Windstar A Go Go

Well, after two days in the shop, our van is back. It cost us what would be considered a decent down payment on that used Kia they had on the lot, but this way, we’re not locked into 60 months of payments.

My new MAF sensor is still good, and there was really nothing else wrong in the fuel and emissions systems that I could have worked on myself. The injectors were fouled, the throttle body sludged up again, and the intake manifold seals were all leaking. And, of course, the alternator had failed (that’s what was causing the disco light show on the dashboard).

With the exception of rear brakes, the mechanicals were all perfect. The rear brakes kinda torqued me off, though, because another shop that had worked on the van had indicated that the rear pads were wearing, and would be in need of replacement around 162,000 miles. As it turns out, the rear pads still have a fair amount of life left in them. Rather, the rear brake cylinders were frozen. Why couldn’t the other shop see that? Hmm… must not have looked. Anyway, that explains why it went through front brakes so often.

They also replaced the accessory drive belt and idler pulley.

There’s still more to be done — I forgot to have them look at the heater. Right now, it seems that the A/C is stuck on in the front, and the heater is stuck on in the back, so I’m using the A/C compressor to heat the thing most of the time. Unless I notice it causing problems, I’m not going to have that looked at until the spring. That’ll probably be about a thousand dollar repair, because I’m guessing that the A/C compressor clutch is frozen up, and generally, shops don’t replace just the clutch. What’s causing the rear heater controls to be screwed up is anyone’s guess.

At least it’s running like the Windstar I remember now.

[UPDATE] I forgot to mention that it didn’t need front-end work. I also learned that you can’t take a modern (post 1996 or so) car to the emissions test right after you have it worked on. You have to drive it for a few days first. Apparently, the computer needs a couple hundred miles to accumulate enough data to make a usable code log.