I am looking to get an idea of how many miles I can expect to get out
of a Windstar before it becomes a money pit. If you own or have owned
one of these vans, please chime in with your experience.
I don't expect a free ride with our eight year old Windstar, but am concerned that maybe this might be the start of being nickel and dimed to death. That's why I"m wondering how the vehicle has performed for others. My Windstar has had regular maintenance: oil changes, transmission fluid changes, etc. Up until recently it was a pretty reliable vehicle. But in the last 3 or 4 months, it's been having multiple problems as outlined below. .
1998 Ford Windstar, 3.8L engine with 145,000 miles - many of those were highway miles. An oxygen sensor was replaced in December per a scan tool reading, but the SES (service engine soon) light still comes on occasionally. The ABS light is on, but that may be due to something that happened when the brakes were serviced. Last week the transmission started to slip a bit when accelarating from a stop. Last fall it was also slowly loosing coolant. Never saw any on the ground, never smelled it, and the mechanic pressure tested the system and never found a leak. Nevertheless, the coolant level would drop. Three months ago the mechanic added some sealer to the cooling system, and since then the coolant level has held steady.
I don't expect a free ride with our eight year old Windstar, but am concerned that maybe this might be the start of being nickel and dimed to death. That's why I"m wondering how the vehicle has performed for others. My Windstar has had regular maintenance: oil changes, transmission fluid changes, etc. Up until recently it was a pretty reliable vehicle. But in the last 3 or 4 months, it's been having multiple problems as outlined below. .
1998 Ford Windstar, 3.8L engine with 145,000 miles - many of those were highway miles. An oxygen sensor was replaced in December per a scan tool reading, but the SES (service engine soon) light still comes on occasionally. The ABS light is on, but that may be due to something that happened when the brakes were serviced. Last week the transmission started to slip a bit when accelarating from a stop. Last fall it was also slowly loosing coolant. Never saw any on the ground, never smelled it, and the mechanic pressure tested the system and never found a leak. Nevertheless, the coolant level would drop. Three months ago the mechanic added some sealer to the cooling system, and since then the coolant level has held steady.