2000 Ford Windstar LX from North America - Comments

Got a 2000 Windstar with 120,000 miles on it. Have had the lean bank codes for 2 years. Check engine light comes on during cold weather (live in Wisconsin). Luckily, I have to get emissions checked in summer. When weather warms up, clearing the code works until it gets cold again. My headlights flash with the light switch off. The van has done this for years, no one knows why. Solution is to always run with headlights on. I agree, DON'T BUY A FORD!

I guess you can add me to the list of crappy Ford Windstars. I just got a 2000 Windstar almost a week ago. The check engine light came on and I went to my mechanic and he told me that it was lean bank on it. I'm not to worried about that right now. but then the O/D light came on and the check transmission came on. It says that "the torque converter clutch is stuck off". I just went back to my mechanic and he told me it was going to run me like 2 grand. I don't have that kind of money laying around, and I took it back to the people that bought it to me and they claimed they fixed it the first time, and here I am 36 hours later with the same problem. I'm ready to push this thing in the river and I didn't even have the car for a week. Don't BUY THE WINDSTAR!!!

Thanks. Your comment solved a puzzle for me. My '03 Windstar had a lean bank code in March after rough idling and bucking all winter. The codes have not returned yet. So, I am planning on doing the intake work myself late summer or fall. No need to pay $100 an hour for turning bolts.

Re.: 14:19

"My headlights flash with the light switch off. The van has done this for years, no one knows why. Solution is to always run with headlights on."

No. The solution is to find the short and fix it.

2000 Windstar.

My friends bought one in 2003 with 40,000 miles on my advice. One of my friends is disabled and uses the van for her wheelchairs. She is very active and drives more than 20,000 miles a year. Driven very gently on the freeway. Needed power steering pump replaced at 150,000 miles, and the autodoor motor controls needed to be replaced at about the same time. Also, the brakes wear out awfully fast for a freeway driver. Mostly acceptable faults until 160,000 miles when the transmission started spraying fluid on the freeway while on a trip. $2000 later had replaced the torque converter and seal at a local dealership. Friends asked me to drive it yesterday because it isn't acting right. I did and found it's not shifting into 4th gear. No torque converter lockup, but no OD light flashing either. Now with 202,000 miles. What should I tell them? They love the van.

Wow, if your friends have put 160,000 miles on this Windstar, and all they've done is replace the power steering pump and a transmission seal, I think they've had good service. My feeling is that is more typical than the occasional horror stories you hear of blown transmissions at 30,000 miles. However, a van with over 200,000 miles, I would say is not worth spending $2-5k on a new transmission. For that money, you could find a whole different van. I would say drive it until the tranny really blows, and then junk it. The van has given its best.