NHTSA — Electrical System Problems

2.8

hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
50,180 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

1997 Mercury Sable electrical problems

electrical problem

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1997 Mercury Sable Owner Comments

problem #5

Jan 272005

Sable

  • 116,900 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

When driving my vehicle a clicking under the dash will occur, at the same time my seat belt light will come on and go off, when it goes off I lose my power steering, power brakes, windshield wipers, stereo and window opener. The oddest thing is everything is fully restored when in neutral or park.

- Lisbon, ME, USA

problem #4

Aug 151999

Sable 6-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 54,000 miles
1997 Mercury Sable.

- Vallejo, CA, USA

problem #3

Jan 192003

Sable 6-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 80,000 miles
The most recent problems are electrical in nature. First, all of the passenger power windows have failed. They can only be controlled by the driver side panel. Second, even though all of the doors are securely closed, the interior dome light will remain on between 20 seconds and several hours. There were occasions when the light would come on by itself while I was driving down the highway to work. An audible clicking noise could be heard from under the dash. The click is similar to the sound made when manually operating the switch. Third, this started on Sunday, 01/19/03, the headlights will turn on and off by themselves while the vehicle is off and the headlight switch is off. Additionally, with the car running and the daytime lights only, the highbeam indicator came on. When I turned the headlights on, the indicator went off. When I turned the headlights off, the highbeam indicator came back on. The highbeam indicator eventually turned off on its own within 5 or 10 minutes. Previous problems have included front end suspension related failures and an oil pan that sprung a leak in December 2001 at around 78K miles. The oil pan sprung another leak in December 2002. The service dealer attributed the leak to the same problem and another failure with the oil pressure switch. I agreed to the oil pressure switch repair and told them that if the oil pan gasket failed a 2nd time (original cause of leak in 2001), that it was due to poor repair work. They tightened the bolts to the oil pan. The winter weather has hampered my efforts to check for the leak. Although I no longer smell burning oil.

- Schenectady, NY, USA

problem #2

Nov 262000

Sable

  • Automatic transmission
  • miles
While driving, power steering, power windows, and radio will quit working, consumer can hear a clicking sound under dash, everything comes back on without notice.

- Burnet, TX, USA

problem #1

Nov 301999

Sable

  • miles
Thats it the transmission went out at 45,000, the wheel bearing went out soon after purchased, the interior electrical went out soon after purchase also the power seat quit working.

- Minneapolis, MN, USA

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