Vehicle intermittently stalls when deceleration and also at acceleration. Occurs most often when turning. Left my family of five along with 2 of their friends stalled in incoming traffic. Other stalling events also required other drivers to take action to avoid hitting front or rear of vehicle. Dealer performed PCM reprogramming in accordance with tsb 98-25-6 and corrected stalling problem. While wife reported stalling infrequently when under warranty, the stalling frequency increased to 1-2 times a day after transmission service by dealer at approx 47,000 miles. I am happy that the car is now fixed but ford has not offered to pay for reprogramming which is a known problem with the windstars. This should be a safety recall item. Three other problems which have occured with this car is goodyear invicta tire separation (tires replaced prior to failure); power steering pump fluid contamination; and noisy tie end rods. Tire replacement prorated. Power steering fluid flushed at my expense. Tie end rods replaced under bumper-to-bumper warranty. Please investigate stalling problem as a safety recall. I am still trying thru ford customer service to get reimbursed for correcting the stalling associated with tsb 98-25-6.*ak (tiresize: 21570r15)( dot number: tire size: 21570r15 )
1998 Ford Windstar acceleration complaints
Page 3 of 4: complaints 41 to 70 of 73, newest first, as owners wrote them.
While driving at any speed and when attempting to stop vehicle by applying force to brake pedal, brakes did not repsond vehicle suddenly accelerated without prior warning causing unwanted acceleration, consumer contacted dealer and problem has been corrected, cruise control ceased operation but has now been repaired, consumer was advised by technician the vehicle was sold with wrong part.
Vehicle is slipping out of gear while driving from 3rd to 2nd gear, causing vehicle to almost stop, RPM's will rev high. Manufacturer has issued a tsb. Please provide further information.
Stopped at traffic light, upon acceleration transmission would not engage. Engine revved as if in neutral. Also occurred as accelerating from a stop to make a turn. Presented a very dangerous situation of being put into the path of on coming traffic. Turning engine off and then back on would allow transmission to engage. Dealer determined that the transmission had failed at 43,621 miles and had to be replaced. After four days in service and a complete new transmission, within 12 hours new transmission developed at least two serious leaks of transmission fluid. Dealer says this is not uncommon. The unit is sealed and can not be serviced by them. I am waiting to hear if I need another complete new transmission.
While driving at any speed and when attempting to stop vehicle by applying force to brake pedal, brakes did not respond. Vehicle suddenly accelerated without prior warning, causing unwanted and unexpected acceleration. Consumer has contacted dealer, dealer corrected problem. Consumer currently noticed that curise control was inoperable. *ak
Sudden acceleration while backing out of a parking space. Dealer notified, and unable to locate cause. Please feel free to provide any further details on this matter.
The vehicle suddenly and without warning lurches forward when the vehicle is at a stop, the vehicle has been taken to the dealer on two occasions but the problem has not been successfully repaired (attorney for client). Nlm
When coming to a complete stop and brakes applied, engine will suddenly start to rev, causing vehicle to accelerate. Dealer has been contacted.
Upon slowing down in traffic and appyling brakes vehicle suddenly accelerated, causing a collision. Please give any further details.
1. Transmission: the vehicle would act as if it were in neutral after coming to a stop. Sometimes this would happen right as I pulled into an intersection, leaving me in the path of oncoming traffic with no power. 2. A/c: the control module failed to engage the A/C but still cycled the idle speed. This was dangerous because the braking required to hold the vehicle at a stop was insufficient when the idle randomly surged to high. Both failures had potential to cause accident but were repaired before any incident occurred.
When at a stoplight transmission goes into neutral unnoticed, but when you step on the gas the engine revvs up and then suddenly jumps back into gear and shoots out into traffic with out warning. Ford knows of the problem , and told me it was a aluminum piston that fails in the trans. But wants over 2000.00 dollars to fix it because I didn't report it soon enough. I was lucky that the intersection was empty, or it could have been a bad accident! This is clearly a safety problem that ford does not want to deal with. I want to know if there are any others out there with this problem? I called several transmission shops and they all knew of the problem, even some of the ford dealers admitted that the transmission is defective! For $26000.00 the trans. Only lasted 2yrs. Is there anything I can do?
Complete brake failure&stuck accelerator-backing up driveway with feet on brakes-accelerator pedal went down on own van wrapped around tree- reported brake problem on test drive-they fixed it,but no good.
Sudden acceleration while braking into a curved parking space, causing vehicle to rearend another vehicle in front. Dealer notified. Provide further details.
