Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see May lease deals!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
I also have to turn my interior light setting to off.
Even with these problems the van runs great and I'm keeping it until it dies or the repair gets to be a serious problem. Good luck with it!
- Brake lights warning come on.
- The mileage counter goes blank and the O/D flashes all time
- The engine slows down and the radio and signal lights go dead
- Changes the battery, drove it for 3 days and the same problem comes again
- Checked the battery with a multtimeter, the reading while engine off= 10.7 and 12.6 while engine is on.
- I am guessing I have an alternator problem with lower than expected readings.
- I will change the alternator this week and let you know.
In the past few days I have been charging the battery daily for almost 3 hours for a full charge. It is enough to drive the car for almost one hour.
I need to mention I have the driver side door lock problem, and in the past months many times the internal lights goes on suddenly.
For me, this was the first Ford I bought and certainly will be the last.
I haven't had the trouble since. Do still have the interior lights come on at odd times and sometimes the passenger side sliding door doesn't open automatically and the passenger window at times doesn't work but other than that I still enjoy having it. Will keep it until it dies. Hope you can solve this problem too!
There has to be a reason why this alternator is always failing.
Thanks!
i have been googleing around about the PCM (Car Computer) and engine light that is not going away when the car is fixed i found a solutions in another forum that after fixing your car you have to remove the battery minus cable for few minutes.
i suppose that is resetting the PCM´s failure logs or whateaver??
So i did actually that today, i started the car "two times" drowe around our village until i was 100% shure that the battery was fully charged (meshuren almoust 13 volts) the i removed the battery minus cable for 10 minutes and replacing it.
Well i have been starting the car in the last hour about 25 times withous seeing any charging light :-D
I realy hope this is the solution, resetting the PCM with removing only the cable.. ?
But if this is not working tomorrow or later i will let you all know :-D
I took it to Firestone on NW 23rd and Penn in OKC. THEY wanted to charge me $$1700!!! to replace the entire A/C and the alternator, because they said that the A/C belt (which is in some way associated with the alternator) caused the A/C to jam up and they needed to replace the entire A/C system. They are potentially crooks. What do y'all think?!?!?!
I only paid 3300 for the stupid thing!! I'm not paying 1700 to fix the :sick: crap.
Last year i changed both the alternator and the battery and the charging light has since then always after 20 secs turned on.
Have the same problems?
My only solution is to start the car and wait until the light comes up to then turn off the engine and then immediately start again. As long you are driving it never comes on again.
Im tired going to the workshops beacuse they can find anyting wrong with the PCM or the charging. I got the same answer from two diffrent car electricians, the car PCM dosent like your alernator charging volts whatever..
I do not care about these issues anymore, im satified that the car is working regardless starting two times each time. Im going to use the car until it dies :-D
The best thing with Ford Windstar is that they do not manufacture it anymore.
I had my "computer" or PCM or whatever updated, it seemed to better in my case and i think that can solve it but im not sure in your case?
I tried to measure the volts before but the thing is the pcm is checking your system for volts and if it get "wrong" feedback it decides to not charge and so on.. and to update or change a pcm can be a good idea.
Background....In December of 2010 we had to replace the alternator. Worked great, but sounded louder, until November 2011. Thankfully, it was still under warranty at the shop we got it done at. After replacing that alternator, with an after market part, it worked until December 2011 2 days before the warranty ran out. UHOH why does our alternator have to be replaced again? Will you extend our warranty please!!! Well, the shop that we use has been fair and said they are going to work with us on it. So this time they asked if we want to use the actual Ford part and pay a little extra, but maybe the after market parts are not working well with our van. 1 week later (the shortest time in between) it died again. Now I have to drive this van around with little kids in it so I am getting a little annoyed. They replaced the alternator and some modulator thing which they haven't charged us for until we know if this is going to fix it.
Fast forward 2 months later, about once a week I go out to my van in the morning and it doesn't start. It appears the battery is dead. I hook up my ever so useful battery charger, put it on jump start setting, and about 5 minutes later it starts. So far this has only happened while it is sitting in my garage in the morning. We live in Wisconsin, but it doesn't seem to pick the super cold days to not start, it is just random.
After starting it, I can drive it down the street, shut it off, and then it starts fine. This leads me to believe that it is not the battery, otherwise it wouldn't be charged enough to start back up. Also, everytime we have the battery tested it tests good. This is from 3 different sources.
The starter does not sound like it is slipping or grinding, so I don't think that is missing.
The alternator has been acting normal (I know the symptoms of a bad alternator pretty well at this point).
So now we think it is a short somewhere. Does anyone have an idea how to figure out where? Also, is there something else that it might be? Just looking for some help so we can quit hemorrhaging money on vehicles!
We bought out 2002 Windstar LS new in Streator, Illinois from the dealer there. The car we traded in broke down there and I'd had enough so we traded on the spot and drove the van back to Iowa. We have 185K miles on the van now and its been a good vehicle.
This problem first occurred last June while we were work camping in Missouri and only gotten worse. Replaced the battery, alternator tested everything I could, had mechanics look at it and nothing. Not even a suggestion other than to throw parts at it until they find the problem.
If anyone comes up with a definitive solution please share with the rest of us!
