general problems of the 2002 Mercury Cougar

Nhtsa campaign number:�04v421000 manufacturer Ford motor company was driving on a main city st. My auto stopped with no power in the left lane of busy 4 lane st. Would not start in neutral or park, man pushed it into the ctr. Lane out of traffic area. Policeman came after I called 911, after a few minutes he suggested taking key out stepping on brake then inserting key back in ignition, did that and it started right up, and he followed me to my st. And I got safely home. Prior to this shut down incident it had stalled going down a hill however put it in neutral and it started up again. This incident could have caused a serious accident, prior to this incident it had been cutting out for a couple of months which I thought was cheap gas, so changed to tectron. I have called Ford on 3/15 twice and they said they can not do anything about it, I then researched this online and found this site and want to post exactly what happened to me as shown by the NHTSA on recall etc. It does show it is for the orig owner, I am the 2nd. Owner however this has occurred within the 15yr. Limitation you have posted for complaints explained to Ford that it may have taken this long for the filter to react in this manner.

6 months after I bought the car I noticed that after fueling that the fuel gauge still stayed on empty after a while it corrected itself but after that now everytime that I put fuel in the car it registers either empty or only half full. The dealership told me that Cougars are known for theri fuel pump problems. Upon further inspection of the car they stated that they could find nothing wrong and to watch and not overfill the tank. To this day the fuel gauge is still wrong. After that the paint on the hood of the car started peeling. I took it to the dealership and after some harsh words and weeks of waiting they took it in and repainted the hood which now is a slightly different color that the rest of the car. Then 6 months after that the car started hesitating on acceleration and would spit and splutter and quit in the middle of the road. I took it to the dealership and they put it on the machine and found that a component in the computer was out so they replaced it. Then one day as I was driving it my break pedal went almost all the way to the floor. I almost hit several cars trying to get it stopped I had it taken to a nearby garage and I had no break pads on the front or the back of the car also I had to have my rotors replaced( which is not covered by a warranty) however, there was no grinding no warning, nothing to indicate that a car with only 20,000 miles on it would have brake problems. After those were fixed I was driving to class one evening in heavy rush hour traffic and turned to into a parking lot my steering wheel immediately made this loud popping noise and locked to the left and sent me into a 360 degree spin into a crowded parking lot. I had the car towed to the dealership where it now sits unable to drive because the steering wheel and front wheels are locked to the left with no explanation of why it happened.