Tail light, brake light or signal failure on the 2003 Mercury Sable
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 tail light, brake light or signal failure gets reported
There are 8 reports of tail light, brake light or signal failure 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 85,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 64,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $100–$900 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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2000, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 25; 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 mercury sable. The contact stated that he is experiencing brake light failure. He also stated that he could start the vehicle, but it failed to shift out of the park position. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer stated that they would not pay for the repairs, although a recall was issued for the component. The current mileage is 51,000 and failure mileage was 48,000. Updated 07/16/08.*lj updated 07/16/08
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 mercury sable. The contact stated that he is experiencing brake light failure. He also stated that he could start the vehicle, but it failed to shift out of the park position. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer stated that they would not pay for the repairs, although a recall was issued for the component. The current mileage is 51,000 and failure mileage was 48,000. Updated 07/16/08.*lj updated 07/16/08
I have a 2003 mercury sable with a failed brake light switch that ford acknowledged and released a recall for (NHTSA campaign id number: 04v106000, NHTSA action number: rq03008) however, when I called ford customer care they declined to assist in the matter until I urged them that they needed to repair the issue at no cost to me. After a long discussion they said they would pay for the repairs, but only after I paid a diagnostic service fee to rule out any other cause for the failure. As it is now the car is very difficult to get out of park, and when it is the brake lights are intermittent at best. I do not want this to result in an accident or injury as a result of ford's neglect to resolve this issue. Is there anything the NHTSA odi can do to help me resolve this issue as quickly as possible? *tr thank you, scott ritter
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 tail light, brake light or signal failure happen on the 2003 Mercury Sable?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 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 tail light, brake light or signal failure 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