Engine and transmission failures seem very high for 95 windstar vans. Internet sites are filled with stories similar to mine. Both the transmission and engine failures are safety issues since they may occur at speed on busy streets or the interstate. I believe that the number of failures indicates some design flaw in these components.
1995 Ford Windstar transmission complaints
Page 17 of 30: complaints 461 to 490 of 875, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Appears that every person that I know with a 1995 windstar has had engine failure and now the forward piston in the transmission fail. This repair is due to aluminum piston. Ford replacement part is stainless steel piston. Local aamco shop says that he has 55 gallon drun of aluminum forward pistons from ford transmissons.
This ford vehicle has had an extreme number of failures. Starting with the head gasket that the dealer wanted us to pay for after they made the mistake of saying it was under warranty. At a previous repair the dealer had replced the dash because of the speedometer cable and the dealer service person had forgot to add in the previous mileage. Later ford recalled the head gaskets. The transmission has not been replaced yet but continues to shift poorly. I do not want to put any more money into this vehicle. I believe ford should have some responsibility for the amounts spent on poor quality parts separate than normal maintenance. So far all that ford has offered is $1000.00 cash. This is not a responsible offer. We have spent almost $8000.00. It is fortunate no one was hurt when these parts failed. These six defects were not the only problems but are probably the most expensive defects.
On august 4, 1999 my wife returned home from an errand, parked the vehicle on the flat section of our driveway, put the car in "park" turned off the ignition and removed the keys from the ignition. She then went to the back liftgate, opened it to remove some items and closed the liftgate, which requires a fair amount of force. She then went into the house to put away the items and get ready to leave again. During this time 2 of our children, plus a friend of one of my children, got into the back seats of the vehicle to get ready to leave with my wife. The vehicle suddenly began to roll forward off the flat driveway, beyond which is a downward sloping side yard. The car rolled downhill approx 80 feet and hit a tree. Both airbags deployed and the front end sustained major damage. The exact cost of the repairs is still not determined - the car may be totalled. I have heard antecdotal stories of ford transmissions jumping into gear, but I am very concerned if my vehicle is not totalled that I will have to take back a defective vehicle. My insurance company informs me they are concerned only with collision damage, not with a potentially defective transmission. How should I proceed after submitting this notice?
I'd like to be reimbursed; this shouldn't have happened.
Was advised to wait for service while still under warranty as it was only a maintenance item, but now told to rebuild transmission as ford has a design defect in the transmission which has not been recalled, namely the front piston in the transmission is aluminum which splits and breaks the seal to the front thruster piston causing intermitent neutral in forward and reverse. Although ford issued a service bulletin to replace it with a steel piston, no recall has been issued by ford.
Transmission hangs in neutral after stop-dealer says front piston failure $2,000 repair.
The ABS light comes on. Due to a broken relector ring on the cv joint, speed sensor activates when it should not. Also the brake master cylinder malfunctioned, resulting in no braking ability. This may have caused a crash. Please provide further information.
Forward clutch piston failed leading to dangerous driving conditions. Original part defective according to ford's own tsb.
The needle on the speedometer jumps around after driving 30mph. Dealer has replaced speedometer once before. Problem exists again.
Transmission was serviced every 20k miles - just quit
Forward clutch piston failed and repaired. Actual mileage and date of failure unknown since transmission slowly self distructs after piston fails.
Speedometer has been replaced once because of the incorrect speed indications. Problem exists again. Dealer says the defect is no longer warranted.
No summary
At 56,000 miles the transmission is prematurley wearing out, it will not shift gears. Dealer has not diagnosed the fault. Please give any further details.
Transmission: the aluminum piston was installed instead of the steel ones. This caused the piston to crack. The gears would not shift properly. Will be taking vehicle to dealer to have them checked or changed.
Head gasket blew, cooling fluid (anti-freeze) leaked down into the oil galley and contaminated the engine oil and resulted in destroying the bearings (rod,main & camshaft), causing the engine to be rebuilt.
Due to defective torque converter vehicle will acclerate which reduces the braking performance, also, has no start condition. Please provide further information.
