14th Apr 2006, 13:32

Yet another complaint about the 99 Ford Windstar. We bought ours used in 2001 and replaced the first transmission at 77k miles and again at 182k miles. It's now in the shop for a new rack & pinion and tie rod ends. We had a major problem with the electrical system; the lights would flash on/off and the locks go up/down of their own accord. DH pulled the sliding doors off, cleaned the tracks really well and put them on good and tight, and that problem is fixed (at least for now). We've already bought another van... this time a Grand Caravan. Had we done our homework on the 99 Windstars, we never would've purchased one. Lesson learned... now if I could just dump the old van!

20th Jun 2006, 07:45

This all sounds too familiar, purchased a 99 Winstar brand new... have had all the problems listed above. Transmission replaced, lights staying on, driver side lock not working, door open lights on... wow, now I am getting worried, my O/D indicator is flashing, brought the van in for service, they told me... computer says nothing wrong, just wait till something happens... the saga continues... NEVER will buy a Ford again. Amen.

30th Jun 2006, 12:43

I, opposite to most posters here, LOVE my 1999 Ford Windstar SE.

Did I have buyers remorse after I bought it? Yes. While test driving it, I could feel a vibration in the gas pedal, and I mentioned it to the sales person who went on to tell me that it was just "more power" than I was used to, coming from a 94' Taurus.

A CARFAX that I pulled myself while looking around at different cars showed that vehicle to be in good standing. Sooo... in the need to go out of town hurriedly, we felt our car might be undependable and we sealed the deal. The vibration remained, and yes, I kept saying that I felt something was wrong with the van. We found old registrations in the glove box of the van, along with a travel trailer so we were sure the first owners must have pulled something with the van. But they traded it at only 20,000 miles and this was curious to us.

A few months later, while looking at a car for our son, we paid for the CARFAX 30 day unlimited use service online and began searching. I thought I would just check the van again to read it again, and lo' and behold... the new CARFAX showed that the van had been in a SEVERE crash.. on the drivers side that deployed the airbag. The dealership wasn't responsible because I had run the CARFAX independently, but nothing showed. To me, that explained the vibration in the gas pedal, and although I felt duped, we felt stuck with this van.

We took it in to our regular garage that tried to align the wheels and they asked if we knew it had been wrecked... they could tell. We sighed with a yes, and had them fix it and we went on our way. The transmission seemed to jump a little in the 30K's and we complained to the dealership. At 38K we took it back and demanded a service on it. They came back and said they would replace the transmission at no cost because we had first made them aware before the warranty expired.

Today, the van is over 100K. We've replaced a rack and pinion, a heater core and did various other things on it and it still drives great. But what can we expect, this thing is NOT new...it's 7 years old and has been driven approximately 15K a year on country roads. We still like this van and hate to sell it... but it's gotta go because the kids are grown and we don't need it any longer.

3rd Jul 2006, 08:29

This all sounds so familiar. We've had a number of problems with our 99 Windstar... Most notably is replacing the power steering rack, TWICE! The first time at 50,000 and the second time at 115,000 miles. Not a cheap repair, but apparently a very poorly made system.

3rd Jul 2006, 23:19

I bought a brand new 1999 Ford Windstar and had trouble from day one. Finally I had to unload it after the 3 year 36,000 mile warranty expired. The rack and pinion steering went and Ford refused to help me. I will never buy a Ford again. If you feel loyal and want to buy American - buy a Chevy from GM. I owned a 1985 Cavalier station wagon which I bought brand new and had it for 10 years, over 180,000 miles and only did routine maintenance on it.

8th Jul 2006, 19:55

Wow. Now I don't feel so bad. I have a '99 Windstar, which I THOUGHT I had "driven gently." Just over 50,000 miles on it. (just old enough and just far enough for the warranty to have expired!)

I was coming home after running errands today (in a town about 25 miles south of me), getting ready to make a left turn. I had to stop to let oncoming traffic clear, and when I took my foot off the brake and put on the gas to turn - CLUNK. (First I thought I had run over something sharp and punctured a tire, or that something had fallen out of the undercarriage).

And no go. And no go in any of the other "forward" gears. (And I was unwilling to try reverse as the traffic was stacked up behind me.)

A $50 (and five-block) tow later, the man at the repair shop checked everything out he could easily check and concluded that the transmission was shot. Which means about $2K or maybe more in terms of a fix. But, oh well, I need a car, I don't have another car, and I'm not quite ready to replace it yet.

The worst part is that the car is in the next state over, and I don't have a family member (or even boyfriend) that I feel I can impose upon to help me get my car when and if it is fixed. I guess it's either beg-a-friend time or call Enterprise car rental...

At least now I feel like I didn't "abuse" the car somehow and make its transmission die - that was what I had been fearing, that I had somehow overlooked some important maintenance issue.