One of the braided stainless steel fuel lines that attaches to the engines fuel rail developed a leak. I kept smelling a strong odor of gas, but I could not find out where it was coming from. After two weeks of smelling the gas, I took it to a garage and they showed me the gas squirting from the braided hose going to the engine. I took the vehicle to the ford dealer and showed them the leak. They took the vehicle in their shop and removed the fuel lines. Because of the age of the vehicle, ford does not provide any replacement parts. I was unable to get replacement fuel lines from ford. I checked with "junk yards" all over the country. I had no luck finding replacement fuel lines. Junk yards cut the fuel line when they pull engines. I finally located a company in new castle, de that supplies hydraulic hoses, etc. I took my old fuel lines to them and they removed the fittings and installed them on new stainless steel braided lines. I took the new lines back to the ford dealer and they installed them on my vehicle. They said the new hoses had no leaks. The ford dealer charged me over $400.00 to remove the old hoses and install new hoses. The shop in new castle, de only charged me $40.00 for a pair of new hoses. I'm very lucky I did not have an engine fire. These stainless hoses are used on a lot of ford vehicles. Ford should be required to supply replacement hoses.
1998 Mercury Mountaineer engine problems
22 complaints (9% of all complaints for this car). Typical mileage when it fails: 72,428. 1 crash reported.
- owner complaints
- 22
- of this car's complaints
- 9%
- typical mileage
- 72,428
- crashes
- 1
- recalls
- 0
Which part fails
- Engine9
- Engine: gasoline7
- Exhaust system: emission control: catalytic convertor2
- Exhaust system: emission control: gas recirculation valve (EGR valve)1
- Cooling system1
At what mileage
Complaints by mileage at the time of the problem.
Mercury Mountaineer engine problems in other years
Specific symptoms reported on the 1998 Mercury Mountaineer engine
Phrases found in the owners' own descriptions, so one complaint can mention several symptoms.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Related investigations
Spark plug ejection from cylinder head
On september 6, 2005, odi received a petition requesting that the agency investigate allegations of engine spark plug ejection in certain model year 1997 through 2004 ford vehicles with triton v-8 and v-10 engines.odi received a total of 474 non-duplicative complaints on the subject vehicles where the complainant, or the dealer repairing the vehicle, reported that a spark plug detached from the cylinder and/or ejected from the engine.as of december 8, 2005, odi is not aware of any allegations where the alleged defect resulted in a loss of vehicle control, a crash, an injury, or a fatality in any of the 10,319,810 subject vehicles.in addition, odi is aware of only two incidents where the vehicle stalled without restart.information contained in the odi consumer complaints and obtained from 72 telephone interviews with complainants showed the following:(1) 99% of the complaints were on my 1997 to 2002 subject vehicles.(2) most the complainants reported hearing a loud pop while driving or upon starting up the vehicle followed by a loud, repetitive clicking or popping sound.(3) many of the complainants reported that the popping sound was accompanied by some loss of vehicle power; however, in 99% of the incidents reported, the vehicle did not stall.in the very few incidents where the vehicle did stall, most vehicles could be restarted.(4) only a small percentage of the complainants cited that they smelled gas or a slight burning smell when the incident occurred.(5) in all but a very few incidents, vehicle damage was limited to the engine.in one incident, the complaint reported that the fuel rail was damaged and replaced after one of the spark plugs ejected from the engine; however, the complainant reported that the damage did not result in any type of fuel leak or fire.in another incident, the only incident where a fire was alleged, the complainant reported that no fluid leak was observed, but that a fire resulted after the spark plug had ejected from the engine and he had restarted the vehicle and driven to another location.none of the complainants reported any damage to the vehicle hood.(6) only two complainants reported that they observed what appeared to be some drops of fuel coming from the cylinder where the spark plug had failed or on the spark plug itself; however, each of these complainants reported that there was no smoke or flames as a result of his incident.as the petitioner noted, and odi?s analysis showed, it is possible for a spark plug to detach from the engine cylinder threads in the subject vehicles.however, odi?s analysis of 474 complaints describing such incidents found only a very few alleged any safety-related consequences.none of these showed any evidence of a serious safety consequence.given the large population and relatively long exposure time of the subject vehicles, the complaint analysis indicates that the risk to motor vehicle safety from the alleged defect is very low.in view of the foregoing, it is unlikely that the federal safety agency would issue an order for the notification and remedy of the alleged defect at the conclusion of the investigation requested in the petition.therefore, in view of the need to allocate and prioritize the federal safety agency?s limited resources to best accomplish the agency?s safety mission, the petition is denied.
DP05005
What 1998 Mercury Mountaineer owners say
Most recent owner complaints, unedited.
At 2 am we smelled smoke and saw it coming from garage, when I opened garage door flames were coming out of front of car. My mothers car burnt and it is a total loss. We had to call fire dept. My garage was wrecked. My house has smoke damage.
Moved my truck to let another car out of the drive way. Pulled back in turned the truck off came in the house and heard a loud boom. Looked out the window and fire was shooting up by the wheel.
