2000 Windstar suspension still mushy

My WS has ~110k mi on it. I did struts and shocks last year but not springs (front or back). Car rides real bouncy and I'm just asking a stupid question: it has to be the springs, right?

Also - if I only installed one of these, would I need to replace the springs too or can i leave the old ones? I wil lbe towing a boat this year.
http://store.wpsracing.com/adreairspsuk31.html

thanks..Nick

One of our forum members has these on his windstar that he uses to tow a "pop up" camper.
He really likes them.
Replacement of rear springs is not needed in order to use them.

As far as the vehicle feeling "Bouncy" or "Mushy", I don't know if that would be caused by the springs....
Bouncy is more a function of the strut (front) or shock (rear).
I would hope that you would get more than a year out of even the cheapest set of struts/shocks.
I think it would be worth having it looked at by a trusted shop.
A alignment should include a good shakedown of the front suspension.
The older windstars are known for breaking springs due to corrosion.
I don't know if that is an issue on the 2000 year.....hopefully that had that issue addressed by then.
On the older windstars, they extended the warranty on the front springs to 10 years, unlimited mileage up through the 1998 model year.
If 1 broke....both were replaced free of charge.
Of course.....had I been able to collect (mine lasted 12 years before 1 broke) I would try to work out a deal on struts at the same time.

For some things, like suspension, there is no replacement for a trained person, with the proper tools.

The older windstars are known for breaking springs due to corrosion.
I don't know if that is an issue on the 2000 year.....hopefully that had that issue addressed by then.

I think they addressed the front springs, but I broke one of the rear springs on my 2000. They tapered the springs at the top and bottom and it broke in that area. The replacements were redesigned without that taper so I'm assuming they had some issues with breakage.

I've used the air springs in an SUV for the last 5 years. They work well for their purpose, when under load. But running them at minimal PSI can still make the vehicle feel a little more bouncy than stock, not sure if the Windstar will have that affect. Also that price is pretty high unless it comes with the full kit including compresser. Mine were only $70 for the pair, granted that was 5 years ago.

To check Shocks / Struts

Have two people put ther Weight on the back bumper. Have them get off the bumper at the same time and watch for Bounce. If it just come up with no bounce, then Shocks are good.
Springs are springs, and wont gain bounce.. They all have Bounce like a Basketball too!
Your Shocks stop that bounce.. Since the van holds a few people inside, Its harder to check because of the harder springs. I think they can hold 1200lbs inside.. So it just make the springs harder to compress to check your shocks. If you have a speedbump around, go drive over it. NO Bounce, It should just level..

I'm the popup towing guy wiswind mentioned...

I replaced struts and shocks in my '00 Windstar - and kept the original springs. No problems; no mushy feelings. Personally, I normally first blame mushy handling on worn struts and shocks. Yours are fairly new - but did you use quality replacements? Just a thought... If the springs are able to maintain correct ride height, I doubt handling problems would be solved by replacing the springs.

Regarding spring airbags and towing: I added Airlift 1000 spring airbags to firm up the rear end of my Windstar; Windstars (and most other FWD minivans) are noted for soft rear suspension. The airbags help. As it turns out, I appreciate them most when *not* towing; handling is noticeably improved with a slightly stiffer rear end.

However, note that spring airbags do not redistribute tow vehicle weight. Don't use airbags to try to make up for overloading the rear of the van. Weight distributing hitches can properly shift weight on a tow vehicle - though I must admit I rarely see boat trailers with weight distributing hitches.

Overpressurizing spring airbags will make for an uncomfortable ride. Airlift 1000 bags are designed to be used from 5psi to 35 psi. I find 10-15 psi fine for non-towing duties; when towing, I prefer 15-20 psi, depending on load and conditions.

Hint: I wouldn't buy the airbags from the link you provided above; way too pricey. Summit Racing has excellent prices.

