The transmission slips bucking the car out of control when idling along with the aluminum pistons being damaged. The car jumps forward which causes unneccesary accidents and causes the car to stall on busy streets. A new transmission was needed and all new pistons due to a bad design. There is a website www.visi.com/~bruns/results2.html that contains about 50 complaints about the transmission on this car. Ford should take responsibility for this, it was a bad design and they should take the heat for it. Thank you.
1990 Mercury Sable: complete transmission failure
5 of the 165 complaints about the 1990 Mercury Sable describe complete transmission failure.
- owner complaints
- 5
- of this car's complaints
- 3%
- recalls
- 0
Is there a fix? 15 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below
Complete transmission failure by model year
What owners say
We have replaced the transmission in this car 3 times one at 95, one at 125 and one at 200000. I reviewed the recall notices on this make and model and ther e are 104 pages which I have printed out. To date, we have only been notified of about 5 recalls. On the recall pages there are transmission defects. Which we were never notified. Of. I have contacted ford/mercury on this and told that no recalls were made on the transmission. Please adivse what I should do. Shold I bring this list into a dealer and demand that each recall be dealt with or what. At this point, I stopped driving the car a year ago because it was too expensive to keep getting repaired. The body is in perfect condition and would run fantistic if I could afford to get all of the repairs done. For expample there has always been a humming sound from the rear end, but it is in my imagination. Please advise what I can demand from the manufacturer especially on the transmission and on the list of 135 pages. Thank you dianne m. Armisahw.
The transmission failed in which I had to pay $1834 to replace!
Headlights malfunctioned, affecting visibility. Also, replaced transmission and front control arms.
Transmission failed twice.
Service bulletins that may apply
- Information regarding the new transmission cooler flusher- service tip
- Information on the new flush and fill tool available through rotunda
- Concerns with reverse clutch that could become sheared or torn in extremely cold temperatures
- Information regarding TSB 98-5A-12 (transaxle/transmission/transfer case-vehicles towed behind...
- Transaxles use a new transmission fluid
- Information on a new transmission fluid usage chart
- A revised forward clutch inner seal for the axod, axode, AX4S & AX4N transaxle is available with improved...
- Fluid- transmission fluid usage charts
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 1990 Mercury Sable transmission failure
Is complete transmission failure a common problem on the 1990 Mercury Sable?
5 of 165 owner complaints about the 1990 Mercury Sable (3%) mention complete transmission failure. The model year with the most reports is 1991.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 1990 Mercury Sable?
There are 0 recalls and 15 service bulletins for the same area of the car. Check them below with your VIN.
Other symptoms on the 1990 Mercury Sable
Ball joint 12Fire or smoke 9Stalling 7Airbag light 5No deployment 5Seat belt 5
VIN decoder
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