Tl*the contact owns a 1998 mercury mountaineer. Early in the morning, the contact smelled something burning and noticed that her vehicle was on fire. As a result, the garage and part of the house were burned. The fire department extinguished the fire and stated that it originated from the engine of the vehicle. The contact feels that this is a safety issue because severe injuries could have occurred. The mileages were unknown.
Timing chains/timing chain guides failure.
Tl*the contact owns a 1998 mercury mountaineer. The contact stated that there is a crack in the center of the egr valve. The vehicle is making an unfamiliar noise and gas fumes are entering the vehicle. There were no warning indicators. The vehicle has not been diagnosed. The purchase date, engine size, and a valid VIN were unknown. The current mileage is 72,000 and failure mileage was 69,000.
My check engine light has been coming on. I have had various shops use their computer to find out why the light was on and have paid for cleaning valves, sensors, and hoses as well as having new sensors installed. The first instance occurred at 90,000 mileage on my vehicle. Today, the shop where I now take my vehicle for servicing used their computer to see why the check engine light was on yet again and it generated a tsb from ford, article 04-7-5 which supersedes article tsb 03-25-1. This article states the issue as "some 1998 explorer/mountaineer vehicles equipped with the 5.0l engine may exhibit a malfunction indicator lamp (mil) on with diagnostic trouble code(s) p0420 (catalyst system efficiency below threshold-bank 1) and/or p0430 (catalyst system efficiency below threshold - bank 2). The action listed for correction of this problem is stated as "to service, reprogram the powertrain control module (PCM) to the latest calibration using wds release b28.3 or higher. Replacement of catalyst's is no longer necessary to address the most common causes of this condition." this sounds like a problem ford installed on these 1998 mountaineers and I believe ford should bear the cost of reprogramming the computer in the vehicle for the vehicle to function properly and safely. The worker at the shop took the time to explain to me what this article meant and the possible ramifications to the functioning of my vehicle because of the problem caused by ford not having the correct computer program running in the vehicle. My mechanic is telling me that this vehicle has 3 catalytic converters and will cost about $3000 for the parts alone. Because of this problem my vehicle will not pass emissions or inspection. I went 1 year with this problem and now it is back again.
Dt*: the contact stated a fire erupted from the vehicle. It was parked for over thirty minutes. No previous problems were reported with the vehicle. The fire department was called to the scene to extinguish the fire. The fire investigator's written report stated the fire started in the engine compartment. There was additional property damage to surrounding vehicles. The insurance company inspected the vehicle and deemed it totaled.
When the 1998 mercury mountaineer was running on hwy 121 south merging into hwy 114 west in grapevine, tx, the 1998 mercury suddenly became out of control at a speed less than speed limit. The car was being accelerated even if the accelerator pedal was off. The driver applied break to stop the car but the break did not work. Then the driver had to steer the car into the bush off road to avoid collision to other cars. The driver changed the at to p (parking) to stop the car. The engine surged and started fire underneath of the car. Then the driver removed the key and evacuated from the car. The fire was extinguished by the fireman.
My check engine light has been coming on. I have had various shops use their computer to find out why the light was on and have paid for cleaning valves, sensors, and hoses as well as having new sensors installed. The first instance occurred at 65, 475 mileage on my vehicle. Today, the shop where I now take my vehicle for servicing used their computer to see why the check engine light was on yet again and it generated a tsb from ford, article 04-7-5 which supersedes article tsb 03-25-1. This article states the issue as "some 1998 explorer/mountaineer vehicles equipped with the 5.0l engine may exhibit a malfunction indicator lamp (mil) on with diagnostic trouble code(s) p0420 (catalyst system efficiency below threshold-bank 1) and/or p0430 (catalyst system efficiency below threshol - bank 2). The action listed for correction of this problem is stated as "to service, reprogram the powertrain control module (PCM) to the latest calibration using wds release b28.3 or higher. Replacement of catalystst is no longer necessary to address the most common causes of this condition." this sounds like a problem ford installed on these 1998 mountaineers and I believe ford should bear the cost of reprogramming the computer in the vehicle for the vehicle to function properly and safely. The worker at the shop took the time to explain to me what this article meant and the possible ramifications to the functioning of my vehicle because of the problem caused by ford not having the correct computer program running in the vehicle.
Questions about the 1998 Mercury Mountaineer engine
Does the 1998 Mercury Mountaineer have engine problems?
Owners have filed 22 complaints about the engine of the 1998 Mercury Mountaineer, 9% of all its complaints.
At what mileage do 1998 Mercury Mountaineer engine problems start?
The typical (median) mileage in owner complaints is 72,428 miles.
Was there a recall on the 1998 Mercury Mountaineer engine?
There is no recall for this problem on this model year.
What year does the Mercury Mountaineer have bad engine?
The Mercury Mountaineer model years with the most engine complaints are 2006 (56 complaints), 2002 (35 complaints) and 1998 (22 complaints).
Other 1998 Mercury Mountaineer problems
Tires 95Acceleration 36Electrical 21Locks 12Seats 12Body 11Suspension 11Transmission 9Visibility 9Brakes 6Fuel system 5Lights 4Steering 4Airbags 3Seat belts 3Wheels 2
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