While driving my 2000 ford windstar minivan with 3 children in car, the rear end of vehicle was swaying sideways. There was a loud clunking noise when going over bumps then car would jump sideways. Drove car home slowly with flashers on. My husband inspected underneath car to find rear axle rusted and cracked in half and rear tires tilting inward. My husband said I was very lucky to have not been a serious accident. Car deemed too dangerous to drive.
2000 Ford Windstar body complaints
Page 6 of 8: complaints 131 to 160 of 216, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Have 2000 ford windstar with 120k miles on it. While servicing last week, mechanic was checking rear brakes and noticed rear axle was cracked about halfway through about 10 inches from right side. Also a hole around 10 inches from left side end.
Rusted right rear subframe mount which I found before complete faliure.
On this date, rear axel of my 2000 ford windstar broke and both rear wheels were bowed out and a large crack was discovered.
Snapped rear axle leading to loss of control. This axle had obviously been cracked for several years, based on corrosion in the crack. The loss of control was such that lives were in immediate danger.
I was driving hit a small dip in road and then all of a sudden I felt something slam into my car from underneath it. I stopped did not find anything. But as I started driving again I kept hearing a knocking sound from front end. I knew something was wrong. I immediately took it to my mechanic. He found the undercar frame completely rotted through by the right front shock. He said this car could not be driven with this defect and I was lucky that engine didn't fall out as I was driving. The car is still the same, nothing has been done to repair the car.
2000 ford windstar with approx 102,000 miles and rear main axle beam broken almost into. Have done some internet searches and found several cases of this. There is no recall from ford and this is extreme safety issue with windstars. Lost almost total control of my vehicle and thank god I was traveling at only 10 MPH. At interstate speed this would have been an almost certain catastrophe. Will be contacting ford in morning to see what they have to say but from all online accounts they seem to be refusing to acknowledge or even offer to repair. I would much rather have a sticky gas pedal that I can somewhat control the to have an axle snap into at highway speeds.
The rear axle on my 2000 ford windstar just split while driving it! There is no rust or wear and tear. I have all my maintenance receipts and my mechanic says this should have never happened. My children and I could've been killed if we were driving on a highway instead of a local road.
The rear axle beam of my 2000 ford windstar split in 2 while I was making a right hand turn causing the rear wheels to flare out. The service station said they have made repairs to other windstars with the same problem. Lucky for me I was not going fast and there were no injuries. I learned later that the beam rusted out from the inside as water had infiltrated the beam.
On or about december 1st,2009 my 2000 ford windstar started making loud squeaking noises from the rear of my van when I would make turns and also started swaying from side to side whenever I would go over bumps .almost felt like my rear wheels were going to fall off from very loose lugnuts, but they were tight. As the next few weeks went by the problems became worse. Today(1/2/2010)I decided to look underneath the rear of my van. I was in disbelief to see my rear axle cracked almost all the way through about 2 feet in from the drivers side. I couldn't believe it. I have 4 small children and we just went on a trip on the highway 2 days prior to me checking the problem. I have seen this is a common problem with the windstar . I have done some research on this problem and found this to be a widespread problem with all different years of the windstar. Something has to be done before someone is seriously injured from this problem. This axle should not crack or break under normal wear of the vehicle. This is a major component of the van and causes serious safety issues. Right now the van is sitting in my driveway. I am trying to find a used axle from somewhere so I could get it back on the road. Ford should really do something about this issue. Thanks you...
After having trouble steering took the car in for a front end alignment. Was told that the right subframe was completely rusted out and cracked and unsafe to drive. Car is just 10 years old and 85000 miles. Mechanic says this should not have happened with a car of this age. Ford has been contacted and would not take any responsibility for it. In addition took it to a ford dealer who said that the starting price to fix the car was 1600 and could only go up.
The 2000 ford windstar had been having some handling issues such that if there was water or sand on the road we would fishtail and feel like driving on black ice. I was always able to recover control of the vehicle without incident. It got to a point the vehicle couldn't be driven safely in wet or snowy conditions. The vehicle was pretty much driven in small town conditions. The problem was identified when the rear passenger wheel top was angled into the vehicle (I.e. Camber off by 2-3 inches). Mechanic inspected the suspension and found a cracked rear axle with no signs of rust or damage nearby. The axle will have to be replaced.
While backing up to parallel park my 2000 ford windstar the rear-axle snapped in half, and the rear tires bent in!!
Broken rear axle beam, 2000 ford windstar.
My 2000 ford windstar with approx 140000 miles had its rear axle snap in two. As I review other complaints this does not seem to be an isolated case.
My back axle broke in half while driving and luckily we were not killed or on any major highway at a high speed. This is an ongoing problem with ford windstars, there are many complaints about the same issue. Most repair centers say they have never seen anything like it and this should never occur. How many lives need to be lost before ford recalls these axles? My neighbor who also has a ford windstar had the same thing happen to them 3 months ago.
The k-frame(sub frame) is completely rotted out on the right side. It is bad enough that it cant be welded, must be replaced. On a vehicle that is 9 years old with 80000 miles and in perfect shape. I was told by numerous garages that this should of never rusted out this fast. I think that ford should be responsible for the repair.
