Car dies suddenly while driving

I have had the exact same issue on my 2003, but with 140,000 miles. Changed Battery, then alternator, then dying episodes. Fires right back up if you turn the key off. My dealer had it for 3 days before they could replicate. No codes, recommended changing crankshaft sensor. Did that. No change. About ready to swap out the camshft sensor ($20 part). Hooked up my buddies computer to look for codes. No codes. Ford's at a loss, so am I

Well, it looks like I might have finally fixed the problem. I've driven the car for 100 miles now with no engine stalls.

Details: The dealer had the car for a couple of weeks and supposedly test drove it a lot and was never able to reproduce the problem even though my wife and I experienced the problem every time we drove the car more than 10-15 miles. The one thing they were able to tell us was that the car computer reported some misfiring on several of the spark plugs even though there were no codes reported by the OBD reader. They recommended a full tune up for $330.

I replaced the coil, spark plug wires, and spark plugs for $125. I don't think there was anything wrong with the coil and wires but the spark plugs were shot. The ends were worn down and the spark plug gap was much larger than spec.

This looks like it solved my problem but I can't figure out why it would start misbehaving right after I replaced the battery and alternator. Go figure.

Hope this helps,

Jesse

Hi folks, I see this is a pretty old thread but I'll tell you what I figured out about my 03 Windstar. Might be helpful to some. I had the exact same problem described by Jessie took the vehicle to the dealer 3 different times and nothing took it to my regular mechanic several different times and nothing. I finally decided to move the wiring harness further away from the ignition module and that cured my problem and that was two hundred thousand + miles ago. And yes I still have the van now at 375000 miles. Hope this helps it fixed mine.

Hope it helps somebody

Jc

Thanks Ken, and the best New Year to you and yours.

Ok, I'm having a real difficult time dealing with this same issue. I'm willing to try moving the harness. Where is the ignition module located?

I did notice the problem goes away when I disconnect the 3 wire connector on the alternator and drive it. Would this be affected by moving the wire harness away from the ignition module?

Checked all three wires on the connector. 14.6 vdc on furthest wire from front of van, 0 on middle and 5 vdc and 5 vac on wire closest to front of van. No ac volt reading when reading at battery.

It's the second alternator I have installed in two weeks. First one was a reman and I found out people were having issue with remans. This last one is brand new (no reman) and is straight from the Ford dealer. Just put it in yesterday. If it's bad I would sure like to know what is damaging them.

I understand that but it doesn't describe why I would have this problem with two new alternators. That seems a little unlikely, especially with the new one from Ford.

Just to be clear on the AC voltage reading it was off the square wave to the PCM. I only monitored.052 vacuum on the battery at any given time while idling or driving.
As for the 5 volts on the wire to the PCM, the only way a square wave can be created is from ac volts. A dc voltage source can't create a square wave.
I did perform a little trouble shooting when it stalled today and found I still have spark to the plugs but no injector pulse and fuel pressure to the rail.