99 windstar stalls after warm starts randomly

ohnj · #1 03-10-2007, 10:39 PM

My wife's 99 windstar has been acting up for the past 5 months...basically...when you try to start the vehicle after driving for a decent distance in a warm day, it stalls right away. a good example is say...after driving for say 40 minutes at 45mpg+....get to a parking lot...stop the car and restart....it would crank and start...but stalls immediately. Unfortunately it does happen all the time which makes the diagnostics difficult. In all cases, she needs to wait for anywhere from 20 -40 minutes for the car to "cool" down...then it will start right up as if nothing has happened.

Our mechanics have cleaned the IAC control, fuel injection, replaced air filter, replaced the MAP sensor....but none of these helped.

Any help is much appreciated.

ohnj · #2 03-11-2007, 03:47 AM

By the way, the mechanic has also changed the Throttle Sensor (or control) and has replaced the spark plug wires.

AvalonJohn · #3 03-13-2007, 02:21 PM

ohnj,

How many miles are on the car and were the spark plugs replaced with the wires ? What type of engine 3.0 or 3.8 liter ?

AvalonJohn

ohnj · #4 03-13-2007, 05:27 PM

John, its 3.8L...with 108,000 miles on the car....yes...a complete tune up was done....so the plugs were replaced along with the wire...any idea?

acoop822 · #5 03-13-2007, 09:17 PM

I dont know if this will be any any help, but it's worth a shot. My co-worker has a 2000 F-150 and he had the same problem. He cleaned the Idle air control valve (IAC) and it worked for a little bit.The stalling problem came back and then he replaced it and that fixed it. He hasn't had any problem since. Ford told him that they redesigned it. Who know's if that is true. On a side note, A couple of weekends ago my windstar developed a problem where after the van warmed up and I shut it off and tried to restart it (after about 20-30 minutes) The van would idle rough (almost like a miss) Until I reved it up and then it would run fine. But only when it was warmed up. I did clean the IAC with electrical parts cleaner and it has been fine since then...So far...
Sorry for the long post....Hope this helps....

Adam

DRW1000 · #6 03-14-2007, 09:01 PM

I think I need to service my IAC too. It kind of sputters at warm after sitting a few minutes. If I wasn't always getting in and out of parking spaces I'm sure a quick getaway would make the problem less of an irritant.

In any event do a search here for this IAC semi-common problem. From what I have read it is a fairly easy, straightforward job and probably 2 hours would leave you time for an hour break in the middle.

I will add anything here I learn if I get time to it anytime soon.

DRW1000 · #7 03-24-2007, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRW1000

I think I need to service my IAC too. It kind of sputters at warm after sitting a few minutes. If I wasn't always getting in and out of parking spaces I'm sure a quick getaway would make the problem less of an irritant.

In any event do a search here for this IAC semi-common problem. From what I have read it is a fairly easy, straightforward job and probably 2 hours would leave you time for an hour break in the middle.

I will add anything here I learn if I get time to it anytime soon.

Here is a link to a post that describes how to clean the IAC

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...t=IAC+cleaning

skibo1 · #8 03-24-2007, 04:27 PM

i am a ford tech and we see this all the time, the iac is getting clogged with carbon and when it gets hot it gums up the valve, cleaning it is only a temporary fix if it fixes it at all, best thing to do is just replace it, its right on top of the engine and is silver, only 2 10mm bolts. dont know bout any redesigns by ford, only that a cleaning it generally doesnt work.

ohnj · #9 03-26-2007, 02:50 AM

well.....we finally broke down and took it to the dealer....they claimed the fuel pump was shorted when warm....and replaced the pump and the filter....of course it was big bucks....we'll see....the thing is that the problem is so sporadic....so I'm not 100% sure that its fixed....it seems to be ok this past week....I did mentioned to them about the IAC, but they said it was the fuel pump....

DRW1000 · #10 03-26-2007, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skibo1

i am a ford tech and we see this all the time, the iac is getting clogged with carbon and when it gets hot it gums up the valve, cleaning it is only a temporary fix if it fixes it at all, best thing to do is just replace it, its right on top of the engine and is silver, only 2 10mm bolts. dont know bout any redesigns by ford, only that a cleaning it generally doesnt work.

The fact that it is so easy to get to makes me want to try cleaning it first all the more. If it was very difficult to get to I might think otherwise. This way if the cleaning does not work (as you suggested and may in fact be the case) then I can try plan B - replacing it.

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