What is wrong with my Aerostar this time?

I have a 1990 Aerostar with 167,000 miles on it. The rear ABS light stays on all the time. I took it too the shop and the shop hooked it up to their computer but could not get any codes. Now when I go to drive the van in the morning after it has been parked all night the right rear brake is locks hard and the tire drags until it un sticks. Then it works with no problems until the next time I park it for a few hours.

Reply to
nospam
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What kind of moron would bother with a 1990 Aerostar?

Reply to
fordjunk

Quoting the mean-assed guy who first responded...

"What kind of moron would bother with a 1990 Aerostar?"

How about a guy that had one and it was the only car he had? Geez, let up on the guy. The brake problem is a fairly common one from what I've hear. The Aerostar shares the same ABS that the Ranger had at that time. There is a cycling valve under the driver's seat on the Ranger, I'm not too sure where it would be on the Aerostar. Sounds like you need a new one. I'd also check the rear brake lining and the drum for roundness/ Dragging can over-heat them and cause them to warp.

Reply to
Reece Talley

Best van I ever owned was my 90 Aerostar. A '97 would be better, but as a "trucky" mini-van goes, it is sure better than any of the crap GM put out. Much more usefull than my current Pontiac TransSport too - even if the Pontiac does have more power (3.8 vs 3.0 liter)

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

Aerostar is crap.

Reply to
sean

You are entitled to your opinion. Other than having a rust-prone body mine was no worse than any of the other 20 some vehicles I've owned, and better than quite a few.

246,000 Km on it when I sold it almost 3 years ago, and the new owner is still happy with it.
Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

Do you set the parking brake at night? If so, I'd suspect the parking brake cable is rusted and binding. As for the ABS - make sure you have the correct fluid level in the master cylinder and that the parking brake is releasing properly. Assuming these are OK, the most common failure is the rear wheel speed sensor. It screws into the differential housing. Not expensive and fairly easy to replace.

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

Ok the brake problem has not really been resolved but now my Aerostar has another problem.. If I had my way I'd sell the pile of junk but my husband seems to want to suffer with this van til the bitter end.

1990 Aerostar 167,000 miles AWD (sort a) ABS (sort a) and all the other perks except for the Eddie Baur package.

We replaced the alternator a few months ago.

Now when my husband drives it (I won't drive it anywhere) if he turns on the headlights the van begins to lose all electric power. It started beeping so we pulled over and it would not start at all and sounded like it had a dead battery so I'm thinking alternator. BUT the battery tests as fully charged according to the state trooper who gave us a jump start. After the jump start the van was fine.

Skip ahead to this morning husband drives the pile of junk home and makes the mistake of turning the headlights on and the beeping starts again so he turns the head lights off and all is well UNTILL he turns the heater on (??) then the beeping starts again. He managed to drive it home though because he was only a block away when he decided to turn the heater on. So now it is sitting in front of the house dead as a doornail.. Oh now he says it starts again.. so I was unstartable when he first got home but now it starts again.

So what is wrong with his pile of junk now?

Reply to
nospam

Sure sounds like you have connection problems somewhere - likely the ground to the body. Connect booster cable from negative battery terminal to a good body ground and see what happens.

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

Nevermind.. what a relief to be free of that pile of shit! I gave it to a junkyard today. I was lucky to find a junk yard that would take it considering it's a FORD AEROSTAR...

Oh the money I put into that thing over the years.. :( I"ll miss it a bit, but I won't miss all the hassle of trying to keep it running. I've been a prisoners to this van.. when it was my only vehicle I was pretty much afraid to drive anywhere because it was so expensive to drive that thing.

Reply to
nospam

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