Fuel pump failure on the 2002 Mercury Cougar
6 crashes 6 injuries 12 of the 33 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 fuel pump failure gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Mercury Cougar report fuel pump failure at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 19 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 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 73,030 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.
32% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,570 miles | 26,000 miles | 60,000 miles | 84,000 miles | 89,600 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, 6 a crash and 6 an injury 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 $600–$2,600 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 1999, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 82,500 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 37; the 2002 has 33. 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.
Fuel pump was replaced twice because fuel gauge was not reading correctly. After the second replacement, while driving 70 MPH, vehicle shut down and wouldn't restart. Vehicle was towed to the dealer, who stated that fuel pump needed to be replaced again. *ak *nm
Dt: the consumer owns a 2002 mercury cougar. The consumer stated that the vehicle hesitated intermittently followed by a loss of power. While the consumer's daughter was driving the vehicle it stalled in the middle of traffic. None of the warning indicators informed the consumer's daughter that the engine was going to stall. The vehicle would not restart, it was towed home. The vehicle was later towed to a local repair shop ,and the mechanic determined that the fuel pump needed to be replaced, and there was no gasoline flowing to the engine. Recall 04v421000 had been issued for this year, make, and model, but the consumer's vehicle was not included due to VIN. The consumer would have to pay to have the vehicle repaired. *sc *ak
Dt: the contact stated there was recall 04v4210000 concerning fuel pump failure for the year, make, and model of vehicle, but, this vehicle was not included in the recall due to VIN. The car was leaking as though it was running out of gasoline. The service dealer stated the fuel pump and fuel filter needed to be replaced. The service dealer replaced the fuel pump and fuel filter. This did remedy the problem. The service dealer and manufacturer concluded that this specific vehicle was not included in the recall.*ak
Also reported on the 2002 Mercury Cougar
Other fuel system problem
Other engine problem
Alternator or charging system failure
Other powertrain problem
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 33 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 fuel pump failure happen on the 2002 Mercury Cougar?
Across 19 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is fuel pump failure on the 2002 Mercury Cougar?
33 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.5 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