🚀 go-pugleaf

There is an old adage that FORD stands for "Fix or Repair Daily."
Based on reviews of the Windstar when it came out in 95, I thought
that maybe that wasn't true anymore, and I shelled out over $20,000
for one. Now I'm beginning to feel that I made a big mistake.

Recently I began having transmission problems. If the van was stopped,
and in either Drive or Reverse, it would not immediately engage into
gear when I pressed the gas pedal (if on an incline, it would actually
roll). If/when it finally did engage into gear, it did so with a big
lurch.


Only 3 weeks before I started having the transmission problems, I had
a problem with the driver side power window. The dealer charged me
$320 to replace the power window motor, and wouldn't cover it because
at nearly 57,000 miles the van was considered "out of warranty"
(despite being less than two years old, and as if the excess mileage
really had anything to do with the power window motor). Given that
experience, I brought the van to Aamco and didn't even bother with the
Ford dealers.

Aamco found (through their electrical/computer diagnostics) that the
engine computer was not properly controlling the transmission -- it
was telling the transmission to shift at the wrong times, and to run
at the wrong pressure. They determined that engine computer and the
shift lever position sensor needed to be replaced (at a cost of about
$350) and they did that. At this point, the new computer reported
transmission failure codes (the old computer never reported any
problems). Furthermore, the transmission problems still remained. 

At this point, Aamco removed and disassembled the transmission. They
found significant pressure and heat damage inside
the transmission, and a number of things inside the transmission 
had all failed and/or needed to be replaced:
 - all solonoids,
 - all bands
 - drive chain
 - torque converter
 - all steel plates
basically the transmission needed to be entirely rebuilt. The final
bill after all repairs were complete was $3,525!

Aamco's opinion is that the van was operating for an extended period
of time with the failed engine computer not properly controlling the
transmission. As a result, transmission eventually burned itself out. 
Note that before the physical symptoms noted above caused me to bring
the van to Aamco, I was given no indication of any problem with the
engine computer (i.e., no Check Engine light, no increase in fuel
consumption/decrease in MPG), and I had no noticeable transmission
problems--the transmission failed suddenly and without warning (in
fact, I nearly got into an accident the first time it happened as I
was stopped at a red light on a hill and when it turned green and I
took my foot off the brake and hit the gas, the van actually rolled
backwards).

I called Fords' customer service hotline to discuss this (I had also
done this for the power window but to no avail). They told me the
vehicle is out of warranty, so they won't help me. I asked to speak to
a higher authority or to have a higher authority call me back, they
said no and hung up the phone on me.

To add further insult to injury, the day after getting the van back
the Check Engine light came on. I brought the van in and was told I
needed to replace two oxygen sensors--final bill $244.



Add to all of this the 3 recalls and 2 service bulletins that I had to
have performed on the van (at least Ford paid for those since the van
was in warranty at the time), and my conclusions are
  1) Ford's quality is as bad as it ever was (quality is definitely NOT
     job 1)
  2) Ford's customer service sucks.

My recommendations to the world:

DON'T BUY A FORD VEHICLE.

----------------------------------------------------------
Steve Rothkin
Dancemasters Disc Jockey Entertainers
12 Merrick Road
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
Email: srothkin@mhv.net
Voice: (914) 452-8798
Fax:   (914) 471-2728
World Wide Web: http://members.aol.com/srothkin/dancemst.htm