Air sucking sound, unserviced transmission

Hi all,

I have a 2000 Windstar LX that has an air sucking sound if you stand on the inside of the driver door when the vehicle is running. The A/C seems to work fine and the van runs fine, so I'm not sure of the cause, or even if it's worth worrying about.

The other issue is the transmission. This vehicle has 134K on it, and it's on it's second Ford reman trans (third trans overall). I purchased it from a friend who was a dealership employee. The dealership serviced his vehicle from when it was new. It had a trans flush at approx 40K, then the transmission went. It went again at 70k, and that's the trans in there now. Since then, he had not done a fluid and filter change, because as he told me, 'the flushes ruin the transmission', in his experience and with other family members. He didn't get the difference between a flush and a pan drop service, and so never had it done.

Since there's been 65k placed on the trans since then, I'm leery of just dropping the pan and changing fluid and filter. I plan to use my siphon and pull out 4 quarts and replace it (that's all it'll get), then see what the color looks like (it's pale pink right now). I think if I do that and the color looks healthier, it'll be okay to go ahead and drop the pan and replace fluid and filter. What do you think?

I've got a 2000 Windstar and mine makes the same sucking noise at the drivers side door. I believe it to be a normal condition. If you open the hood, the air intake is attached to the driver's side fender. On the other side of the filter, it literally sucks air from the inside cavity of the fender. When you open the door, you're listening to the inside cavity. Annoying design, but I believe perfectly normal.

On your tranny, I can only tell you my situation. I bought mine and it had around 120K miles when I purchased it. I thought it would be a good idea to drop the pan and replace the fluid. I threw down for the good stuff and went fully synthetic mobil 1 tranny fluid. Less than a month later, the transmission completely died. Would only go into first and even then, it was terrible. $2000 and a heck of a lesson in transmission swaps DIY-style, I'm on the road again. Was it the new tranny fluid, or just coincidence that it died....I'll never know, but I'm certainly suspicious.

Mark

I have had the reverse happen with my transmision. At around 112,000 miles I was on vacation when I has a sliping/hunting problem at 65mph in O/D, taking it out of O/D it still slipped/hunted about 200 RPM's about every 30 to 60 seconds. It almost felt like it was falling out of convertor lockup but when it comes out of lockup I normaly see about 300 RPM higher.

With nothing to loose and being 800 miles from home I went to autozone and purchased 12 quarts of Mercon V synthecic fluid, a 2 gallon gas can, 2 feet of 3/8 hose and a 3/8 rubber cap.

In the Motel parking lot I removed 1 of the hoses from the transmission cooler under the radiator, extended the line with rubber hose and capped the other side with the rubber cap.

Started it up and pumped 3 quarts of fluid from the trans into the gas can, I then put 6 quarts of new fluid in the trans and started it again and let it push more dirty fluid into the gas can. Shut it down and filled it with another 6 quarts and ran it till about 3 of them came out then shut it down and reconnected the cooler lines.

Drove about 10 miles to the interstate for a road test not expecting much, It was cured. Who would have thought that a quick flush would have fixed it but it did. When I got home I dropped the pan and changed the filter, only added new fluid to replace what was in the pan and it's been fine since.

I think the flush that your friend is talking about is the Jiffy Lube kind where they hook you up to a machine and flush away. I would not do that as unless they have a diffrent machine for every type of fluid who knows what is going into your tranny

By the way did you know Mercon V is now the ford spec for all our windstars (thanks WISWIND)

Dekeman---buy a few extra quarts of tranny fluid, just in case. On my 97 Windstar, I used a 6' cheap plastic hose with my lungs as the siphon start, and siphoned 7 quarts out from the dipstick hole (measured them all by pouring into quart containers when done, so I'd know exactly how much to put back in).

I've got a 2000 Windstar and mine makes the same sucking noise at the drivers side door. I believe it to be a normal condition.

I suspected this- thanks!

On your tranny, I can only tell you my situation. I bought mine and it had around 120K miles when I purchased it. ...Was it the new tranny fluid, or just coincidence that it died? I'll never know, but I'm certainly suspicious.

Assuming that yours had never been serviced until it reached 120K, it's not surprising that happened. There are plenty of instances on this board and elsewhere where I've heard that it's not a good idea to change fluid at that point, and to let the trans die in it's own time. I'm hoping that's not going to happen...

I have had the reverse happen with my transmission. ... Who would have thought that a quick flush would have fixed it but it did. When I got home I dropped the pan and changed the filter, only added new fluid to replace what was in the pan and it's been fine since.

