Bulletins
| Bulletin | Bulletin date | Replacement Bulletin | Item no. | Summary | Added |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STEERING | |||||
| 15750 | 03/01/2002 | 636386 | Some cougars may exhibit higher than normal steering efforts and / or steering system leaks. *tt | 11/07/2002 | |
| STEERING - COLUMN | |||||
| 041814 | 01/01/2004 | 10013115 | Steering column shipped without crush pad - reuse original crush pad if not damaged. *tt | 04/08/2005 | |
Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| STEERING - HYDRAULIC POWER ASSIST - PUMP | |||
| 10/10/2002 | 60000 | 3 | |
| I have a 2002 cougar with 60k miles and i've already replaced the fuel pump,power steering pump, and now the heater core is clogged. although lincoln/mercury is the only one to work on the car, the warranty wont cover a clog. they will cover a leak...but not a clogg. how asinine is that? fidelity warranty service is a joke! *nm | |||
| STEERING - RACK AND PINION - RACK | |||
| 07/28/2004 | 1 | 07/17/2002 | |
| 6 months after i bought the car i noticed that after fueling that the fuel gauge still stayed on empty after a while it corrected itself but after that now everytime that i put fuel in the car it registers either empty or only half full. the dealership told me that cougars are known for theri fuel pump problems. upon further inspection of the car they stated that they could find nothing wrong and to watch and not overfill the tank. to this day the fuel gauge is still wrong. after that the paint on the hood of the car started peeling. i took it to the dealership and after some harsh words and weeks of waiting they took it in and repainted the hood which now is a slightly different color that the rest of the car. then 6 months after that the car started hesitating on acceleration and would spit and splutter and quit in the middle of the road. i took it to the dealership and they put it on the machine and found that a component in the computer was out so they replaced it. then one day as i was driving it my break pedal went almost all the way to the floor. i almost hit several cars trying to get it stopped i had it taken to a nearby garage and i had no break pads on the front or the back of the car also i had to have my rotors replaced( which is not covered by a warranty) however, there was no grinding no warning, nothing to indicate that a car with only 20,000 miles on it would have brake problems. after those were fixed i was driving to class one evening in heavy rush hour traffic and turned to into a parking lot my steering wheel immediately made this loud popping noise and locked to the left and sent me into a 360 degree spin into a crowded parking lot. i had the car towed to the dealership where it now sits unable to drive because the steering wheel and front wheels are locked to the left with no explanation of why it happened.*ak | |||
| STEERING - WHEEL AND HANDLE BAR | |||
| 06/06/2002 | 4 | 11/01/2001 | |
| On approx. the 15th of march, my daughter lost all power in car while driving through lunch traffic in town and was nearly rearended by a petroluem tanker. we brought car in to dealership. they ran a battery test and b/c that came back fine they refused to do any further testing. she was having problems getting the key to turn over to start car. they fixed that problem at the same time. on the 15th of may, the car came out of the shop for the 2nd time after it had lost power twice on her while driving again.her. the dealership contacted ford headquarters for recalls. none had been posted, but ford said if they check the fuel filter at the bottem of the fuel tank we would probably find the problem with losing all power(braking, steering, ect.) was that the filter was clogged therefore no gas was getting to the motor and thus this was why the car was losing power. they replaced the fuel pump and said that was a temporary fix for approx the next 3000 miles(for it was happening about every 3000 miles). and that we would have to bring the car in every 3000 miles to remain safe from losing power when it became clogged again. we decided that since ford knew about the problem and refused to do a recall to fix the problem that anyone in my family who drove or rode in the car would be putting their life in danger so we tried to trade the car. the dealership wanted us to pay a $6,000 deficit so we decided to keep the car until we could complete the lemon law process. three weeks later, my daughter stated she had got really bad gas mileage(15 miles took 1/4 of a tank she measured it) the day before and she was afraid that the car was going to lose power again. it was a friday so the car couldn't go to the dealership til the following week. that night, the 6th of june.she lost brakes and steering while going around a curve. the car hit something in the ditch and rolled 1.5x's to rest upside down. no airbags deployed.seatbeat held her in car.pictures of car and scene avail. *ak | |||