I wonder if it's a module that is somehow staying powered up after I turned the van off.
Mechanics cannot define the problem. They have check wiring, grounds, replaced the battery and alternator and I refuse to spend any more until someone can describe exactly what the problem is and what it will cost to fix it.
Does anyone know?
I have had this issue yearly, last year was the first time all the lights went out & the gas pedal didn't even want to work. It was in the day time so not as dangerous as tonight! The dash dimmed down, the blinkers wouldn't work, we were coming home as it was getting dark, no power when pressing the gas so I had to pump it all the way & coasted until we arrived home. Lucky we didn't run into traffic! Many miles from home with the battery almost dead.
Last year I replaced my 2002 alternator & got another new battery ( new one each year since 2003) it has been almost a year again and now tonight the [check charging system] light came on again... I knew the battery was almost dead when that happens.
I drove to a shop & they tested the battery very little power he said the Ford Windstars have had an issue with the power going into the alternator. He then wiggled the plug connected to the alternator & it started working.
I will be replacing the battery again with a new one tomorrow & I will go to the nearest Ford for the wiring for the alternator!! After years of issues I really hope this works! They don't sell the part at parts store. :mad:
If your windstar is working fine now, sell it!
i resolved this alternator issues about 14 times and that says that it did not last for long.
The alternator light is turning up soon...
It is a problem with the pcm that dosent work with aly alternator in the long run so do as i did and many other, sell that car and buy some other van models.
Ford Windstar 1999 - 2004 are damaged product.
Regards Vidir T , Sweden
Most of you may not remember the days before there were Check Engine Light or Side Door Ajar & ABS and so on. We had to actually install the gauges ourselves to check (Battery DC) & (Oil Pressure) & (RPM). That was limited then and those are still available today. When we had a light come on... we called them idiot lights. Think about it. Corporate car makers did and they ran with that. What is really worse is now we have computers running the cars we buy. Computers have to be programmed. Guess who does that? Corporate car makers? Well I think your getting my meaning. In one of your reviews someone wrote I asked the dealership? Remember the recalls reworks until date X? Today, as we approach peak oil usage worldwide and the new cars running on fuel other than oil lets remember one thing... A good mechanic can use a volt-meter to diagnose almost any electrical problem. Just as we could install those gauges... we can bypass and hardwire almost every system in any earth vehicle. We can disconnect the idiot light (properly named then and now) and so long as it has no immediate poor affect on the system or no further problems occur we call ourselves geniuses. Our problems today is that we have very few trained mechanics who's training doesn't come from Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler, GM, and so on. Cross the pond or the Pacific and what do we find? I can tell you none of the aforementioned names have control of those much more dependable car makers. So if you chose to buy American made cars trucks vans and what have you. Find and or learn to use a good mechanic trained by his grandfather first or take yourself a course in electronics paying very close attention to using a volt-meter and other meters that may be offered or ask our leaders to construct pollution less public transportation. In the very very near future the combustion engine will forever live in collections of the wealthy and the Smithsonian museum. Let the Earth and her oil reserves return to their natural state deep in the planet. By the way, I am not a mechanic but I can operate a volt-meter and I can repair a torn piece of wire and I can change a battery. I hope one day soon thats all that will be required..... Good luck.
One final thought or insight... The amount of money you spend to replace a part doesn't mean a replacement part will fix your problem, a good rule of thumb is where ever the part is made and the price you pay to purchase it is almost always about quality and yes it too has it's pros and cons because humans assemble the parts and if the part is computer made humans programmed the computers it can be 50-50 no mater how much you spend, myself I prefer replacement parts that are built better than the original parts and generally that means more money. If you think in terms of for example: FOOD... would you buy tacos from China or from the country who is best known for quality. For me I prefer to make my own but that's food... not an alternator, battery, light bulb, or LOL a tail light assembly. I hope this helps you the next time you give up and sell off your Ford Windstar because you replaced everything and it didn't fix it, and the next owner replaced what his volt-meter told him was faulting and is still driving it today. FYI I do not own or have a Ford Wind-star I was just reading reviews cause I need a small van and found one on a Craigs list. I guess I am the idiot and I added this to the already long list of reviews. In the days of ole buying American was the only way, then came corporate America, now we must wait for the next Einstein and Hawkins to discover a way out of the oil mess without disrupting the big oil companies profits and certain future death.
Ok here we go guys. I had the same problems I'm reading about. Took the starter off and had tested, said it was good. Went to autozone, alternator tested good. New battery lasted few days maybe week and was drained. wouldn't start, but once jumped ran good. Finally took off the positive cable, put meter on positive cable and other meter end on positive post. Reading was jumping between 9.5 to 10.2. Started pulling fuses under steering wheel. About the 7th fuse I pulled made the meter sit right at 10.15. fuse was in position 22, which says is the LH and RH heated mirrors. I don't think my mirrors are even heated. Left the fuse out and van is starting every time. Only been a day, so I'll let you know if this was the permanent fix.
Both my Brake warning (idiot) lights on the dash are on. Upon further checking & a near collision, I have found that this problem is just fault sensors but as I have been driving for 51 years with no accidents, I think that I have the brains to know when there is something wrong with my brakes. To me these problem are nothing more than annoying Gremlins.
any suggestions?????