1998 Ford Windstar GL review from North America

Hot cold switch failed.

Door and hatch contacts failed.

Power window locked up.

Water leak at driver side seat belt and second row seat bealt.

Mystery squeal at pulley.

Transmission failing.

Head gasket starting to leak.

This is my wifes car. She went from an 87 Monte Carlo SS to the mini van when our family grew. She was not happy becoming a mini van mom. She has since changed her mind and loves the mini van. The exception is the constantly failing door contacts. Transmission is now failing at only 64,000 miles, And the mystery squeal. The other problems I repaired myself and consider them annoying. I am not going to rave about USA cars or Japanese. They both have there great ones and there Junkers. The Ford Ranger lasted 224,000 with only maintenance items needing repair. It was a standard transmission and the clutch needed replacing at 99,0000 and again at 210,000. It was still running great when I sold it. The Fiesta I drove into the dirt. The Datsun had 200,000 plus miles. The Monte Carlo had 99,000 when I sold it. All were good cars and served me well.

However. The transmission problems, which Ford has, know about in prior years and the head gasket. Let us not forget the mystery squeal at the pulley that caused me to replace the water pump, which turns out is the head gasket leaking and getting on the belt, which slipped momentarily. I found fluid on the water pump and figured it had to be the cause. Hey water pump, been there done that, no big deal. Not until you find out the engine has to be raised 2 inches to remove the water pump. Oh well, it's a mini van with everything crammed half way under the dash, what do you expect. I knew working on it wouldn't be easy.

The door and hatch contacts are another story all there own. I can't tell you how many times I have polished and cleaned them to get them working for a while. After several attempts I could no longer fix the sliding door contacts or the back hatch. I disconnected one of the rear hatch connectors and jumped the sliding door. Now the interior light doesn't work when you open the side door and the other rear hatch contact is starting to fail. I personally know others with the same problem.

We are currently looking at buying another mini van. I am reviewing the web sites to basically see which model has the least significant complaints. As of this writing I am not sure which one my wife will fall in love with. She is leaning toward the Odyssey. We still have test drives to go on and research to do. I will say that the premature failure of the Windstar transmission problem, the head gasket and door contact have left a bad taste in my mouth and is not in the consideration. If Ford gave me a new Freestar to review I would take it. I'm not crazy, but not with my $25,000 to $30,000 hard earned dollars. I know its only three problems, but they are major expense problems and should not happen to so many with so few miles. Well maintained miles I might add. Good luck with the new model mini van Ford, I will have to read in the future how others faired. It won't be me.