Had you been servicing your trans on schedule? If it was on schedule or only a little behind, that makes sense. At 65K, I'm not sure, so I'm hoping that a partial replacement will refresh the fluid enough to be able to do a pan drop, and maybe even a line flush like you did (which is detailed on this board in multiple places

I think the flush that your friend is talking about is the Jiffy Lube kind where they hook you up to a machine and flush away. I would not do that as unless they have a diffrent machine for every type of fluid who knows what is going into your tranny

By the way did you know Mercon V is now the ford spec for all our windstars (thanks WISWIND)

Those flushes are bad news. I've read that it's heated fluid, it's generic so it doesn't have the proper additives, and it's flushed BACKWARDS through the trans so all the junk gets pushed back through there. It's no wonder things die soon afterward. The flushes my friend was talking about were done by the dealer (which isn't much better than Jiffy Lube IMO), so who knows what they did. Whatever it was, it was enough to kill it, so I'm staying clear of the dealer (good advice in any instance).

I have always used Mobil 1 ATF (Mercon V compliant) in my previous Windstar, and plan to do the same in this one.

My signature has a link to pictures of various projects that I did with my '96.
I would do a "cooler line" fluid exchange, and the pictures I have posted will be of help for all years of windstar.
It shows removing the pan and changing the filter.....which you can also do.
I recommend the cooler line flush because it is BEST by far to change nearly all the fluid, which is 12.25 quarts.
I have used Mobil 1 in the past and it was great.
I used Redline D4 more recently, which is expensive and you have to get online or at a racing supply house.
The best price I found for Redline D4 was through OG Racing online, shipping on 12 quarts or more is FREE.
I would get 15 quarts, and if you have some left over, change the power steering fluid (just turkey baster suck out the resevoir and refill......and repeat in a day or so).

On my '96, they had some 1 time use crimp style hose clamps on the cooler hoses that I had to cut off......and install new screw type that you can use repeatedly.

I also STRONGLY suggest the installation of a Magnefine filter in the transmission fluid cooler line, also shown in my pictures.
The hose size is 5/16"
Make sure to install the Magnefine filter so that the fluid flow is in the direction of the red arrow on the outside of the case.
You would install the Magnefine filter in the fluid line INTO the transmission.

The sucking sound where you mention is normal.
The Air into the air filter is drawn in through that fender......."cold air intake" and they located it there so that you don't draw moisture into the air filter, which is what happened when they located them up front behind the grill or headlight.
Of course, if somehow something got up there (like a leaf), it would make more noise than normal, but a healthy sound is normal.

My signature has a link to pictures of various projects that I did with my '96.
I would do a "cooler line" fluid exchange, and the pictures I have posted will be of help for all years of windstar.
It shows removing the pan and changing the filter.....which you can also do.
I recommend the cooler line flush because it is BEST by far to change nearly all the fluid, which is 12.25 quarts.
I have used Mobil 1 in the past and it was great.

I've had your webshots pics bookmarked for a long time, and had strongly considered that project for our previous 03 Windstar that was recently wrecked. Your pan drop/filter change pics helped me overcome my fear of that project, and I did it successfully twice before the wreck. I have been using Mobil 1 fluids in my 'star since I read your helpful posts on the subject three years ago, and changed the trans fluid more frequently than recommended since our failure 5 years ago.

The cooler line flush is what I'd like to do on this one, but after 65K with no change of fluids, my fear is that it may kill my trans based on many anecdotal accounts. Common sense tells me to do the cooler line flush, drop the pan and change the filter as soon as humanly possible knowing what I know now about this van's history. I fear that this may kill my trans based on those anecdotal stories I mentioned. Where is the break point of when it's too late to change the fluid? Who knows? It may be a judgment call.

I also STRONGLY suggest the installation of a Magnefine filter in the transmission fluid cooler line, also shown in my pictures.

I strongly considered that project for my previous van as well. I'll have to look into doing that in conjunction with the installed external filter the sticker under the hood says it has, but I can't FIND the thing!! Any idea where the factory external filter would be located? I'm sure it needed to be changed a looooong time ago.

The sucking sound where you mention is normal.
The Air into the air filter is drawn in through that fender......."cold air intake" and they located it there so that you don't draw moisture into the air filter, which is what happened when they located them up front behind the grill or headlight.
Of course, if somehow something got up there (like a leaf), it would make more noise than normal, but a healthy sound is normal.

I had hoped as much. The previous owner of this vehicle didn't believe in cleaning the engine compartment at all, so I did a wipedown last week, and changed the filthy air filter. He depended on the dealership to do everything for him, and it showed. There was a layer of thick grease on everything, so it took a lot of rags and elbow grease to make the compartment something one could work in. When I pulled the intake hose off the fenderwell, I pulled out endless leaves from the inner fenderwell. I don't think they got in the way of the airflow, but I doubt they helped either. I don't think that it made that sound before I did the cleaning, so it may actually be a healthier sound, ironically.

Where is the break point of when it's too late to change the fluid?

When fluid start to become a little darker or burnt smell.

I plan to use my siphon and pull out 4 quarts and replace it (that's all it'll get), then see what the color looks like (it's pale pink right now). I think if I do that and the color looks healthier, it'll be okay to go ahead and drop the pan and replace fluid and filter. What do you think?

I agree.