
Gary of West Des Moines, IA on Aug. 2, 2001
Only 15 months ago, in July of 1998, I spent $3,600 to replace the engine in my '95 Windstar only to turn around and find out that it now has bad head gaskets. The engine replacement was due to a thrown piston rod, which I suspect was caused by antifreeze possibly getting into the crankcase because of faulty head gaskets. Unfortunately, I had no way of proving this.
When I did reluctantly purchased the engine, I was told that it would come with all of the corrections that recalls had been issued for (the head gasket recall, as I understand, was issued in May of 1998).
This most recent problem started with a check engine light coming on. When I had my local dealer diagnose the problem, I was told that the oxygen sensor was bad. No big deal except that I had the same oxygen sensor replaced only 5 or 6 month's prior. Keep in mind that this was on an already replaced engine!
Upon further diagnosis as to the cause of the oxygen sensor going out, I was told that head gaskets were bad and that the antifreeze leaking was contaminating the sensor. I of course brought up the fact that the engine should have had new head gaskets since it is only 15 months old. This is when I was told that the engine doesn't have the new head gaskets required by the recall.
As you can imagine this is becoming a battle between the dealership and Ford about who's responsible. The engine has 23,000 miles on it, which puts it outside of the 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty. I have told my local dealership that the warranty should be of no concern because the proper head gaskets should have been on the engine in the first place. I also pointed out that even if they try to get out of it because of the warranty not being in effect, the fact still remains that the engine was recalled for this very problem. So far I have been told that Ford is sticking to the recall limits which were 60,000 miles or the work had to be completed by December 31, 1998. Therefore it no longer applies since the vehicle has 86,000 miles. This is absolutely ludicrous! The engine only has 23,000 miles.
Nothing was ever done by Ford or the dealership that performed the original replacement of the engine. I was forced to pay out over $3,600 to replace the engine. Now with the head gaskets going out on the replaced engine, this is putting a lot of mental and emotional pressure on me because I'm looking at going through this entire process again and so far neither Ford nor the dealership, once again, are willing to step up to the plate and fix the problem. I shouldn't have to pay for any of this. It isn't right.