99 3.8 hesitate/stumble problem.

[knitefall]

Hello again- I've been doing research on a problem w/ the 3.8 windstar I have. It will idle and if you give it gas sharply it seems to pause/ go quiet for a split second and then all of the sudden come to life nice and strong. It does this on the road to, like when pulling out into traffic. I won't mentioned what almost happened. The dealer cannot find anything. smoke was blown into it, new PCV, MAF, IAC, fuel filter, plugs, wires, throttle position sensor and some small other things I forgot. It has always done this since we got it at 20,000 miles. Otherwise it runs great. To "fix" this I turned up the idle a bit. it still goes quiet, knocks and then detonates with life. At least it doesn't die at a stop light anymore! I have recently read that someone discovered their coil pack was bad and they replaced it and now it runs fine. Can anyone confirm? There seems to be this problem with many of the windstars on internet forums but the usual reply is "I did that too and still, same problem! Help..." What's going on w/ these things? Any input will be looked at with great swelling consideration! Thx

[BroncoJoe19]

OK I hope of the real mechanics jumps in on this. I wonder if the camshaft position sensor was ever removed, and could the synchronizer ever have been removed and reinstalled improperly, and if so would that cause these symptoms?

Does the '99 have a fuel pressure regulator?

[knitefall]

I don't believe any of that was ever removed. Though from the factory it could have been defective maybe. Now the DPFE or whatever it's called (fuel pressure reg?) seems responsive and stable. THe van has 135,000 on it and it has always done this. The dealer said to put platinum 4 plugs in and that helped a little. It's possible I need to go with an Accel upgraded coil?