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1998 FORD WINDSTAR — Complaint #600888

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:MULTIPLE AXLE:TORQUE ARM filed October 25, 2006

NHTSA complaint #600888 (ODI reference 10171845) concerns a 1998 FORD WINDSTAR and was filed on October 25, 2006. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 24, 2003. The vehicle had 3,700 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:multiple axle:torque arm, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD WINDSTAR cohort independently describe similar suspension:multiple axle:torque arm failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1998 FORD WINDSTAR shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
1998 FORD WINDSTAR
Component
SUSPENSION:MULTIPLE AXLE:TORQUE ARM
State
California
Mileage
3,700 mi

Complaint Description

I PURCHASED A 1998 WINDSTAR VAN FROM THE FORD DEALER LOCATED IN CORNING CA. I HAVE HAD NOTHING BUT TROUBLE WITH IT PASSING SMOG FOR THE OXY SENSOR. AND THE TRANSMISSION HAS NEVER WORKED RIGHT. THE TURBO THING IS BAD. WHEN I WENT TO TRADE IT IN I FOUND THAT THE VEHICLE WAS OUT OF CANADA. AND THESE THINGS WERE PART OF THE RECALLS REPORTED TO YOU. BUT, FORD OF CORNING SAID THEY DID NOTHING TO THIS VAN BEFORE SELLING IT TO ME. I FOUND 14 THINGS WRONG WITH THIS VEHICLE. I ACTED UP A MONTH AFTER PURCHASE. BUT I WAS ON AWARE OF MY RIGHTS AS A CONSUMER. ALSO, I WAS NOT SURE WHAT OMS MEANT. THE VAN IS STUCK IN FOLSOM,CA AT AAMCO TRANSMISSION REPAIR SHOP. FINANCED THROUGH FIRESIDE BANK. FORD OF CORNING SAID THEY DID NOTHING TO THE VAN BEFORE I PURCHASED IT BUT CLEANING IT. *NM

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 600888
ODI Number 10171845
Date Filed October 25, 2006
Failure Date June 24, 2003
VIN 2FMZA5145WB

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.