Other brake problem on the 2003 Mercury Sable
1 crash 1 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 4 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 other brake problem gets reported
There are 8 reports of other brake problem on the 2003 Mercury Sable, 4 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 88,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 123,000 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 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 $300–$1,800 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 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 135,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 26; the 2003 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.
I went to leave from a local park on a saturday evening, but my vehicle would not move out of park. I had to call a tow truck. The tow truck driver showed me a trick how to get the vehicle to start, by turning the ignition key ever so slightly and then trying to move the shifter to neutral. Once in neutral I started the vehicle and drove home. After driving the vehicle for almost a week by starting in neutral, I was stopped on the following friday by police. I was informed that I didn't have any working brake lights. I drove home and looked on the internet if there were any recalls on this vehicle. Well, there was a recall done in 2004 (NHTSA action number: rq03008), but I was informed by ford motor company that my vehicle based on its VIN was not apart of the recall. I requested to speak to a supervisor and was instructed that someone would contact me on that following monday. I was indeed contacted by ford motor company and informed again, that based on my VIN, that I did not qualify as a part of the recall. I was told if more complaints were made, then something could possibly be done. I told the ford representative that I was…
I was driving my car and while I was braking for a stop light I couldn't stop. Something was giving my car gas as I was trying to stop. Ever since then when I drive it my RPM's are high and makes a noise. I called the shop and had my idle air control valve replaced because that's what the automotive place said was wrong. Since then it's been in 3 other times and had the part replaced just in case it was a faulty part. Now the mechanics are baffled as am I. I did research and noticed this was a common complaint on these vehicles. I just took it in again today december 6,2012 and we can't figure out the problem. It's getting worse to where I can't really drive it because when I go to brake it won't stop. I can be at a complete stop and not touch the gas and my car will get up to 45mph without me even touching the gas pedal. *tr
My car is trying to kill me! I was driving at approximately 40 MPH, when I started to brake for a stop before turning . The car slowed down, as I held my foot on the brake, but suddenly the car started to accelerate. I already had my foot on the brake, and the brake held, but I had to take the car out of gear, and shut the engine off. The engine was racing at a speed I would estimate at 80 MPH. It was a frightening and dangerous experience. I checked to see if a floor mat was pressing on the gas pedal. It was not. The same incident happened on two more occasions. My mechanic has not found the problem. I no longer drive the car. *tr
Also reported on the 2003 Mercury Sable
Strut, shock or spring failure
Blower motor or climate control failure
Other speed control problem
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Complete transmission 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 other brake problem happen on the 2003 Mercury Sable?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 125,000 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 other brake problem on the 2003 Mercury Sable?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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