Links to pictures of my various towing-related projects:

Adding PU brakes (http://community.webshots.com/album/548339571fnHjzQ)
Adding Airlift spring airbags (http://community.webshots.com/album/548741257AJALLi)
Tranny cooler, wiring and brake controller (http://community.webshots.com/album/549196858rbUAlb)

I tow my horse trailer with my 97 (3.8, w/tow pkg):nono: . With both horses loaded (normal), we're talking approx. 5000 lb, plus all the tack and camping gear in the back of the WS has got to be another few hundred. With the weight distributing hitch, the rear height is almost as high as when unloaded, and I get no trailer sway, which is important since the horses can't grab hold of anything to steady themselves :banghead: . The air bags may be sufficient for a boat trailer, depending on size, and if you've got a good 60/40 weight distribution on the trailer. I might still be concerned about sway, though, especially going down hills.

The best tip I can give on towing with an automatic: ALWAYS let the engine idle in park for a few minutes after towing, no mater how far you towed, even (especially) after pulling up the boat ramp. We all know the trans. is the weak link and you gotta let it cool.

BTW, anyone that noticed my thread that says I'm pulling my engine should note that my problem is not related to the towing. 140,000+ mi. and engine and trans still strong until timing gear/chain went 'pop':banghead: .

ken

First, I would advise you replace the anti-sway bar bushings. Also inspect the links.

Make sure the bolts are snug (60 ftlbs???, IDR) in the sub-frame bushings.

The car definitely fails the 'bounce' test - front and back. I just put new shocks and struts on about two years ago. I can't imagine even the cheaper ones going out that quick but maybe they did ( I think I put Monroe heav duty on the back). I did tow a boat last year about 10 times...maybe that pushed them over the edge.

I'm probably going to replace thm all again and springs too.

Where can I get the springs from? My local guy doesn't carry them and I dont want to go to Ford!

thanks agian people!

Check Rockauto for springs and struts.
I have Monroe Quick Struts in front.....installed 1 year ago.
They have the "Sensa-trak" strut.
I have Monroe "Sensa-trak" shocks in the back.....installed a good 4 or so years ago.
I noticed that the case on the rears rusted quickly.....but they seem fine otherwise.

Workstar, isn't that too much towing weight for a Windstar? What's it rated for? Why not use your F-250? I assume your trailer also has brakes in addition to the weight distributing hitch.

To the comment about not seeing boat trailers with a wdh, until you get into something REALLY big, relatively they aren't that heavy for their size. Not sure I can even say I've seen the biggest with a wdh. Probably because I was more interested in the boat than the trailer. ;)
.

Workstar, isn't that too much towing weight for a Windstar? What's it rated for? Why not use your F-250? I assume your trailer also has brakes in addition to the weight distributing hitch.


The easy answer would be yes, it sure is. Like Ike and Tina though, I don't do anything easy. The rated towing capacity is something like 3500#, set by some engineer sitting in an office in Detroit, doing his best to keep his union and Ford happy. Ford wants to sell more trucks and SUVs. For the average consumer, it would be hard to justify buying a new truck to pull the new boat or whatever if you know the family's grocery getter would handle it.

The weak link in the windstar is, as we all know, the tranny. Being an engineer myself, I know the bane of automatic transmissions is heat. The thing to remember when towing, is to ALWAYS let the engine idle for a few minutes (5-10) after towing, no matter how short or easy the tow. This will extend the life of the trans. immeasurably.

I suppose I should throw in this disclaimer: We live in Ohio which is fairly flat. We keep our trips short (<100 mi each way) and plan our route to avoid cities and the largest hills. See, I'm not a TOTAL idiot.


