Anyone have experiences with Aerostar Vans?

[chrisofna]

Ended up with this beast for $17.82. Has an epic miss from sitting a little bit; it was running and driving fine when it was park. Also the trans has morning sickness. Anyone know anything about them? I'm hoping to have it running well in the next couple of weeks and drive it to Connecticut. 4.0L engine with EDIS.

[NovaSS]

The Aerostar.

There is one good thing about them... they dont make them anymore.

I used to work for Ford as a service advisor in the early 90s and delt with aerostars DAILY, they had more recalls then every other car line combined. Trannys blew up, heads cracked, head bolts sheared off, drive shafts would twist, A/C systems would go crazy and blow out snow and they had the Body Booming problem ( they would BOOM inside from body twist when you drove them over an uneven surface) They even has a recall were the mechanics would drill out all the defective spot welds and replace them with pop rivets ! The 4.0 would eat rocker arms and pushrods due to poor oiling system design.

I remember Ford advestiseted them by overlaying them over the space shuttle ( the nose profile is close on both of them ) Little did they know the shuttle would get a bad reputaion that matched the aerostar



I found it !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHPD2WWqIS0

[chrisofna]

Well that's disheartening. This one has 282k on it.

[htchbck]

Well the trans are usually good for around 120k, so assuming it was replaced at 120 and again at 240 you might get some life out of it. My main beef with them is that they are so hard to work on. We have 4 left in our fleet here but we are phasing them out slowly but surely. All of ours are 3.0s though, I can't imagine how cramped the engine compartment would be on a 4.0. But for $17.82 as long as you're pretty sure it'll get you to connecticut, why not? Once you get there you can scrap it and pay for your gas driving up I have to say though, that is one of the cleanest examples I've seen in a long time!

[Movin]

I don't recommend this but I fully support getting you in a new location. Lucas makes a
transmission additive that will make those trans work for a while longer if its hard
internal seals like I think you are describing. The most fresh oil you can work into
the trans the better, get the right type for your year. Drop the pan, pull a cooler line
and put it in a bucket, start the engine what ever. If its pretty good warm just dump
the stuff in and get out of Dodge!

The plug wires get cooked on these because of the environment way back under there.
sometimes hard to get rear plugs do not get changed. Vacuum hoses cook and crack
as well, especially when getting after the ignition back in there.

Good choice for a mover and ? until you get settled. It looks really straight..
Gotta ask...17.82 ???

[chrisofna]

$17.82 for the starter solenoid on the firewall, lol. Yeah its getting a full Service asap. My mom was suppose to buy me a car and I got this one for free, lets see if she will pay for some maintenance.

[200KGPGTP]

That thing's sweet! Interior pics!

[chrisofna]

I thought the back controls were interesting, lol. The interior is ridiculously clean. The hatch area is a little dirty but apparently is was used as a courier service by the previous owner.

[takeone51]

i know they made a 2.3 aerostar you could swap the turbo version into.. And the van was manual...

[chrisofna]

Yeah that was the first gen. I kinda wish I had that one, this looks like a nightmare to work on. The 4cyl is probably much easier to work on. From what I've seen they share a lot of parts with the Explorer and Ranger of similar years. I need a new dash cluster for this one, the coolant and oil pressure twitch and go nuts over bumps and such. The coolant will go hot, then cold, then middle, 3/4, hot. It was at pegged when I got to my work but it wasn't pouring coolant from the front or running terrible or anything. But then again so was the oil pressure gauge, lol.

[Safety Guy]

Well, it looks pretty nice! I had no idea they were "not that good." I drove the shorter version in the early nineties for the campus escort service and the only problem I remember was when the passenger power window would not work on its own. You had to help it the last few inches.

Other than that they seemed to do well, but I didn't have access to the service records.

Good luck!

Karl

[htchbck]

Heat was the main problem on those. Everything was so cramped up that there was virtually no air cooling of any of the peripherals. Everything just cooked to death. I know plug wires were mentioned, also the coils, vacuum hoses, pretty much everything that wasn't a part of the engine block (which was being cooled by the engine coolant system). And I bet all that heat didn't help the transmissions much either.

[Lannis]

I put 180,000 miles on a '93 extended version. Did hard duty as a little-league hauler, beach trip carrier, and all around family car for 10 years.

The transmission failed at 175,000. Motor was still running strong, but a lot of the little switches and trim pieces were going bad.

Sold it to my my mechanic, who swapped in a used transmission and I'd still see it on the road 3 years later.

Decent vehicle overall I suppose, aside from the weak tranny.

Lannis

[91mcnasty]

at least its got plenty of cushion for those "pitstops" while driving through the states haha!!!!

[Safety Guy]

Yeah, if it breaks down, you can live in it! Remember to take an awning and a couple chairs for your "front porch." Just in case.

Karl