1995 Ford Windstar: sudden loss of power

Filed Oct 15, 2009 · Engine · 170 miles · MD · fire

My 1995 ford windstar developed a fire under the hood on the driver's side while parked in my driveway. The car had not been driven at all during the two weeks prior to the fire. The last time it was driven prior to the fire, the car repeatedly lost power (decelerated, nearly to a stop) while driving on an uphill incline. Depressing the accelerator was ineffective during such episodes. Power returned and the car would acclerate and maintain a steady speed once the car returned to level ground. I had not used the cruise control system at all during that last trip and used it rarely in the 12 years that I owned the car. The fire completely destroyed the engine and all other major systems under the hood. The fire damaged the surface of my driveway and a small area of my lawn.

Filed Jan 11, 2005 · Engine · 13,000 miles · FL

Vehicle lost power and commenced to make a hissing noise while driving 60 MPH. Vehicle was taken to the repair shop, and mechanic replaced two vacuum hoses that disintegrated from the excessive heat coming from the catalytic convertor. The dealer was not notified.

Filed Apr 23, 2003 · Engine · AR

While driving engine shut down which caused loss of power steering.

Filed Feb 26, 2003 · Engine · 54,300 miles · NY

Engine defect - blown head gasket resulted in dangerous sudden loss of power/overheating condition for the driver, and a danger to other traffic due to heavy smoke and water from the tail pipe on the roadway in subfreezing temperatures. Ford should be required to recall these engines for the known head gasket defect that continues to be a major hazard.

Filed Nov 25, 2002 · Engine · GA

While driving at highway speed the engine shut down causing lost of power steering. Please feel free to add any additional information. Ts

Filed Jun 13, 2002 · Electrical, Engine · WI

I was driving from wisconsin to pennsylvania at night. In ohio, I noticed a significant loss of power, and "whooshing" noise from under chassis, gradually getting worse over a couple of hours. At that point, the check engine light also came on. After arriving in pittsburgh (and after christmas holiday) I took the car to a muffler shop. As I expected, one of the catalytic convertors was clogged. On diagnosing the PCM fault codes, they discovered that the rubber hoses connecting to the dpfe (differential pressure feedback egr) sensor was nearly completely melted away (because of the increased exhaust backpressure from the cat failure???). I was preparing the car for another long-distance trip on 6/10/02 when I discovered that the plastic air intake plenum and the wiring harness in that area were damaged by heat, as well. The area of damage is right in the area of the metal tubes coming from the exhaust system that the rubber hoses to the dpfe sensor connect to. About 8 of the wires had their insulation completely burned through (about 1" in length). Many of the rest of the wires had embrittled insulation, or the insulation was melted together (there seem to be about 50 conductors in the wiring harness at that location). I'm really quite surprised that no fuses blew, since the bare wires were all adjacent to eachother (on the back side of the wire bundle, out of sight if you're not looking closely). I hadn't detected any electrical failures at the time, or during the intervening 6 months, but this was clearly a fire hazard. I have some reasonably clear digital photographs of the damaged wires (taken while I repaired the insulation on all of the conductors with vinyl electrical tape). I'll be happy to email them to you if you're interested.

Filed Aug 30, 2001 · Engine · TX

We were stranded on the road twice in this 1995 windstar and both times the loss of engine power could have caused an accident had we not been traveling at low speeds. This head gasket issue should be investigated and considered for recall since ford is using their secret warranty program to escape responsibility for putting unsafe vehicles on the road. Ford has not been forthcoming to the federal safety agency with the large number of affected vehicles that are still on the road with 3.8 liter timebombs just waiting for the head gasket to fail. In their own intercompany memo regarding head gasket repairs ford admits their manufacturing problems but limits their service departments repairs to just the head gasket. I would like to see the federal safety agency survey owners and former owners of ford vehicles with 3.8 liter engines, particularly the 1995 windstar. I think you will find many people who had related accidents as well as many who had to bear the cost of the engine failure in the repair or tradein of that vehicle.

Filed Aug 13, 2001 · Electrical · MD

The electronic speed sensor failed while on a trip in july. The vehicle shifting points are controlled by this device. While traveling at 65 MPH the vehicle digital speedometer went to " 0 " and the vehicle down -shifted to another gear on its own with a lost of speed of about 15 MPH. This would happen intermitently. One time was almost in an accident with a tractor trailer . I was accellerating onto an interstate and instead of the vehicle accelerating as normal . The sensor speedometer went to "0" and the vehicle instead of accellerating , actually felt that it was trying to down -shift to first gear ,with a substantial loss of power.

Filed Jun 26, 2001 · Transmission · CO

Forward piston cracked causing oil leakage and loss of power, and vehicle to operate erratically when the gear is in drive. *ak

Filed May 16, 2001 · Transmission · NV

While driving at approximately 45 MPH vehicle lost all power from transmission. Consumer had to put vehicle into second gear in order to guide it off the road. Consumer took vehicle to a private mechanic, who rebuilt transmission. Please provide any additional information/attachments.

Filed Mar 8, 2001 · Engine · MN

Vehicle will lose power and won't accelerate, and occasionally will choke and stall . O2 sensor has been replaced 3 times.

Filed Jan 4, 2001 · Engine · MN

While driving about 10 MPH front of vehicle started making noise like cranking hard, and engine lost power. Then, consumer took vehicle to dealer where they said that it was a head gasket failure. They could not take care of this problem, even though there was a recall because there was too many miles on vehicle.