2000 Ford Windstar Plenums

[tigerstyle64]

Hello first of all I am not sure if it is the plenums but I took it to a local mechanic and they said that it was a air leak and the upper and lower plenums need to be replaced.

What it is doing is at low speeds and idle all of a sudden the car just starts shaking and then it dies out of no where if you don't rev up the engine. It has gotten worse over the last 6 months or so.

If you guys do think I need to replace the plenums could you give me a brief description of how I would go about doing that and if there is any special tools that I would need. Or a site that would explain it to me would be great.

Thank you I would be humbly in your debt

[Off_Timing]

Your description to me sounds like it's stalling.

They should read the diagnostic code and tell you what it is.

My wife's 2000 Windstar had similar symptoms. I just cleaned the IAC.

Try that or take it to another shop.

[tigerstyle64]

well as far as I know the engine light is not on for that problem. It is on but it is for an o2 sensor. Sorry it is my wifes car and I don't drive it much I actually just heard about this problem about a week ago.


and after reading a bit about the iac valve the engine stalls when it is hot or cold it just has to be idling.

[mark_gober]

Tigerstyle,

You could have a bad plenum. The Windstars used to have aluminum plenums and they switched to a two part plastic plenum, that come apart in the middle. It should be easy enough to check for a leaking plenum. Get in there with some spray carb cleaner or starting fluid and shoot some around the seam on the plenum. If the engine idles faster, you likely have a leak.

A more probably answer is that you have a vaccuum leak. I just went through this after changing spark plugs. Just behind the butterfly valve on the throttle body, there is a large vacuum hose that I'd inadvertently knocked loose. The engine would start fine and if left alone, would begin to stumble and then abrubtly die. I was getting a 0171/0174 code which indicates a lean mixture. (because I was getting way too much air in there).

If it turns out that you have a bad plenum, it's very easy to change. Just an 8 or a 10mm socket (can't remember) and the top comes apart from the bottom. The bottom is bolted to the engine with 10mm bolts. There are some gaskets that will need to be replaced, but I think that if you bought a new plenum, it should come with the correct gaskets. There will be 6 intake port gaskets and one big gasket that seals the area between the top and bottom plenum. Hope that helps. Keep me posted.

Mark