2000 Mercury Mountaineer: adaptive cruise control problems

Filed Mar 16, 2016 · Acceleration · 153,000 miles · AR

I was on my way home from work(approx 12 miles) and decided I'd try out the cruise control in my newly acquired 2000 mountaineer 302 awd. The first part of the commute is what I would consider harmless and a very safe stretch to test out this feature so I press the cruise button to set my speed at the posted speed limit of 55mph. All was well until I approached a sharp hair pin curve about 4 miles into the trip. I gently started to apply the brake to cancel the cruise but the vehicle didn't respond to my attempt. In a state of panic, I firmly apply the brake to reduce speed and was only able to drop approximately 6-7 MPH. Still well above the advised limit for that particular curve. After making it though the curve, the mountaineer transmission down shifted and I was off to the races. I panicked and in doing so, failed to process and think clearly. My instinct was to keep pounding on the brakes in hope that the cruise cable with break or pop free. At 70mph my brakes were useless. It accelerated just past 80mph and finally right before my turn off onto the road that I live, my head cleared and I turned the ignition key to the off position and was able to coast into my neighborhood. As I exited the vehicle, every ounce of coolant was being shot out of the radiator and all four brake rotors were glowing cherry red. I was scared the thing was going to catch fire. Like incident report prior to mine, my cruise cable retainer had malfunctioned and was no longer anchored to its usual position. Ford has a major flaw in the way this system was designed and needs to take action so someone doesn't get killed. Hands down, the absolute scariest situation I've ever experienced.

Filed May 25, 2012 · Acceleration, Brakes · 132,000 miles · NY · fire

Brake lights were not lighting. Fuse was blown, replaced fuse, stepped on brake pedal, then poof of smoke at fuse inside, and under hood smoke continued for 2 minutes. Found connector for switch on master cylinder was melted and switch is still bad. Disconnected connector from shorted switch causing fuse to blow. Then replaced fuse and now brake lights work. Cruise control was intermittent for the past 2 months prior to this event. Connector is tied to keep it secure until repair is made.

Filed Nov 1, 2010 · Acceleration · TX · fire

Tl*the contact owns a 2000 mercury mountaineer. The vehicle was parked and became engulfed into massive flames. The fire department extinguished the fire. The cause of failure was related to the cruise control. A police report was filed with no personal injury. The vehicle was completely destroyed and towed to a towing facility. The failure mileage was unknown.

Filed Apr 2, 2008 · Acceleration · VA

Tl*the contact owns a 2000 mercury mountaineer. The contact received a ford recall notice for the vehicle speed control in august of 2007. She immediately scheduled an appointment to have the vehicle repaired. The cruise control switch was disconnected and she was informed that the parts would be unavailable until november of 2007. In january of 2008, the dealer stated that they would notify her via mail when the parts arrive. As of april 2, 2008, the contact has not received a notice. A representative from the dealer informed her that they still did not know when the parts would be available. There had been no failure to date. The recall number was 05s28. The current mileage was 48,000. Updated 04/16/08.

Filed Mar 20, 2008 · Acceleration · GA

2000 mercury mountaineer with a recall for speed control. Consumer stated that she received the recall in august of 2007 and the vehicle has yet to be repaired. *kb the dealer disconnected the cruise control.

Filed Aug 14, 2005 · Acceleration · 46,827 miles · NY

Last night while traveling home on the nys thruway, approximately 5 miles from my exit, the cruise control didn't disengage. It was late, and we came upon some road work, so I depressed the coast button several times to lower my speed. I have done this numerous times before without any mechanical/electrical/software problem. When this didn't lower my speed, I depressed the off button numerous times-this didn't work-so I depressed the brake-and this didn't work. I became scared and immediately put the SUV in neutral. The engine RPM went high over 5 on the tachometer so I put the transmission back into drive. The speed control indicator dash light was no longer on but the SUV's RPM was still higher than normal like the speed control was still engaged. The SUV now was not trying maintain previous speed but it was still pulling ahead without and any gas pedal. Using a lot of brakes, I was able to slow down way in advance and stop. I was able to drive and stop in my driveway (approximately 1.5 miles from the thruway exit). I purchased my 2000 mountaineer new and have never abused it. No off road - mostly just winter driving. Less than 47 k miles. I noticed a recall for the speed control cable which can become flared at the end. This is for certain mountaineers equipped with 4.0l sohc engines. My engine is a v-8; the older 5.0l that earlier mustangs had. I am thankful that this happened late at night with no traffic on the thruway and very little in the village of saugerties. So there you have it. I'm not sure where this glitch is-possibly the speed control cable is flared and will not loosen to allow regular idle, or something else in the speed control software or something else. I consider myself an above average driver. This could have been tragic if this happened in traffic with a less experienced driver. Good luck and keep up the good work. Not an easy thing to do considering everything you do. Thank you for making our daily lives safer.

Filed May 9, 2005 · Acceleration · 89,600 miles · NC

Dt: 4/28/05 brake lights stopped working, fuses were checked by technician, cruise control/brkake fuse was blown. Fuse was replaced by technician, after technician parked vehickle, smoke was noticed coming from underneath the dash. Technician disconnected cruise control from master cylinder and smoke stopped. Technician noticed wires were melted. Vehicle is regularly serviced with service records available.