Other engine problem on the 2002 Mercury Sable
1 fire 1 of the 18 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 other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Mercury Sable report other engine problem at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 94,500 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.
36% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7,500 miles | 22,649 miles | 51,000 miles | 89,956 miles | 102,000 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, 1 a fire 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 $300–$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 on other years
The same failure is reported on 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 1997, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 1996 carries the most reports, with 43; the 2002 has 18. 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.
While driving on the highway oil light came on, and the vehicle started shaking. Vehicle stalled while the consumer was pulling off the highway. Consumer then checked the oil level which indicated empty. Vehicle was towed to a dealership and stayed there for 3 weeks before they indicated that engine lost its oil. Vehicle was then towed to a mechanic, who did tsb 10007358 print out that indicated that this was a common failure with these vehicle.*ak
After 18 months of proper operation, the automatic heater/AC temperature control started to malfunction on my vehicle. When started from a cold start, the interior temperature is maintained at a comfortable 77 to 78 degrees. As time passes, it is necessary to keep increasing the temperature until after an hour has passed, the setting is at 85 degrees and it is still too cold. The next setting is 90 degrees which is full heat to car. It doesn't take long for the heat to run you out. Then it has to be set back to 85 degrees. This is not only annoying and uncomfortable, it is unsafe, because while driving, I have to continually make the adjustments. The problem is a permanent one; it does not come and go. Had it back to dealer 4 times, most of the time they ran the can in the heated and air conditioned shop and could not duplicate the problem. At my last time to the dealer, the service manager told me that they had spent all the time and money they were going to on my vehicle unless they could come up with an error code. They showed me how to read the error code but there is no error code. It seems as though the temperature sensor in…
After stopping at intersection, traffic light, etc., unexplained engine surge and engine noise, makes car lurch forward even when applying all possible pressure to brakes. Surge ceases only when transmission put in neutral. Towed to dealer first time, driven several times. This has happened several times. Dealer can find nothing wrong. I am always apprehensive when driving this vehicle. *jb
Also reported on the 2002 Mercury Sable
Strut, shock or spring failure
Other suspension problem
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Cruise control failure
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 18 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 other engine problem happen on the 2002 Mercury Sable?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2002 Mercury Sable?
18 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