Other electrical problem on the 1999 Mercury Cougar
1 crash 2 fires 1 injury 1 death 5 of the 56 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 1999 Mercury Cougar report other electrical problem at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 97,404 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
30% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20,000 miles | 28,750 miles | 72,612 miles | 104,843 miles | 117,404 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash, 2 a fire, 1 an injury and 1 a fatality are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 4 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2001, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 75,000 miles.
By volume the 1999 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Vehicle had battery problems. Consumer stated that mechanic told him there was a recall on this issue.*ak under any acceleration (light or heavy) the battery light turned on. It also turned on occasionally while cruising. The mechanic indicated that there was probably a short somewhere that he could not find and that this was a potential fire risk. *ph *nlm
3/21/05 vehicle taken to lincoln mercury driveability concern by>>( my wife)>>>check engine light on, they fond intake gaskets leaking vac & bank 2 also monitor are very active need tune up and plug wires and tires... My wife gave them all technical service bulletins diagnostic trouble codes po420 & po430 paper....also,told them 99-mercury cougar 2.5l engine stall and have inability to start car...they kept paper, and told her she need new battery cables!!!! Call manufacturer on tsb and recall, we was told there was no recall on our vehicle I.d. Number....etc........consumer reports used car buying guide fond recall ---99-00 mercury cougar with 2.5l v6 engine----natsa number #01i009000 please help............. *jb
As soon as I bought the car used with 49000 it wouldn't start. Replaced the starter, still wasn't right. Had to replace the flywheel because the old and new starter never matched properly with flywheel. Then, the engine light came on. The EGR sensor was bad. Replaced the sensor. All of this within one month of owning the car. Then a few months later coolant light wasn't just coming on, but staying on, had to replace coolant tank due to shorting of the sensor in the tank. Now, six months after owning car, engine light is back on. *ak
Also reported on the 1999 Mercury Cougar
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Alternator or charging system failure
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 56 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other electrical problem happen on the 1999 Mercury Cougar?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 1999 Mercury Cougar?
56 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed