Buddy has a Windstar (I know, not a truck, but a station wagon, still maybe some of our trucks experience this) and the coolant leaks from some heater hose fitting gasket, but all that is inside/intregal with the timing chain cover and in a position that it will cost about $1300 to replace the gasket. He dumped some Bars Leaks in and it stopped--for a while. Now it leaks again. Can he dump more Bars Leaks in? Is the gasket fiber or rubber type? If rubber type, I may suggest some Auto Rx (auto-rx.com) in there to recondition the gasket (but only if it is OK with Frank at Autorx of course).

 

I've seen guys dump 4 bottles of Bars Leak into a system before. At some point it will reduce the cooling though.

 

My parents JUST went through the same problem. It ended up costing him $1500 Canadian for a new cover, water pump and I believe timing chain. Not a cheap fix but must be a common problem. His van is a 95 3.8L.

-Matt

 

Subject Windstar is a '96 3.8 and has around 115,000 miles. So he hopes not to spend a lot of money. Is this also the infamous head gasket blowing motor? My mother's 3.8 head gaskets went at aroun 100,000 miles on her '95 Cougar.

 

I know the '95's had a head gastket problem so I ***-U-ME the 96s would have them too. If she does not want a lot of problems I would suggest throwing a couple Bars Leak in the rad and then selling the van. She will only maybe get $5000 for it.

But, if she wants to keep it expect to have head gasket problems soon.

On a lighter note, I just replaced my parents starter on the same van as mentioned above. It was the original starter with 212,000 KILOMETRES on it.

-Matt