Good car mechanic in Cedar Park/North Austin?

Sorry for the off topic post, but I need some help finding a car mechanic in the North Austin/Cedar Park area who is willing and able to diagnose an intermittent problem in my wife's Ford 2000 Windstar Van.

My wife's van dies at random times. I always starts back up. I haven't figured out a pattern.

For years I've taken this kind of problem to 'Buddy's Under the Hood', he of the former radio show. Buddy reveled in solving this kind of problem.

Sadly, Buddy has closed his shop.

Most car repair places seem to be what I think of as 'light bulb changers', they are find to swap out parts on the front end, brakes, dead alternators, that kind of thing. Our local franchised repair shop took a look at the van, but had no idea as to what might be wrong.

Does anyone here know of a shop in Austin that would be capable of troublingshooting an intermittent problem like this?

TIA

No shop recommendation, but a google of "2000 windstar van intermittent dies" points to a possible alternator?

M38A1 said:

No shop recommendation, but a google of "2000 windstar van intermittent dies" points to a possible alternator?

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Thanks, there are some real clues in that thread. I don't know why I didn't think to ask Google.

Is it dying when you come to a stop or while moving?

Are any warning lights on?

My mom had a 03, generally good vehicles but they have their issues.


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I don't drive this van often, but it happen to me, just turning off the 183 frontage road into a parking lot. The engine just stopped, but started back up.

I'm told the engine just quits at random times but so far has always started back up.

The van has had recent alternator and battery replacements. From looking at the above referenced Edmunds thread it looks like the crank position sensor could be a suspect.

crank sensors typically work or don't work, either way a code should be set and in memory. Autozone can scan for codes for free.

warmed up and idling sitting still turn the wheel all the way to one side and put some pressure at stop then let go of the wheel, the idle speed should not drop much and it should jump up when you let go of the wheel.

also when idling with ac off, turn on the ac, the idle should have a slight dip and quickly recover.

my 01 Focus had developed a random dying issue that started to get worst.

it was the idle air control actuator that was going out.

Try cleaning the MAF.

Pull into AutoZone, O'Reilly's or whatever chain is close to you, take your license inside, and ask to borrow their scanner. Read the computer, and see if any codes are stored. Not all codes will turn your MIL on, so you may have one, and not have a light. While you're there, grab a can of throttle body/intake air control cleaner.

When you get home, pull the throttle body and mass airflow sensor off, and clean both with the can you just got. Be very careful with the MAF, is has hair-fine wires you really, really don't want to damage. Put it all back together. This is also a normal 60K service item. How many miles on the rig?

JimNtexas said:

From looking at the above referenced Edmunds thread it looks like the crank position sensor could be a suspect.

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That is my "gut feeling" when I read your first post. Reading this post supports that feeling.

Actually most crank and cam sensor failures are heat related- when the sensor gets hot it can stop working until it cools, or just throw a bad signal to the ecm and will shut down and can be restarted immediately.

Sometimes this will cause a DTC sometimes it won't.

See about getting your codes checked. Good luck finding a good shop. They are out there but are hard to find. Most are independent mom and pop type operations struggling to keep up with the chain shops.

mattc said:

.....

Actually most crank and cam sensor failures are heat related- when the sensor gets hot it can stop working until it cools, or just throw a bad signal to the ecm and will shut down and can be restarted immediately.

Sometimes this will cause a DTC sometimes it won't.

......

Click to expand...

FWIW that's how it went with my '01 Miata 1800 at 70+k miles. Symptom exactly as OP described, initially infrequent occurrence; as it became more frequent it took a few minutes wait sometimes to restart. I never got a CEL or 'hidden' DTC; new crank PS solved the problem.

Is the check engine light on? It kinda sounds like a fuel pump problem but like Leon said get it scanned it only takes a few minutes and see what code might be coming up. That might help narrow it down.

Could be as simple as worn plugs too.