Harsh or jerky shifting on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer
Only 4 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 harsh or jerky shifting gets reported
There are 4 reports of harsh or jerky shifting on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer, 4 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 72,000 miles. It is the 25th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 69,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $600–$4,000 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, every year of the Mercury Mountaineer
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.
I bought a 2002 mercury mountaineer may 16th 2003 with approx 45,000 miles. About a week later we noticed that the shifting seemed to be jerky going from 2-3 gears. Took it back into the person I bought it from and he called our local ford dealer who he purchased it from 2 days prior for me. They stated there were not bulletins out on the transmission. We had the transmission fluid checked and it appeared to be ok. A couple of months went by and then a soft shudder started when going to the next gears. I took it to a local transmission place and the tech stated that he had seen 2 of these incidents in the last 6 months. Recommended I get rid of the vehicle as there was a flaw in the transmission design. In november of 2003 we had the transmission serviced (approx $250). Cleared up the problem for a couple of months but reappeared and then went into a hard shift going to each gear. Feb 2004 took it back to local ford dealer and they will charge me $2700 to replace my transmission with a rebuilt ford transmission. The real kicker is I bought this vehicle because my 2001 ford windstar's transmission went out and there was a service…
My 2002 mountaineer has had transmission problems since we purchased the vehicle in new in late 2001. It has always had a very hard shift from 2nd to 3rd gear. We have complained to the service department during the warranty period and they found nothing wrong with the car. At 57,734 miles we had to replace the torque converter and solenoid assembly for a total bill of $1,438.00. My car now has 90,000 miles. On may 2 2008 I was driving to town to pick up my children and suddenly my car would not shift from 2nd to 3rd gear. The overdrive light went crazy and my check transmission light came on. I brought my car to the dealer and they reported that my vehicle will need a new transmission for a cost of $3,200. This problem poses serious safety issues. My vehicle malfunctioned on a road with a speed limit of 55 MPH. I could have been seriously injured by another car since my car could not move more than 25 MPH when it malfunctioned. This vehicle has been well maintained and is only used to transport myself and my children around town. We have owen many other vehicles with more than 200,000 miles on them and have never experienced any…
O/d light blinking - hesitation when shifting while driving occurring each time the vehicle was operating - took it to transmission expert who fixed for 2000 because dealer quoted 3500! Trans guy asked if it was 2002 or 2003 as soon as he heard the make and model. Cracked liftgate that was fixed in the first year of owning the vehicle but second time it cracked the dealer would not fix it and quoted $700 ford would not fix either. An obvious defect! *tr
Also reported on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer
Other powertrain problem
Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure
Other body or interior problem
Differential or transfer case failure
Wheel bearing or hub failure
Complete transmission failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 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 4 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 harsh or jerky shifting happen on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 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 harsh or jerky shifting on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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