Car was completely stopped. When engaged into reverse, car made loud noise, tires squealed, engine raced and crashed into parked car behind it at high rate of speed. Parked vehicle that was struck then struck car next to it since impact was so great. Car was uncontrollable, could not be stopped via brakes.
2003 Mercury Sable: grinding or squealing brakes
6 of the 201 complaints about the 2003 Mercury Sable describe grinding or squealing brakes.
- owner complaints
- 6
- of this car's complaints
- 3%
- typical mileage
- 65,000
- recalls
- 0
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
Grinding or squealing brakes by model year
What owners say
Wife was driving vehicle on highway. The car engine kept running but the transmission died without any warning symptoms - no clunking, no grinding gears, no loss of fluids,... It just completely failed while in motion. Thank god she was able to coast towards the shoulder and avoid being hit. The car was repaired with a used transmission. The same transmission was recalled in another ford vehicle. There are thousands of complaints online about this particular transmission in sables and taurus vehicles it is a serious problem as the instantaneous complete transmission failure can easily occur in dangerous traffic situations. It's not clear as to why there is no recall nor warning. An investigation on the internet will clearly reveal thousands of failures and data is available at transmission and garage shops. Do something.
After refueling at busy gas station, started the car and the car would not go forward or backwards as no gears were working. The car engine was working fine but the transmission died without any warning symptoms - no clunking, no grinding gears, no loss of fluids,... It just completely failed. The car was repaired with a used transmission. The same ford/mercury transmission model was recalled in another ford vehicle. There are thousands of complaints online about this particular transmission in sables and taurus vehicles it is a serious problem as the instantaneous complete transmission failure can easily occur in dangerous traffic situations. It previously failed with the car in motion on a highway! It's not clear as to why there is no recall nor warning. An investigation on the internet will clearly reveal thousands of failures and data is available at transmission and garage shops. Do something please.
I started my car to take it for an oil change. With the engine warmed up I shifted into gear to go. Without any warning symptoms (no clunking, no grinding gears, no loss of fluids,...) the transmission decided to completely fail. The car would not go forward nor backwards as no gears were working. As this is now the third complete failure of the transmission on this car, I am trying to decide if I should try to get it repaired again. In all my years of driving, this is the only car that I have owned that has had transmission problems. There are known design flaws - the torque converter splines are not beefy enough and the vent fitting with a check valve on the trans housing malfunctions closed and causes the trans fluid to shoot back out of the dipstick tube, and there are other issues with this transmission as well... The same ford/mercury transmission model was recalled in another ford vehicle. I repeat, the same failure prone part in another vehicle was recalled. There are thousands of complaints online about this particular transmission in sables and taurus vehicles it is a serious problem as the instantaneous complete transmission failure can easily occur in dangerous traffic situations. It previously failed with my car in motion on a highway! It's not clear as to why there is no recall nor warning. An investigation on the internet will clearly reveal thousands of failures and data is available at transmission and garage shops. Do something please.
2003 sable wagon was driven home and parked in driveway. When we went to move it again a horrible grinding sound was coming from the front end, sounded like something scraping on the driveway or caught in wheel well. Car was subsequently parked. When it was light and upon further investigation, a piece of the front end coil spring was found lying under the car, approximately 1 foot long that is sheared off from the rest of the spring. No visible rust on the part, just apparently a defective part that broke. Now the car has to be towed to fix the problem. However the rest of the spring is embedded in the tire, wedged between it and the wheel well. It is impossible to move the car even to allow for a tow truck to get under it. The tires were also just purchased approximately one month ago and this certainly has ruined at least one of them.
I was driving along, and with no warning, no noise no squeak transmission failure at 34,000 miles, also master cylinder failure. Last month.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 2003 Mercury Sable grinding brakes
Is grinding or squealing brakes a common problem on the 2003 Mercury Sable?
6 of 201 owner complaints about the 2003 Mercury Sable (3%) mention grinding or squealing brakes. The model year with the most reports is 2002.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2003 Mercury Sable?
There is no recall or service bulletin for this area of the car on record.
Other symptoms on the 2003 Mercury Sable
Coil spring 41Water leak 15Tire blowout 11Transmission failure 10No deployment 7Adaptive cruise 6
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