Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer
8 injuries 8 of the 54 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 liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer report liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 87,500 miles, from 31 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 82,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 27,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 107,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 80,020 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.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27,980 miles | 50,495 miles | 65,000 miles | 87,500 miles | 108,000 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, 8 an injury 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–$1,500 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 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2005, at a median of 60,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 65,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 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.
Consumer left her rear back hatch open, and closed the garage door. The hatch glass exploded upon impact of the garage door. Consumer feels that "the glass in unsafe , cause if the glass had implode in an accident, it could of cause serious injuries to the occupant. Please provide more details. Ts orig part of liftgate invest, but later det. To be not related to investigation_pco
Bracket on left side of lift gate broke, the lift gate detached from the bracket and cylinders. The lift gate fell on my upper body as a result I have been seeking medical attention. *jb pe04045.pco
I was making sure all the doors of my 2002' mountaineer were closed and when I shut the back lift gate one of the connecting brackets came out of place and caused the whole thing to shatter a spray glass in my face. I had glass stuck in my scalp and had to wash out my eyes for 4 hours as well as my hands and face being cut. I read on your website that this is a know defect by ford, I contacted ford on this and they basically told me since my car was out of warrenty they dont care and the part cost over $1200 to be replaced - because the way it was designed you cannot get just the glass I need body parts too.*ak pe04045.pco
Also reported on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
Differential or transfer case failure
Wheel bearing or hub failure
Complete transmission failure
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 54 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 liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure happen on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer?
Across 31 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 87,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer?
54 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.1 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