Strut, shock or spring failure on the 1998 Mercury Mystique
When strut, shock or spring failure gets reported
Owners of the 1998 Mercury Mystique report strut, shock or spring failure at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 105,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 76,392 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43,808 miles | 56,917 miles | 73,500 miles | 105,500 miles | 120,200 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 $500–$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, every year of the Mercury Mystique
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.
Information of my car: 1998 mercury mystique v6 2.5l engine odometer: 141,120km VIN: [xxx] three days ago, the vehicle had some noise when turn left. The mechanics took a look and found one of the suspension big coil spring broken (the one just over the driver side front wheel). Yesterday, the broken suspension coil spring was replaced. To our surprise, the spring was broken into 3 pieces, and the broken interface was covered by a very heavy rust. The heavy rust means the big coil spring actually was broken long times ago. We are lucky, because the spring was broken at the two end, so the reminder of the spring can still work and no accident occurred. The mechanics told us, they repaired a ford contour before with the same problem, but that guy's coil spring broken in the middle and his vehicle was bad damaged. I still keep the broken coil spring (all the 3 pieces), I can send you a photo picture or ship the spring itself to you if you want. This is my contact: [xxx]. Tel: [xxx] email: [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr
While driving, the consumer heard a noise, and proceeded to pull off the road to investigate the noise. Upon existing the vehicle, the consumer noticed that the driver's side front suspension collapsed. The vehicle was towed to a dealership, who indicated that driver's side coil spring broke. *ak recall# 01v255000. *sc *jb
Recall 01i013000, while driving front left coil spring broke and the front end collapsed. This occurred six months after the shield was installed. Dealership was unable to replace the coil spring because the part was not available. *ak
Also reported on the 1998 Mercury Mystique
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Other suspension problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Other electrical problem
Other lighting problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 30 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 strut, shock or spring failure happen on the 1998 Mercury Mystique?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is strut, shock or spring failure on the 1998 Mercury Mystique?
30 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