Dear Tom & Ray –
A friend and I both have Freestar vans (mine=2004 and his 2005)that began exhibiting the same symptoms about a year ago. Cruising at various but steady speeds, there will be a sharp stall (hiccup) lasting less than a second. This may repeat several times within an hour or once during the hour. It seems to be moisture related as it occurs more often in damp or rainy weather. Web searches have yielded several hundred similar experiences. Ford doesn’t have a clue (or won’t admit to it). Since the 2004 Freestar had many horror stories about total transmission failure without warning, I had my 2004 torque converter replaced as this was the component to fail and trash the rest of the transmission. At the same time, I had my coil pack replaced as this was also suspect from the multitude of “like symptoms”. My problems almost completely disappeared but not entirely. Also suspicious is the PCM (powertrain control module)but I have not replaced this yet. I asked the mechanic to inspect it as there is a TSB concerning the cover sealing properly – (he says) he didn’t find anything wrong, but I don’t know how easy this PCM is to view. My friend’s 2005 continues to have the same frequency of “hiccups”, but he hasn’t changed anything yet. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
You could try a spray bottle of water and see if you can make it hiccup by hitting various parts in the enginecompartment. Even try the air intake for the engine, maybe you can get lucky and find the problem. Tom and ray do not usually reply to posts, at least under their names, so you are left with the altruistic community here.