1996 Ford Windstar misfiring

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I have a 1996 Ford Windstar, 3.8 L, with 200,000 mostly highway miles that has had regular maintenance. Recent repairs include new plugs, fuel filter, and air induction flush.

The van has a sporadic miss with the check engine light flashing at times, both at town and highway speeds. Other times, the engine light is on steadily. There is a noticeable reduction in the miss after adding a gas cleaning additive.

If you have any ideas what might be the cause, I would appreciate your suggestions.

Thanks for your help.

2

It would be most helpful to have the error codes read. This will tell you whether or not the misfire is confined to specific cylinders. You may also find other error codes that can be very helpful in figuring things out (e.g. lean mixture; fuel injector faults etc). So have the codes read and post them. Many auto parts stores do this for free. Just post the specific code in the format “P1234”

That’s the first step before doing anything else.

Don’t continue to drive if the engine light is flashing.