Faults:

The engine indicator came on at 45,000 miles. The Ford service said that it needed a new head gasket.

The power steering was leaking and had a crack at 50,000 miles.

The transmission blew at 50,000 miles, too.

General Comments:

The head gasket was needed to be replaced. The Ford service replaced a different, smaller and silver metal head gasket cover. He said that it improves the engine performance. It used to be black. The silver part isn't pretty.

When our van almost reached at 50,000 miles, the power steering started to go bad like scraping really bad. The Ford service said that the entire power steering rack assembly will have to be replaced at $800. I decided to find a cheaper repair shop and it costs $300 less, but it had to place an order. It will take 2 days to have it delivered.

The man said that it won't hurt as long as I was being careful.

Then, I was about to leave the repair shop to go home. About a mile later, after the traffic light turned green, I gave a little gas to start driving. All of sudden, there was a loud bang and my van wouldn't drive at all, but the engine was still running in the middle of intersection. I had a help from my friend to push the van to the parking lot. Then, I tried to use the reverse and it worked, but the drive won't work. I had to get it towed to Ford service. He found the problem. The gear and round shield piece (I do not know what to call) snapped off into 2 pieces. This caused other gears to go bad, too. I asked him why it happened. He did not know why and he won't do anything like call Ford headquarter. He said that it is normal if it is stop and go traffic in city. But the transmission should last until 100,000 miles. That means the Ford transmission's lifespan is 50,000 miles.

Also, I called Ford headquarter and she told me that my warranty (3 years / 36,000 miles) was expired. If I had 5 year / 60,000 mile warranty, it will get expired anyway. But she said that there is 7 years / 100,000 mile warranty. When did it come out? I don't think it had back in 1999? Anyway, she said that she can't do anything about it. What should I go?

Faults:

The transmission gave us problems from the beginning and has now been replaced.

The passenger side rear, automatic door is now making a strange noise while the vehicle is in motion.

The driver side rear, automatic door sometimes will not open and close.

The Light Dimmer switch does not work, so the running lamps run all of the time.

Now, the electrical part of the vehicle is starting to go.

General Comments:

I love the comfort of the vehicle. There's plenty of room, in all aspects.

The automatic doors are extremely useful and effortless for the kids.

It has been garage kept and maintained well, as needed.

We have come to a conclusion: We will never buy another Ford. This is our second and low and behold, the same, exact things that went wrong with the first are now happening with our second.

The transmissions in Fords, in my opinion, are built as cheaply as possible. They're terrible!!

Faults:

About three weeks after we got the Van (Mar. 2004), it started to die when coming to a stop. Shortly after, I wouldn't even have to stop, just slow down. When I took it to the dealer to check it out, they couldn't find anything wrong with it. They said they couldn't figure it out. The engine did not show any "codes". They finally said that they just tightened the connections and grounds (Apr. 2004).

It ran fine until June. Then it did the same thing a couple of times.

Now in July, the van will die immediately after you put it in gear. The engine light was on. The mechanic says that the CAM sensor is bad. We replaced it, and nothing happened. The van does the same thing it did before we installed the new sensor.

General Comments:

The Windstar is a very comfortable van with lots of space. I like the way the interior was designed, but under the hood needs work.

This is only the second Ford I have ever owned. I definitely will not buy another.