Five problems related to car stall have been reported for the 1998 Mercury Mountaineer. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
One of the braided stainless steel fuel lines that attaches to the engines fuel rail developed a leak. I kept smelling a strong odor of gas, but I could not find out where it was coming from. After two weeks of smelling the gas, I took it to a garage and they showed me the gas squirting from the braided hose going to the engine. I took the vehicle to the Ford dealer and showed them the leak. They took the vehicle in their shop and removed the fuel lines. Because of the age of the vehicle, Ford does not provide any replacement parts. I was unable to get replacement fuel lines from Ford. I checked with "junk yards" all over the country. I had no luck finding replacement fuel lines. Junk yards cut the fuel line when they pull engines. I finally located a company in new castle, DE that supplies hydrulic hoses, etc. I took my old fuel lines to them and they removed the fittings and installed them on new stainless steel braided lines. I took the new lines back to the Ford dealer and they installed them on my vehicle. They said the new hoses had no leaks. The Ford dealer charged me over $400. 00 to remove the old hoses and install new hoses. The shop in new castle, DE only charged me $40. 00 for a pair of new hoses. I'm very lucky I did not have an engine fire. These stainless hoses are used on a lot of Ford vehicles. Ford should be required to supply replacement hoses.
Vehicle stalls intermittently at any speed. Taken to dealer once a month since purchase in March 2000, cannot find cause.
Was driving up a ramp when the vehicle stopped dead after entering intersection. Had no prior warning. Turned vehicle off & shifted into park to restart. Had it towed to dealer & mechanic could not locate cause of stalling.
Vehicle driven in forward and comes to a stop (I. E. - at a stop sign, toll booth, or traffic light) will stall/hesitate without warning when attempting to proceed forward again. This has happened multiple times since we purchased the vehicle new. Vehicle was taken to several different dealerships in three states and they say "Ford/Mercury is aware of the problem but at the current time there is no fix. " radio when tuning would not pick up any radiostations due to radio not hooked to antenna. Door molding on drivers side door came loose and prevented the door from being opened more than three inches. Driver was not able to enter drivers side door to drive vehicle. Rear windshield wiper engine burned out and rear wiper did not work. Brake stuck when attempting to place vehicle into gear after initial start of engine.
Vehicle has stalled/hesitated upon accleration several times. It has done this at least 10 times (stalled 3 thus far. . . Today 8/23/00 was one incident of that) despite efforts by Ford to remedy. I've had the dealer replace the recalled throttle, re-orient my fuel lines, and eventually replace my engine without any remedy. This could be a very dangerous issue (once it stalled while making a left across traffic lanes. Fortunately it was clear). I've owned explorers in the past with no such incidents. ( dot number: ).