general problems of the 2004 Mercury Monterey

Spouse darrel williams was driving the family and me out to dinner on may 9, 2014 for mother's day. The gas tank was on one-fourth a tank so before on to the expressway we stop to get some gas. Darrel made a statement he said, "he said the gas hand still hasn't moved much after we put $40. 00 together of gas in the van. We put gas in the van at the gas station at 63rd and California. After getting gas we proceed toward western Ave. On wester Ave. Darrel drove from71st and western to 111 & western when we smelled something buring. We thought the smell was coming from a vehicle on the side of us. We made no big deal about it until the van begin to smoke tremendous. Darrel stop the car an pulled over. The smoke increased in front of the car on the drivers as darrel stood there trying to understand what was going on, I saw a blaze of fire. I begin screaming the van is on fire, the van is on fire. I jump out of the vehicle the blaze got larger. My daughter and my brother-in-law who is mentally challenged was in the second row of seats buckled up. I got back in the car to turn on the energency signal to let the other drivers know that we needed help. I yelled at my family on the second row again, get out the van the van is on fire. They behave as if they could not hear me or understand what I wa saying. So, I begin to bang on the window get out get out the van is on fire. After the van was full blazed and the emergency was on the banging got them out. There was reddish brown liquid all in the surronding area where the van was park. My husband and I both called the police department but the fire department came with two tow trucks. I got my family to safety on the other side of the train tracks by 111 & marshfield while darrel talked to fire fighters and the tow men.

The contact owns a 2004 Mercury Monterey. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 45 mph, the power train warning light illuminated and the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence where the ecm module was replaced by the contact. The vehicle was repaired but the failure persisted. The contact stated that the power train warning light illuminated intermittently and other unknown electrical failures occurred. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 100,000.

1st - radio started flashing on and off randomly - took to Ford dealer - no error code, no answer. 2nd - heated seat on drivers side quit working - took to Ford dealer - no error code, no answer. Took to private repair shop - error code of low voltage battery - replaced battery for $125 3rd - automatic lights quit working, dashboard control went blank - took to Ford dealer - same low voltage error code - despite new battery. No other answers. 4th - automatic seats started moving when using code to open door - took to Ford - found that all problems traced to one relay box - replaced relay box for $650. 5th - engine light came on one week later - no problems starting/running, made appointment to take to dealer in 3 days. 6th - engine died next day, would restart and then die again after 5 feet, towed to Ford dealer, tow truck driver noted engine would not go into gear- repeatedly gave no code. Asked them to have tech take car home and drive it. Finally found corroded and wet pcm. Quoted $1400 for the repair. I looked up pcm on merc. Monterey/Ford freestar - as these are essentially the same vehicle. Found tons of same complaint. Poor design from Ford allowing water to drip onto main computer/electrical supply causing thousands of dollars of repairs to owners. The battery was likely just fine, the relay box likely just fine. I am working with dealer to pay less for the pcm since they should have found this from the first or second electrical complaint. Car still at dealer, I will not pay $1400 to get it repaired.

My wife was backing out of her parking spot, put the van in forward, and discovered that it would not move. There were no indications that this event was going to happen. Our repair technician had to replace our planetary gearset, because they were destroyed, the torque converter was replaced as a precaution, and the neutral switch was replaced because it was thought to be the root cause. However a broken "cam switch" wire was preventing the car from operating normally. When that was finally discovered, we were able to get our van back.