The F-250 was a company truck, driven by my business partner. It started running rough and he kept driving it, on only 6 cylinders. The catalytic converters finally blew out, split wide open. I'll get around to fixing it one of these days and start using it. In the meantime, the Windstar gets better gas milage and is a more comfortable ride. With 140k mi on the Windstar, I must not be doing too much harm. Oh, I almost forgot, you were correct in assuming the horse trailer has brakes.

ken - sittin here on the group w bench

First off, I don't mean anything by what I'm about to say here, so don't take anything the wrong way. (My "don't be offended or p-od at me" disclaimer. I'm just babbling incoherently. D)

I'm surprised you think the engineered towing capacity is quite understated and overly-conservative, but I imagine you know you are getting away with something. Just think though, if you took it more easy on your van, how much longer it would last. I bet you wouldn't be so comfortable about ignoring rated design loads on a bridge like the one that fell over the Ohio River that the politicians pressured engineers to artificially raise the bridge's rated load limit. I am and I'm not surprised by your take things to their limit, (I'm guilty of that) as my knowledge and experience with many engineers in both their professional and personal lives is to "over-engineer" everything. If it weren't for politics, pollution and greed,.... I mean money, things would be designed and built differently. Interestingly, that strangely ties into my last thought which is I didn't think there were any unions for engineers. Has that changed?

Not to worry, Tripletdaddy, no offense taken and I certainly don't want to turn this into an OT pissin contest. This will be my last post to this thread.

For the average consumer, it would be hard to justify buying a new truck to pull the new boat or whatever if you know the family's grocery getter would handle it.

I didn't mean to imply that Ford had understated the towing capacity by quite as much as I exceed it. They must take into consideration the people living and towing in mountainous regions and those towing on a regular basis. The average consumer doesn't do this, nor do I. Sure, the van would last longer if I left it parked in the garage too, but that's not why I bought it. It is 11 years old with 140k+ miles and has proven to be not only worth what I paid, but capable of doing the job. From my own personal observations, the average person doesn't even let the engine idle after towing and would probably not have the same success I have.

The Silver Bridge was designed and built when cars averaged about 3/4 ton and trucks about 5 ton. I don't know how many vehicles/day it was designed for, but at the time of the collapse it carried bumper to bumper traffic every workday. The average car weighed aver 2 ton and the average truck over 10 ton. I don't recall reading about any politically inspired raising of the load limit, but I'm certainly no historian.

Finally, we get to the Engineers' unions. They have been around longer than either of us. Alexander Graham Bell was President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in the late 1800's. More current would be the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), among others.

ken - sittin here on the group w bench

The FORD Windstar is built on the Taraus platform.
While not rated by the "experts" as a good vehicle....it is the best vehicle that I have owned....in my short time....my first being at 1972 Dodge Dart that I bought in 1978 (although I LOVED that car as any first car would be loved).

I would NOT exceed the rated towing capacity of the vehicle.......I really get scared when I see vehicles that have crashed because of a wheel on their trailer dropping off the edge of the road.........WOW!!!!
And seeing it while towing a light trailer on a youth mission trip....with 5 or 6 members of my youth group in my '96........I break out in a sweat.

As Phil-l can tell you.....the windstar is a great vehicle for towing WITHIN the RATED towing capacity.
I don't want to come across as lecturing.....but I want to to get the most out of your windstar......safely.

Back to the suspension....I am completely CLUELESS as to why you would have the bouncy issue so soon after replacing shocks and struts.
I would get it in to someone who knows a LOT more than I do (which does not take much....I am not a mechanic) and have it checked out.

Workstar, I didn't know there were engineer unions. Do you belong? I'm just going by what I've been told, and really, I've never heard of anyone being a member, talk about it, etc. As far as I can tell, GM and AT&T didn't allow their engineers to join an engineering union as my father, grandfather and father-in-law didn't belong, and my dad gave me the impression there wasn't a union for engineers or him to join, which seems hard to believe since it was a heavily industrialized area. I'll have to ask him again.

