171 and 174, 1999 Windstar

I know this has been covered alot of times but I wanted to ask before doing the tsb for the isolator bolts, etc.

Some background info. The CEL came on about 8 months ago. I was in Korea (Army) so I told my wife as long as it ran fine it was probably for scheduled maintenance. It ran fine up until a couple of weeks ago. We have 96,000 miles on it as of right now.

Our van bucks and jerks and we get error codes 171 and 174. This evening we cleaned the MAF sensor and it still does it. The rpms jump during the bucking. It does it really bad in reverse and when accelerating. We also need a tune-up because we havent done that in awhile. I also touched one of the spark plug wires this evening while the engine was running and it shocked the crud out of me.

What would you do if this were your van? Would you do the tsb, would you do a tuneup, would you just change the MAF, or would you go in a complete different direction.

Also, we called around today to check on tuneups and one place wanted $260. I looked at the spark plugs and figure I can change the ones in the front but not sure about the ones in the back. Is there one of those nifty sites with pictures about getting to those?

Thanks,
Ryan

I would recommend you fix the problem that you pretty well know is an issue .... the intake manifold isolator bolts. I wish I had taken pictures when I did mine. Its not a big job...well covered in many posts.

There's a debate going on about whether one should take the wiper arms and cowling off to do this work....not absolutely necessary, but certainly "opens" up the work area. Makes those rear plugs a snap to remove also.

I would certianly perform the TSB. Replace the upper intake gasket, the isolator bolts etc. Also check the intake manifold runners for freedom of movement and the actuators while youre in there (one of mine was frozen from oil contamination and the actuator was defunct). Anyhow, also replace the plugs. I would remove the wiper cowling--in fact on my 2000, you have to to remove the upper intake "clam shell" so you might as well do it and make the rear plugs easier to change.

Good luck

Well we did the isolator bolts and port seals and the van runs great. We also did plugs and wires. Its so nice to have it running again. I did drop one of the isolator bolts down the intake but a magnet on a string retrieved it.

Thanks to the person who has the website with pictures and instructions on how to do it!!! You are a lidesaver.