01 windstar missing and baterry light on

having a problem with my van occasionally missing when i come to a stop, the baterry light flashes when this happens...anyone else have this problem?

having a problem with my van occasionally missing when i come to a stop, the baterry light flashes when this happens...anyone else have this problem? Is this happen every time when you come to a stop or so, is that when the engine is cold? The basic idle on this model is controlled by the IAC ( Idle air control valve) which is located on the top of the throttle body. You could remove it ( held by 2 bolts( and clean the little shaft which is sometime clogged and does not move freely. Do not use any solvent to do that as this can damage it. This valve can be defect but at least do this proceed to see if it cure the problem

You said misses or was it trying to stall? Would putting your foot on the gas stop the missing? Weird, not sure if poor grounding would cause this but possible. See if you can reproduce this with a voltmeter hooked up to it to see if you are having a voltage drop ocurring when the bat light comes on and the engine misses. Other than a bad connection, I'm not sure how the two could be connected. I've had alt problems that didn't create low voltage with no misses and also low voltage with no misses, that's why I'm leaning toward battery and engine ground. I had a car that would just stop running on the highway for no aparent reason. The bat light might have come on before it stalled. After sitting however long it took, it'd start right up and I could drive whatever long distance afterwards. I didn't want to get stranded at night, so I was able to find a engine ground bolt that I think had gotten dirty, but I don't think it was loose or not by much.

I'd also check vacuum lines. My wife had an oil change done a few winters ago (I do them myself now) and a vacuum line was bumped off slightly. Couldn't really see it without careful looking. The van would run fine until it came to low idle. I think what was happening was when first starting the van ran with the automatic choke on which pushed up the RPMs. Once you were driving, and higher RPMs you were fine. Stop at a light, the choke now wound down, and it wanted to stall. Just before the stall the battery light would come on. If I remember correctly it was the vac hose on the egr valve.

FWIW, my :2cents:

Piper

Northern piper, it's funny you should say a disconnected vacuum line. I was thinking along the same thing, but maybe the opposite if that makes any sense? If the van stalls/misses while at low idle, it would be due to excessive exhaust gas in the mixture or a pluged EGR port. The way you can simulate the stall at idle is to connect full vacuum to the EGR valve. It stalls the engine right now. Sooooo if the EGR was disconnected, then the van should run fine (I have tested this myself on my 01) since the EGR valve will close (this will just give you crappy exhaust, but more HP). Since the van is stalling/missing at idle, then maybe the EGR valve is stuck open or has a hole in it? or the DPFE sensor is screwed up so at low diff pressure, it is telling the EGR to open instead of close? Any way, I doubt if I helped much, probably just added confusion. I would test the EGR valve, DPFE sensor and if you have not completed the P0174 fix (search this forum for the repair procedures), then do it regardless because you will have plugged or almost plugged ports which will cause the van to run poorly (bad fuel mileage and rougher idle than normal).

I agree Andrew. In the attached picture http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2957/img1414newlabkm2.jpg you can see the item labeled "fuel regulator". On my van the vac line attached here was pulled off slightly. This was what caused the symptoms described by the OP. Pulling this line off causes the van to stall out. Pulling it off slightly causes and "almost stall" (at least in my case). Another story but my feeling is that this line was loosened intentionally by the oil change place my wife went to so that she'd return as their parting word were "if anything else happens, just bring your van back here". But, as I said, 'nother story.

Piper