Hey y'all.

I purchased an 04 Freestar in February of 07. It's been a good van and I like it alot, but it has been doing some things lately that have me a bit worried. I am hoping someone can either confirm or dispell my concerns.

First, The transmission. While the past week or so has been ok, there for about a month, when I would leave in the morning or after work with the van and it was cold outside, the 1-2 shift would be very harsh. It would almost bang the 1-2. It has since stopped doing that, so I don't know what the issues was, but it concerned me.

Second, Everytime I start the van when it's cold there seems to be bottom end bearing noise for about a second or so. After that it's gone and it does not do it after it's warmed up. I am running castrol synthetic blend 5-20W and either purolator or motorcraft oil filters. The bearing noise concerns me as I know it should not be doing that.

I don't think the dealer would do anything about it do y'all? The van has 48K on it and it was certified ford pre-owned so it has the 6yr-75K extended warrenty on the powertrain.

Any suggestions or comments would be welcome. I am a former professional wrench and I do all of my own maintenance and I am very **** about it, so this has me a bit worked up.

Thanks in advance!

 

I would suggest taking it to the dealer, explaining the problems and asking them to address them. They probably won't do anything, but that least makes the dealer aware of the issues and puts you on the record as having some potential issues...

 

The transmission is the weak point on Ford's vans. if you have not done so, you should have the fluid and filter changed in the transmission. The noise you are hearing may be piston slap. It is common on many vehicles and normally does not do any harm.

 

Thanks for the responses gents. I just may take it in and let them look at it. The trans has not been banging on the 1-2 for the past month or so and when I purchased the van I asked them to service the trans for me (38K when purchased), because I know how important that is.

This is not piston slap, or at least I do not believe it is. The engine does build oil pressure very quickly though, the oil pressure light goes out as soon as the engine fires or perhaps a second or so afterwards. My F250 does have the piston slap issue so I am familiar with that sound. It almost sounds like a diesel until it gets some heat in the engine....LOL. It does run strong though.

Thanks for the help.

PS, I thought Ford got their minivan transmission issues squared away when the Freestar was released right???????? LOL, I hope so, I know the Windstar transmissions were junk.

Thanks again!

 

Tell me about it. I only got 170,000 miles out of my `01 Windstar transmission before it gave out.

 

Well, then you took good care of it, serviced it properly and got lucky as well. That is good service out of an automatic.

Thanks for the reply.

 

had a misfire in cylinder 3 so i changed the plugs and the wires but now it runs worse. it won't hardly run and it eventualy dies. i changed the wires and plugs one at a time so i don't think i got them mixed around. does anyone have the order that these are suppose to go in so i can double check i have them in the right place. What else could be causing this.

thanks

 

after having fram and purolator filters jamming on me i swear by the motorcraft filters on my ford.I will not use anything else
The dealer will prolly tell you they cannot duplicate the problem and tell you not to worry about it

 

gafft1 on the coil pack the plug wires aren't in order on both sides. On the back side you have 1,2,3 and on the front they are 5,6,4.
Any chance you knocked off a vacuum hose or something?

 

I had two wires on the front turned around so i switched them back although it is running a bit better i am still getting a misfire on cylinder 3. Brand new plug(put in by dealer) and brand new wire what else could this be? Would the ignition coil or distributor cause a misfire on one cylinder these parts are both around $100 each and aren't the easiest things to get to. Is there something else i could try.

 

Were you able to fix the problem and what was it? We have the same problem with the same van and cylinder. We'd appreciate any help you can give us. Thanks

 

Yes I had the dealer fix this it was the ignition coil which is very hard to get to without tearing your van apart.