead mechanic a our local ford dealer and he gives me the straight story. 97 and 98 windstars and taurus vehicles have some known tranny problems. Nothing that will cause major failures but do require replacing the tranny. (they will get you home but need fixing). Some of the head gaskets are bad on the 95s as posted earlier and on some 96 vehicles too, (depending on location of manufacture(?)) Any dealer worth dealing with can look up your rig and tell you of any recall or warranty work done or needing to be done. When getting a 3.8, make sure you get a "split port injection " model. This change was made in 96.
I plan on towing sparingly with mine, my F150 does the bulk of the work, but I am having a hitch put on today, and I will be tugging my boat to Winnie in a week and a half.
Wish me luck!!
and good luck to you too,
your wife will love the windstar!

[gardenhackle]

My company vehicle is a 99 Windstar with the 3.8L SPI engine. Picked it up in May of 99 and put a trailer hitch on it the same day. Now have 40,000 miles with about 4,000 towing a boat. No problems yet but it is under a fleet maintenance program for oil changes every 5,000 miles. One scary instance was trying to pull out of an access that the wind hit hard all day and blew soft sand over the concrete. Not much traction with the front wheel drive.

[Fin Addict]

My motto has been that the only thing I would take more places than a 4 wheel drive is a company car. LOL Hard to believe they let you put a hitch on it. (Nice if they let it slide) Still if it was my own and I planned to keep it as long as I typically do, I would not tow w/ a Windstar. Did the head gasket thing on my 3.8 on a Sable $70 for the gaskets and some machine shop time to resurface the heads. Oh yeah, and about a day and a half of my time.

[Frank from TBay]

All the people that I have talked to do not suggest towing with a front wheel drive. My wife has one and it will never see being used as a tow vehicle. The chore of buying a new vehicle to me is very stressfull. I do not look forward to buying our next one. One of the suggestions I have is to rent a similiar vehicle to what you want to buy for a week. I did this prior to buying our Villager and it was the second vehicle I had rented. The first one was a Chrysler and after two days I hated it. You are going about it the right way by doing your homework.
Good fishing: Frank

[Soccer Pa]

Thanks for all the info,not planning to tow with the Windstar. Wife had one as a loaner while Taurus was in the shop, and she loved it.
Pa.

[djw]

Pa- I really want to apologize for the sour note I sent you. You are so right. I felt this was a 100% fishing only site, and what I did was very out of character for me-hope you can forgive my thoughtlessness. Now, about that Windstar. I have a 95 3.8L Windstar that my wife and I love and have had since 96. One week before our big trip to MN couple years ago, and at 39K miles (3000 past warranty) the transmission would'nt engage in 1st after stopping at lights. We dealt with our local dealer, who worked with Detroit to get us a repair deal. I paid half of a $900 tranny bill,not bad figuring they had me. Ford also replaced the head gaskets for free wks. before that. Ford used plastic pistons in the tranny as "gear engagers", and have seen their error. Also, the head gaskets are under a no cost replacement/reimbursement program that Ford has now-they refuse to call it a recall. Give any repair shop a VIN and they can get the repair history of the van for you. Make sure these things are done before you buy out of warranty vans. These and Dodge Sports are great vans, get rear AC & you'll be happy hauling kids/gkids. All the best.

[Thanks DJW]

I apologize for the tone in my response too. It was wrong to use the flathead term. I assume, what with you being human and all, your head is of a roundish nature as are most of ours.;-)
Thank you for the info on your Windstar.
One thing I have seen is it is just a few model years with problems and we will avoid them.
Pa

[Mud Duck]

DJW,
Sounds like you had better luck than I with Ford. We were just over the warranty extension on our windstar and they would do nothing for us at all when the head gaskets blew.