1998 Mercury Sable: adaptive cruise control problems

Filed Feb 25, 2006 · Acceleration · 108,000 miles · MO · crash

On february 14, 2006 as I drove up to my neighbor's garage door, my 1998 mercury sable wagon had 'a mind of it's own'. It would not respond to the brake but accelerated 'on it's own' causing me to go through the door and hit the side brick wall of the garage. The insurance company totaled the car. After much research, I found many such stories with several makes of cars. The cruise control causes an 'sudden involuntary acceleration' which does not allow the brake to work these are only a couple of the links I found. Http://www.safetyforum.com/fordsua/ http://www.antony-anderson.com/cruise/9.5-links.html#ford many people have been injured or killed. Fortunately, I had no injuries except to my emotions. I can still see myself going through that garage door and not being able to stop it. Lorraine barnicle.

Filed Nov 8, 2005 · Acceleration · NC

Dt: the contact stated the vehicle experienced sudden acceleration. The contact set cruise control sat on 35 MPH. When he went to tap the brake to deactivate the cruise control the vehicle accelerated. The vehicle would not stop. He had to turn the cruise control off by hand several times before the car would slow down. The manufacturer has not been contacted.

Filed Nov 1, 2005 · Acceleration · 51,000 miles · CA

1) vehicle was having shifting problems with not easily coming out of the 'park" position. Dealer kept stating there was no problem. 2) oct.30--traveling at 70 MPH heading for a downhill with relatively sharp curve at bottom, braked to cancel cruise control with no response. Again braked hard with no response. Cancelled cruise control manually with steering wheel "off" button---just in time to avoid a certain disaster! Later, I engaged the cruise control again on a straight stretch of road and again, the brake did not cancel the system! 3) dealer determined that the brake switch and harness had a strange burn in the wiring. Harness was replaced and (console) shift control and cruise control now are working normally.

Filed Mar 17, 2004 · Engine · PA

My 1998 mercury sable with 3.0 liter engine apparently is designed to provide no engine braking when coasting. The engine computer prevents the engine from returning to idle. Other have told me that this occurs with other ford taurus' and sables. This condition results in excessive speed building up when going downhill - especially with the cruise control engaged.

Filed Nov 12, 2003 · Electrical · 54,000 miles · LA

While the cruise control was set at 60 MPH, the vehicle stalled then restarted by itself. The dealer could not duplicate or determine the cause of the problem. *ak the cause of the problem was in the switch and a loose wire. The vehicle restarted on it's own and was sometimes hard to start. (hard to start, hot or cold) when the vehicle died at low speeds, it did not restart and was hard to start immediately after but would start within 2-3 minutes. *scc

Filed Feb 19, 1999 · Acceleration, Transmission · PA

Locked torque converter seems to disengage when going down hill. Also, speed control cannot control speed of car going down any slight hill. Seems to be not locked up, etc. Cannot use engine compression, etc, to slow vehicle. Cruise control us is useless on any type of downgrade! Is this a design flaw or can it be repaired? Vehicle is a leased car through wheels, inc. Thank you.