2002 windstar hesitation-solved

Hello all, I have been watching this site for a while and I thought I would post this result. I began having a problem with my 02 windstar last weekend- sunday I thought I felt a slight hesitation at about 30-45mph, monday on the way to work it was not at all slight. It would hesitate and lurch any time you tried to accelerate, once you got to speed it would cruise ok until you would attempt to accelerate further, it was also unusual in that it would run pretty good while cold but as soon as it warmed up the problem was worse, no check engine light at all, also when you try to accelerate hard (floor it) it would hesitate, miss and sound like it was backfiring. I cleaned the maf first-no change, then I swapped the maf with my wifes 01 that runs ok-no change, watched the plug wires at night to check for arcs- did not see any, decided that all the advice on this forum pointed to the coil so I removed it (note that on the 02 the coil is in the rear of the engine compartment, and as such is not visible with the cowl cover in place- it is easily removed so I would definately suggest removing it rather than attempt to do anything around it) once the coil was removed and the dust cleaned off several cracks were visible on the top of the coil pack near the coils themselves, I did not see any cracks in the epoxy on the bottom of this particular coil pack. The local parts store had a replacement in stock for $88.00 when I asked how popular these coil packs were, the gentleman said he sells these just about daily. Re-installed everything and it seems to be running great.
I would like to thank everyone on this site for the help, it saved a lot of headache. Kind of a long post-hopefully will help someone else.

Thanks again guys,Don

Welcome to the forums Don!

Wow, first post and you're already helping out... outta boy

A co-worker with an '01 or '02 Winny had the same problem. Went to the dealer and they replaced the coil on his too. Sounds like this may be common for some year Windstars.