Loss of braking on the 2001 Mercury Sable
6 crashes 1 fire 4 injuries 11 of the 10 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 loss of braking gets reported
Owners of the 2001 Mercury Sable report loss of braking at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 133,458 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9,542 miles | 31,700 miles | 41,000 miles | 85,000 miles | 143,000 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, 6 a crash, 1 a fire and 4 an injury are 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 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.
I have a 2001 mercury sable ls with 9000 miles. I was attempting to park the car in front of a store in a shopping plaza located in cocoa beach ,fl. When I applied the brakes to park in the parking place, the brakes failed and the engine made a revving noise and the car leaped forward jumping the curb and crashing into a brick support column. This car was recalled for the brake pedal and accelerator problem and was supposedly fixed at the mercury dealers. I was transported to the hospital by the emergency squad. I was treated for a large gash in the forehead and xrays were taken of the chest, back and ribs which were not fractured but severely bruised. I also sustained two black eyes caused by my sunglasses hitting the steering wheel. I was wearing my seatbelt, however, the airbags did not deploy. Estimated cost to repair my car is $7048. *ak
I have a 2001 mercury sable ls with 9000 miles. I was attempting to park the car in front of a store in a shopping plaza located in cocoa beach ,fl. When I applied the brakes to park in the parking place, the brakes failed and the engine made a revving noise and the car leaped forward jumping the curb and crashing into a brick support column. This car was recalled for the brake pedal and accelerator problem and was supposedly fixed at the mercury dealers. I was transported to the hospital by the emergency squad. I was treated for a large gash in the forehead and xrays were taken of the chest, back and ribs which were not fractured but severely bruised. I also sustained two black eyes caused by my sunglasses hitting the steering wheel. I was wearing my seatbelt, however, the airbags did not deploy. Estimated cost to repair my car is $7048. *ak
While driving down a hill at 30 MPH an upon approaching an intersection brake pedal was depressed to slow down and to make a left turn, and brake pedal went to the floor, which resulted in the vehicle going through the intersection. Vehicle stopped when it collided with a tree. Consumer sustained bruises to chest from the seat belt. Prior to the accident vehicle has 2 brake recalls performed by a dealership. *ak
Also reported on the 2001 Mercury Sable
Strut, shock or spring failure
Other suspension problem
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Cruise control failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 2001 Mercury Sable?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is loss of braking on the 2001 Mercury Sable?
10 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