2000 ford windstar engine cradle rusted, came loose of frame, caused steering issue. This could cause serious injury accident or death if happened at high rate of speed.
I had been concerned about a bad shimmy at 50 MPH on my 2000 ford windstar, and I had spoken to my dealer about it when I had the oil changed. Less than a week later, as I pulled from my driveway, the rear axle broke completely in two. We have tried to get ford to address this problem, as there must be millions of these vans still on the road, and most of them carry children. We have not had any response so we are filing this complaint. We have heard of other failures and as you know they could be deadly. We paid to have the axle replaced.
In 2004/2005 the paint on my 2000 ford windstar began flaking off. It started on the hood, then the liftgate and the roof. At this point if we have a wind storm I find chips of paint all over my drive way. Ford says "paint doesn't last forever" and basically the problem is all mine.
There were no events leading to the failure. Vehicle got new tires and alignment then two days later the vehicle started pulling to the left. I went back to the tire dealer, the mechanic check the alignment and noticed that the rear axle had a crack on the driver side and was rusted through. The crack was so severe that the axle was almost in two parts and at the base there is a quarter inch separation in the crack. The tire is no longer laying flat. The bottom of the tire is facing out. If the mechanic didn't find the failure there certainly would have been a tragic accident.
Crack in rear axle.
2000 ford windstar van broken rear axle, had to completely install new rear axle dealer part only ale broke completely in half! Van creaked like it was broken for a little while then had rear shocks replaced and axle broke. I have pictures and the original part.
Windstar broken rear axle strikes again. We were on our way to dinner with retired ford employee and his lovely wife. We were in dearborn on michigan avenue when bad noises, and smells came from the rear of the van. We pulled over and discovered a totally broken axle cover. My husband works in steel. If we had been on the southfield as we had planned and this happened there would have been disastrous results not only for us but we could have placed other families in danger as well. Both men. The police who stopped to help and the tow truck driver agreed that axles don't just break.
The car seemed at first to be hydroplaning due to the rain, but then it got much worse. When I removed the rear passenger wheel, I saw the rear axle beam had snapped at the weld point. The car was very difficult to drive and the repair shop indicated that we should have had it towed in because sometimes the wheels will shear away from the suspension when the beam is broken. This car has only been in one minor accident, with minimal body damage and no damage at all to the body structure, so this was without question a manufacture defect in the part.
2000 ford windstar sel. Discovered a crack in rear axle. It was located near the center of span between rear wheels. The crack ran from top to bottom of the axle about 3" and was spread apart approximately 1/8" on bottom. There was only 50% of the axle remaining. Fortunately I discovered it just prior to a vacation trip with our family of 5. There has been no known event to explain the cause.
Every time we get heavy rains my front windshield leaks. While checking recalls I have come across this problem which my mechanic explained to me exactly as the recall reads. Ford will not fix the problem because there is no recall on their site. I was told it could be because the recall was too old or it was already taken care of but they don't know which. This vehicle was purchased from a ford dealer almost a year ago. I was told in event of an accident my windshield may come loose because of the bonding and could result in injury or death.
Catastrophic failure of the right lower control arm mounts at the subframe occurred with no warning or prior symptoms. The vehicle is a 2000 ford windstar with approximately 95k miles. At the time of the failure the driver was pulling away from a curb when the control arm mounts broke causing the wheel to swing away from the vehicle and the drive axle to pull out of the transmission. The vehicle was towed to a local service station where it was examined. The dealer was contacted who in turn instructed me to contact ford motor company directly. Under the direction of ford motor company the vehicle was towed to the dealer to determine the cause of failure. The dealer determined that the sub-frame was rusted out in the area around the passenger side control arm mounts. Ford has refused to offer any assistance in fixing the problem. A search of the federal safety agency complaint database revealed 12 other complaints of similar failures with 1998-2001 windstars. (odi #s: 10152076, 10103097, 10152712, 10138539, 10183135, 10171784, 10173473, 10153590, 10200106, 10005872, 761511, 10172459) there appears to be a trend related to excessive corrosion leading to premature failure of the rear portion of the subframe on the passenger side. One possible factor could be the placement of the air conditioner system and the tendency for condensation to drip on this portion of the frame whenever the system is in cooling or defrost mode causing accelerated corrosion. This is a severe failure that is premature, not easily detectable, potentially fatal, and will likely occur more frequently as these vehicles age. I strongly urge the federal safety agency to conduct an engineering investigation regarding this failure.
1- there was not any symptom leading up to failure. 2- the failure was on the front passenger wheel. The weld on one of the control arms actually broke off the frame. As a result the wheel was allowed move in a different direction then the driver side wheel. This forced the vehicle off the opposite side of the road in a very immediate uncontrolled manner. 3- there was nothing done to correct this problem as of yet. Dealer doesn't have any interest in fixing the vehicle unless we pay for it.
Dt*: the contact stated while driving 40 MPH on normal road conditions, and avoiding to hit a deer, the sub frame of the engine manifold fell out. The vehicle had to be towed to an independent body shop, who determined that the sub frame rusted completely and needed to be replaced. The dealer was contacted, who determined that the VIN # did not fit under any recall. The vehicle was currently at the body shop waiting for repairs. The ball joints and brakes were replaced as well. Updated 12/01/06.
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