Alternator or charging system failure on the 2006 Mercury Montego
3 crashes 3 of the 5 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 5 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 alternator or charging system failure gets reported
There are 5 reports of alternator or charging system failure on the 2006 Mercury Montego, 5 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 98,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 80,000 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, 3 a crash 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 $450–$1,600 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, every year of the Mercury Montego
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.
Electronic throttle should be a recall vs a customer care item. This is bs and ford knows that it should be. I haven't had my car 3 yrs yet, purchased pre owned and it just hit 10 yrs and is 186,000 miles and needed to be under 150,000 for them to fix. It just started doing this and I replaced alternator 3 times think this was the issue. Ford need to stop thinking of their bottom line and take care of their customers. I purchased this care after I was in a awful car accident (no fault of my own) that left me with a messed up sciatic nerve for rest of my life. I purchased this car as I was told no issue or recalls and it served my needs. Boy was I lied to. I was almost killed yesterday driving this car due to the power loss in middle of driving. I need this repaired asap as this is my only transportation and a known issue.
My car has a issue with electronic throttle, I called and was told sorry your 189,000 is over 150,000 limit to be repaired. I haven't had the car for 3 years yet. This should be a recall vs a customer care issue. I drove to my son's on monday and car loss power a total of 14 times in a 2 hr drive. I was in heavy traffic. Seems to me ford cares more about their bottom line then their customers lives. I was almost hit several times. I have had it in the shop and the alternator replaced 3 times, with them thinking this is the issue one being replaced yesterday after the one before hand only been on their a little over a month. Come to find out ford knows about the issue with their electronic throttles on vehicles from 2002 and up to date. This is very bad business and I had purchased this car due to a accident I was in (no fault to my own) and I have a permanent disability of a messed up sciatic nerve. I was told no issue, boy was I lied to. This needs to be fixed and asap after I have spent so much in repairs already to find out that wasn't even the issue. Ford needs to step up before someone dies over the negligent of the…
Also reported on the 2006 Mercury Montego
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Other speed control problem
Other fuel system problem
Complete transmission failure
Other brake problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 5 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 5 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 alternator or charging system failure happen on the 2006 Mercury Montego?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 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 alternator or charging system failure on the 2006 Mercury Montego?
5 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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