While driving at 60 MPH the car downshifted to a low gear causing the RPM's to race and the car to lurch. Was able to pull to side of busy highway without incident. Ford dealer replaced map sensor and rebuilt/replaced the transmission. Ford company paid all but $200 as part of their "customer goodwill program". I think there should be a recall on the transmission and if so, I would like my $200 refunded to me. The tie rod ends failed right after the warranty period. Even the dealer alluded to the fact that they were probably factory defects, that they should not go bad then. The 'open door sensor' stays on even though all of the doors are closed. This happens sporadically. It may happen twice a day and then not happen for days. The automatic doorlocks have not worked properly since about 40,000 miles. I have to manually lock/unlock the sliding door. And to top off all of my problems, last week I had a mouse in my glove compartment! The design of the glove compartment lets you look right into the engine, and a mouse got in there and chewed up my maps and clean paper napkins. I am not happy! And that will be a safety issue if I am driving and someone opens my glove box! I bet you have never heard that one! My biggest concern is the transmission. I hope to hear from you about that. Thank you very much. Nancy
Two incidents of sudden acceleration, one causing damage to our vehicle and the one ahead as I was parking next to a curb. Second time was in driveway when entering garage; slammed on brakes to not hit house. Numerous incidents of hard 1st to 2nd gear shift at 15 MPH; sounds like a hard thud. Ford overfilled trans. Fluid 1/2 quart as a fix in november; replacing valve pump now in january.
While wife was driving tire blew out, and automobile accelerated. Driver could not get automobile to stop.- vehicle went into a ditch and flipped over. Driver was injured.
I am so scared to drive our van- I have no idea what to do. Thia van showed be considered a lemon- or ford should repair it. We purchased the van cause we had another little one on the way(making 4 kids) in the past we had old vechilcles. We decided to spend the $$ and have a reliable vechicle since we have 4 kids and travel around town alot. First my air codtioner goes out in july, 99 (electrical- no power to it). We did not have the $ to fix. Than in august,99 we started experiencing intermittent neutral condtion after driving and coming to a stop. Had to rebuild the transmission- due to a faulty clutch piston that ford knows is causing problems in ax4s windstar 3.8l. Engine - stalls usually when driving at low speeds, such as o turns or coming to a stop. Scared to death that somesone will run into me. Steering- vechile pulls to the right so badly that in seconds I am in another lane. Have had it relighned. The other seroius problem is I will start van or have foot on brake and it itermittally accerates in surges on its own. My foot in not near the gas- I am so scared to death that I will lose control of it resulting into an accident. I am so scared to drive this van and it is only a 98". What am I to do. I do not want to wait for and acident or death to someone. Please help!! I need some advice. I have no warranty on van- but yet with so many problems why should the consumer have to pay when ford knows of the problems with the vans- what does it take - death!!! I need to know what is causeing these problems. I can not afford to keep taking them to mechanics and not getting it fix. Shouldn't ford have to take this piece of crap back-please help!!
The transmission would disengage by itself from drive to neutral position. When accelerating, transmission would pop out of position. In low gear, it would be rough shifting. Also, gas pedal would vibrate. Been to dealer 3 times for problem before finally locating & establishing that throttle cable was loose. Mechanic repaired loose throttle cable.
Vehicle experienced sudden acceleration on two separate occasions, one incident resulted in minor damage to vehicle. Mjs
When depressing the accelerator ,vehicle will only go about 2 MPH even with vehicle in drive gear. Manufacturer has tsb #98-2-1 out for defect. *ak
Speed control would not disengage while driving 75mph. I tried turning it off from the steering wheel as well as by braking. At this point I realized I had no braking power and managed to use an exit ramp slowing down but not stopping completely by using the emergency brake. Engine was still revving at 75mph when I shut it off. Car was towed to tamiami ford in naples,fl. They could not fin any problems. Test drove at highway speed without incident. Please notify me as to any similar problems. Thank god my children and I were not injured.
Vehicle jumped forward when stopping. Accelerated by itself, resulting in a crash. Brakes when applied, squeak loudly. Gears were very hard to change. Dealer contacted and is aware of the problem. Problems still exists. Provide further information.
When using cruise control and attempting to slow down or come to a complete stop, vehcile accelerates.
Engine stoped when coming to stop or making turns, due to failure of the throttle body assembly. Yh
Vehicle surges forward, causing the vehicle to jerk violently which could result in an accident. Dealer has overhauled transmission twice. Defect is still reoccurring. Cannot duplicate defect.
The consumer has been experiencing problems with automatic transmission. Transmission went out after the vehicle had 314 miles. In addition, the consumer has been experiencing problems with cruise control cable. The consumer stated that while driving, cruise control cable wrapped around their accelerator cable, which caused the vehicle to run without being able to stop it. The consumer had to turn the vehicle off in order to stop the vehicle. The manufacturer has been contacted.
While driving at a low speed the vehicle suddenly accelerated forward at full speed, nearly resulting in a collision,cause unknown. Please give any further details.
Accelerator stuck causing sudden acceleration resulting in accident and injuries.
While driving the vehicle accelerates without warning. Had to press the brake pedal very hard in order to stop the vehicle. Also the vehicle will rev up to 25 RPM. Took to dealer twice, dealer cannot determine problem.
While at a stop vehicle suddenly surged, causing a collision. The dealer has not been able to duplicate or find cause of problem.
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