On the Silver Bridge collapse, you are exactly right. The bridge did start out with lighter vehicles in its design, but as you say, the vehicles became heavier, and heavier trucks were allowed to use it. The political pressure was because of an economic pressure. Because the bridge had a low traffic weight limit, the larger, heavier trucks weren't allowed to cross it. This meant, I think (it was) West Virginia was not able to draw commerce to their side of the river. The politicians listened and responded to their commercial constituents and pursued the tax revenue opportunity by demanding and ultimately forcing the authority that permits the load limit on the bridge to be raised to allow the heavier trucks. The engineer in charge buckled under the pressure, so did the bridge, lives were lost, and some people lost their jobs and got in big trouble. This I learned in Catastrophic Failures engineering class, which I assume is based on a full investigation of people's actions and an engineering analysis of the structeral failure of the bridge. It's really too bad this happened, since it was preventable, unfortunately greed and money were more important than people's safety and lives.

Workstar, send me a PM if you wish to respond but not here.

The car definitely fails the 'bounce' test - front and back. I just put new shocks and struts on about two years ago. I can't imagine even the cheaper ones going out that quick but maybe they did ( I think I put Monroe heav duty on the back). I did tow a boat last year about 10 times...maybe that pushed them over the edge.

I'm probably going to replace thm all again and springs too.

Where can I get the springs from? My local guy doesn't carry them and I dont want to go to Ford!

thanks agian people!

I installed Gabriel struts/shocks all the way around from Autozone I guess almost 2 years ago now and the van still rides very firm yet comfortable. It was/is a very noticeable improvement.

Workstar, isn't that too much towing weight for a Windstar? What's it rated for? Why not use your F-250? I assume your trailer also has brakes in addition to the weight distributing hitch.

To the comment about not seeing boat trailers with a wdh, until you get into something REALLY big, relatively they aren't that heavy for their size. Not sure I can even say I've seen the biggest with a wdh. Probably because I was more interested in the boat than the trailer. ;)
.

Yes, Windstar is rated to only tow 3500lbs, but get this.... there's a 5000lb hitch package available in the world. Like Workstar said in the post after the one I'm replying too, these vans can tow more. I will say this though. I was towing 3200lbs (trailer included) over 800 miles. It handled it well enough, but I cannot say it was easy for it. It cut gas mileage in HALF and struggled a good deal going up hills. I was using a single axle cargo trailer. Looking back the tandem axle probably would've been a better bet cause I don't have anything special in the rear of my Windstar for the shocks or springs, but I didn't get a tandem axle cause of the additional weight involved. In any case these vehicles CAN pull more, but at the cost of significant loss of drivability. You will likely be the slowest mofo on the road.

I saw someone pulling a car with all 4 wheels on the ground behind a Caravan with a lesser engine than the 3.8L Windstar and everyone was passing him up. So you "can" (and I've researched this a great deal and many others do pull more than 3500), but you just gotta be prepared for the sacrifices in driving and be a good driver to deal with it. Personally I don't think I'd push the envelope further than 4000lbs.

The FORD Windstar is built on the Taraus platform

The 1995-98 models do indeed share the Taurus platform but for the 1999-2003 models and the Freestar Ford used the slightly larger V platform that was specifically designed for minivans and more similar to that of a light truck. I don't know if this had any incidence on towing capacity but it did affect ride quality and handling... not necessarily for the best according to some.

...not rated by the "experts" as a good vehicle....it is the best vehicle that I have owned....in my short time....my first being at 1972 Dodge Dart that I bought in 1978 (although I LOVED that car as any first car would be loved).

Well regardless of what the experts said the Windstar is the best minivan I have owned so far, prior to that I have owned a first-generation Trans Port (beautiful vehicle, crappy quality) and two Caravans (excellent body, excellent engine, great gas mileage, transmissions from Hell)

Incidentally my first car was also a second-hand Dodge Dart that I purchased in 1979 although the 1971 model I had was called Dodge Demon, which later became known as Dodge Dart Sport. That car was abysmally uncomfortable and a grossly overpowered guzzler but never broke down and was a delight to work on, I loved it :grinyes: