Other electrical problem on the 2000 Mercury Cougar
4 fires 4 of the 18 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.
Only 7 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other electrical problem gets reported
There are 18 reports of other electrical problem on the 2000 Mercury Cougar, 7 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 55,000 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, 4 a fire is 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 carries the most reports, with 56; the 2000 has 18. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2000 mercury cougar. While attempting to proceed from a stop sign, the vehicle stalled. Upon further inspection he noticed that the battery cables were melted. The vehicle was towed to a local repair facility. A mechanic concluded that the cable made contact with the power steering line which caused the insulation to wear, and thus an an electrical short. The dealer was contacted in reference to recall # 01v031000 (electrical system:battery:cables). Since his vehicle identification number was excluded from the recall, he was ineligible for a free remedy. No repairs were made. The manufacturer was notified, and he was in the process of sending them correspondence. The failure and current mileages were 110,000.
2000 mercury cougar v 6 auto -55000 mi - steady state cruising after 10 mi 'warm up' - a frequent , problem - like ok for 3 or 4 mile , then 2 or 3 times will jerk or shudder , then ok for 3 or 4 mi - hard jerk , engine tach jumps from 2800 > 4000 RPM , back to 2800. Seems mostly at steady 70 MPH or so , does do it sometimes at 40. Seems hardly ever on short drive , like 8 mi to work in morning. Trans can't find correct gear ? Computer ? Dealer , aftermarket shop couldn't find anything. New fuel filter , trans oil. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2000 mercury cougar. The contact stated that while driving 65 MPH, the vehicle suddenly stalled as the wheel locked and the radio shut off, similar to the failure listed under NHTSA campaign id number: 01v031000 ( electrical system:battery:cables). The contact was unable to restart the vehicle without a jump. The manufacturer was not notified nor was the vehicle diagnosed or repaired. The current and failure mileages were 135,288.
Also reported on the 2000 Mercury Cougar
Alternator or charging system failure
Fuel pump failure
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other engine problem
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 18 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 18 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 2000 Mercury Cougar?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2000 Mercury Cougar?
18 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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