Loss of braking on the 1997 Mercury Sable
3 crashes 3 of the 8 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 3 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 loss of braking gets reported
There are 8 reports of loss of braking on the 1997 Mercury Sable, 3 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 78,000 miles. It is the 13th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 56,000 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 $400–$3,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2000, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 180,000 miles.
By volume the 2001 carries the most reports, with 10; the 1997 has 8. 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.
Wife was just returning with neighbor, whom she had just dropped off, when she was turning into our driveway. She stepped on the brakes & the pedal went all the way to the floor & the brake system light came on. When I came home, it was obvious what had happened as there was brake fluid all over the driveway. I had car towed the next morning to hammonasset ford, mercury, lincoln dealership in madison, ct. After inspecting the car today the dealer service dept. Informed me that the metal brake lines from the front to the rear of the car had rusted through, causing the loss of brakes.fortunately the incident occurred in a driveway and there are no injuries. If this had happened while driving at 65 on an interstate highway, the resulting no brakes due to this defect in the brake fluid lines could have been fatal. If sables & tauruses are prone to rust through of brake lines, I believe the cars should be recalled & the brake lines replaced.*ak
Dt*: the contact stated while driving 20-25 MPH the brakes failed causing loss of control of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealership and determined both brake lines below the front driver door were rusted causing the lines to break open. The rust was caused from two plastic strips attached to the bottom of the vehicle. The brake lines from the master cylinder to the rear tires were replaced. The manufacturer was notified. Updated 03/17/06. *jb
Tl*the contact owns a 1997 mercury sable. While driving 15 MPH, the brakes failed when the brake pedal was depressed. The vehicle struck the curb and came to a stop. The vehicle was towed to the dealer and they stated that the plastic strips that hold the brake line to the bottom section of the vehicle was collecting water that did not evaporate. As a result, the two brake lines that delivered oil to the rear brakes corroded and all the brake fluid leaked out. The dealer replaced the two main lines from the brake cylinder to the rear tires. The lines were flushed five times after the replacement. The repair cost $567.13. More recently, the vehicle lost brake power again and caused the contact to drive through a stop sign at 30 MPH. The vehicle eventually came to a stop 150 yards later. The dealer stated that the brake lines were not tightened properly and the lines had to replaced again at the cost of $611.45. The manufacturer stated that no recalls were available and the contact would be responsible for the repairs. The current mileage was 67,000 and failure mileage was 58,431. *updated 12/12/07 *bf updated 12/12/07 *tr
Also reported on the 1997 Mercury Sable
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Fuel pump failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 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 8 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 loss of braking happen on the 1997 Mercury Sable?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 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 loss of braking on the 1997 Mercury Sable?
8 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