2001 Ford Windstar stalls randomly under acceleration - Page 2

ScotsBoyNE · 07-20-2015, 11:30 AM

late post to the game here - maybe a stupid question -

when your engine stalled under these circumstances - did the van completely loose power? I mean - did the air keep going, stereo keep playing etc etc?

I ask as a means of trying to diagnose the issues on my wife's car.....

JHaus · 07-21-2015, 12:01 AM

Thanks everyone,
Yeah the coil pack seems to have been the problem. Visually it looks brand new and even tests out ok but my mechanic figured it may have been damaged by the fouled plug (see my original post in this thread) because of the resistance that it could cause. I have a friend that owns an alternator/starter rebuild shop and he said he would give it (the old pack) a 'stress test' to see if it would fail because it doesn't just checking using a normal multimeter.
Anyway the fail always occured at high rpm but would only fail once in a great while. You could drive it 30/40 miles or more with alot of high rpm runs thru hills here in southern california and it would be perfect then out of the blue it would just stall in an area it's run perfect thru the last week or so. Once we found out it was probably a random voltage spike it pretty much narrowed it down to the alternator or the coil pack with a third thought being the computer damaged by the voltage spike. I was happy it was the coil pack since it was the cheapest. I ohm tested all the spark plug wires and they were fine. Thanks again everyone and you may see me on here down the road but hopefully to give an opinion and help someone out from what I've learned.
JHaus

JHaus · 07-21-2015, 12:08 AM

Hey ScotsBoy,
I don't even remember if it was a complete shutdown or not. I do know that all the 'warning' lights would come on so it at least had that much power but it was always a bit stressful with a sudden stall in traffic that I don't remember if other things stayed on. I know when I recycled the key (turned off the ignition and turned it back on) that it would start up like nothing ever happened.
Hope this helps.

12Ounce · 07-21-2015, 12:07 PM

I wish you had also replaced the spark wires ... as they can also leak during high rpm, high voltage performance ... and especially when weather is a bit wet.

JHaus · 07-21-2015, 03:42 PM

Hey 12Ounce,
The plug wires are about a year and a half old. Even if they tested out fine on the Ohm test do you think I should still change them out ?? The van has been running fine for over a month now so obviously it was the coil pack but if something else may have been damaged by the resistance of the fouled plug I would want to take care of it and changing the plug wires wouldn't be a problem.
The van has always ran a bit rough at idle in wet weather. That's the reason I changed the plug wires and coil pack a year and a half back. It didn't make a bit a difference after the change though. My mechanic told me that water can drip down into certain electrical components in the engine compartment and cause problems. I was thinking of sealing the cowling where it contacts the windshield since there are a couple areas where you can see water has dripped thru. Also a couple of wire banks that have male/female plugs below where the water would drip thru also look like they could be sealed so water doesn't get inside the plug. I wondered if a 'boot' over the coil pack would help but I couldn't see where ford ever used one on this model. Thanks 12Ounce ... any advice is appreciated.
JHaus

12Ounce · 07-22-2015, 12:51 PM

I really doubt if a fouled plug caused much secondary damage. Coil packs and cables just die under normal usage. If the engine runs OK, I would not change the cables just now ... but keep them in mind if it starts skipping again. I also doubt if any effort to seal against water will do much good ... think about how much exposure to water the engine sees during driving in a downpour ... best, I think, to keep things open for easy draining and drying. Just my opinion.

wiswind · 07-28-2015, 08:53 PM

That fouled spark plug could have been caused by the coil pack issue....loss of spark to that plug.....unburned fuel causing the carbon build up.

If the problem returns.....check the fuel pump and PCM relays as they have been known to cause issues.......BEFORE replacing the fuel pump.
Fuel pump dying out has been known to happen.....and the Windstar does not monitor fuel pressure or flow directly.
12ounce can direct you to which relays I'm talking about.

But let's hope this issue has been solved.

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