After the vehicle warmed up, first gear would not engage until about 2000 RPM, at which time, the transmission would slam into first gear. We brought it to an aamco transmission center. Aamco determined that it had to be rebuilt. Since the van only had 48,143 miles, I checked with our ford dealer to see if it was covered or if ford had any generic transmission quality problems with it. The serviceman told me that it was not covered since it had more than 36,000 miles and ford was not extending the warranty for any quality problems. Aamco explained that one part, an aluminum ring of about 5 inches in diameter, had cracks in it. Due to these cracks, the proper transmission fluid pressure could not be achieved so the transmission malfunctioned. The replacement ring is made of steel!! Aamco said the cracked ring was a common problem with this transmission.ford has apparently decided to walk away from an apparent generic defect that resulted from an error in design. If this is not an error in design, why is the replacement part made of steel? It certainly seems to me that this is also a safety problem in that the trans can fail at higher speeds and cause an accident.
Transmission slippage after deceleration and stopping, as well as intermittent failure. Dealer replaced cracked forward piston. Personnel at dealership remarked that this is a common problem among '95 windstars and is obviously a design flaw. Also commented that this should not occur on a vehicle with only 53k miles.
Problems began with engine check light at 32,000. Manuf. Said "don't worry." head gaskets/block at 51,000. New engine one year later. Second engine three months after that. Within eight months, dealer wants to install what amounts to fourth engine. Transmission appears to be going, too, mechanic thinks due to multiple overheating/s of engine.
The aluminum piston in the transmission cracked resulting in sporadic shifting problems. The transmission was rebuilt prior to commplete failure of the part.
There is a problem with: 1. The engine gaskets and, 2. The transmissions of many of the 1995 ford windstars and ford taurus's. They are routinely failing. Given this observation, I was compelled to purchase a $1000 extended warranty to pay for the repairs. The manufacturer should recall the affected powertrains and replace/repair the defects without charging the owners. Owners should be reimbursed for the costs of repairs or purchase of an extended warranty. The "lemon law" may apply because there are repetitive repairs.
We purchased the van with 42,00 miles on it. Since then the following repairs have been preformed since april 1998: brakes and rotors replaced, rotors were warpped because of heat, we bought extended warranty on van to cover cost of repairs including electrical to find out it covers zip. A senor is considered a computer chip and not under warranty. The transmission had to be replaced, then after the 90 day warranty was up the senor in the transmission had to be replaced, the door senors all had to be replaced, the turn signal/curse control senor had to be replaced, the check engine light comes on about an average of every two months in this car and it costs us at least $180.00 each time to have it fixed. I just had the van in to check out the check engine light and have the car smoged the first week in june 1999 then two and a half weeks later as I was driving home the check engine light comes on, fumes come in throgh the vents and car starts cutting out. Had to wait til this week to take to shop so I could afford to fix it as the shops don't take payments. Contacted the 1800 # for ford and they sugested I trade the car in. I still have 2.5 yrs to pay on this piece of ford. This car has been down totaling 8.6 months sin the last 15 months. I find that the senors are a major defect in this van, maybe someone should check out the problem here. Also had to take van in for a recall on headgasket. I am fortunate to be able to have a back up car or I would have lost my job due to this cars cost and repairs to me, not only do I have to make the payment but also the costly repairs. This time it is costing me over $700.00 to fix and it has only been out of the shop less then a month.
Transmission: sudden downshifting with dramatic loss of speed; followed by upshifting and speed surge. Engine: complete engine failure after dealer head gasket replacement, resulting in sudden loss of speed and maneuverability. Similar experiences frequently reported in various public forums by many owners of the same engine and transmission models.
No summary listed for this vehicle.
Blown head gasket and front engine timing cover leak. Minimum estimate from dealer is $1900. We contacted ford motor who offered no relief. We also had to replace the transmision at 40,000 miles. We found a posting in the edmunds web site devoted exclusively to this problem and lack of compensation from ford motor.
No summary listed for this vehicle.
The original transmission was replaced in 1995 after failing at approximately 9000 miles. The second transmission had a speed sensor failure at 31,500 miles and now appears to be failing the same way the original failed. Ford claims there is nothing they will do. After doing some research, there are numerous complaints against this transmission coupled with the 3.8l engine. After writing to your organization about my head gasket problem, I was very pleased that somehow ford was persuaded to extend the warranty coverage on that component as it was a factory defect that LED to the problem. From what I am reading, the transmission is a similar factory defect (poorly designed part: forward clutch piston). Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.
Vehicle was parked with key removed. A 3 yrs old child was able to remove the gear from park, causing vehicle to roll into garage door. Manufacturer notified.
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