I've had this '99 Windstar for about 2 months now, and ever since I got it, when you start it sometimes, the rpm's will drop slightly, and then pop back to normal, almost like it's out of gas, or trying to die. This problem usually corrects itself after a minute or so, so I've kinda been ignoring it.
Today, I started it up, and it started just fine, and wasn't doing the rpm thing. Since it's cold, I let it run for a while, and then when I came back out to get in it, I heard the engine doing the rpm thing again.
As always, it stopped on it's on, so I carried on. As I drove, I noticed the when I sped up, and the transmission shifted, it stayed in that in between gears state for almost 5 seconds a few times before it would shift. I also noticed as I slowed down, it didn't want to downshift properly. I came to a complete stop at one point, and I was still in second gear.
I started back to the house, and then noticed that while accelerating, the enginge for some reason wouldn't go over 2000 rpms a few times. It would get to 2000, stay there, no matter where the gas pedal was at, and then the rpms would increase like normal.
As I got closer to the house, it started doing the rpm thing again, only really bad this time, it would almost die when it dropped. Then my Alert lights started flashing at me and clicking, and my hazards came on even though I had not turned them on.
I pulled into a gas station, and turned the van off. It then would not start back, because the battery was dead. I had my dad come give me a jump to see if it would work, and to our surprise it did. So I drove it home, and it seemed to act fine.
Any idea what this could be?
Until the jump worked, I thought it was the alternator or battery, but since it did jump, it couldn't be either of those could it?
Bad wiring maybe?
Today, I started it up, and it started just fine, and wasn't doing the rpm thing. Since it's cold, I let it run for a while, and then when I came back out to get in it, I heard the engine doing the rpm thing again.
As always, it stopped on it's on, so I carried on. As I drove, I noticed the when I sped up, and the transmission shifted, it stayed in that in between gears state for almost 5 seconds a few times before it would shift. I also noticed as I slowed down, it didn't want to downshift properly. I came to a complete stop at one point, and I was still in second gear.
I started back to the house, and then noticed that while accelerating, the enginge for some reason wouldn't go over 2000 rpms a few times. It would get to 2000, stay there, no matter where the gas pedal was at, and then the rpms would increase like normal.
As I got closer to the house, it started doing the rpm thing again, only really bad this time, it would almost die when it dropped. Then my Alert lights started flashing at me and clicking, and my hazards came on even though I had not turned them on.
I pulled into a gas station, and turned the van off. It then would not start back, because the battery was dead. I had my dad come give me a jump to see if it would work, and to our surprise it did. So I drove it home, and it seemed to act fine.
Any idea what this could be?
Until the jump worked, I thought it was the alternator or battery, but since it did jump, it couldn't be either of those could it?
Bad wiring maybe?