Differential Unit problems of the 2003 Mercury Mountaineer

The contact owns a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer. The contact stated that while driving 40 mph, the rear differential made a popping sound. The contact stated that while in reverse, the popping sound was louder. The contact took the vehicle to a local mechanic for a diagnostic test. The mechanic noticed a leak in the rear differential and stated the rear differential needed to be replaced. The contact did not have the rear differential replaced. The failure mileage was 240,000.

We purchased a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer approx. 9 months ago and have now discovered that the front differential has gone out. When we did extensive research we found that there was a massive recall between 2002 - 2006 for this manufacturer's defect on Mountaineers, explorers, expeditions and range/lnd rovers. When we contacted Ford motor CO; they said that our particular VIN# did not make the recall list. When I asked how come a manufacture's defect could not make the recall list they said it could be an oversight or just maybe not for that model. I then asked how come the research proved to show that these were defective upon manufacturing and some of them not get recalled they had no answer for me. We now have a vehicle that is inoperative and nobody wants to clarify the problem. We have had 2 estimates both with used parts from a wrecking yard. The 1st estimate was $1350 and the 2nd was $800 and no guarantees since they would be pulling the front differential off of a wrecked vehicle the same year as ours and it could also potentially be defective. We do not have the money for the repairs and now my husband has no transportation to get to work. He does drive my car at the moment but can not carry all of his tools in my vehicle since his is an SUV. We did seek legal council and were informed that we need to file this complaint in hopes that you could force Ford to recall our vehicle and they said we had a very good law suit. If my husband did not have this checked and continued to drive it without knowledge of the problem it could have resulted in the gears locking up and a crash which could have resulted in serious injuries or even deaths. Please advise what our options are.

Upon leaving work in the am I started my vehicle and none of my dash gauges were working nor were any of the electric window or the radio. I then called my mechanic who adv me to bring it to him. While I was en route to take my vehicle to him it started making a weird noise like I was in a helicopter and I started smelling this weird smell like oil burning at first it thought they messed up my oil change and I was furious. Upon arriving at the shop he immediately smelled the odor put it up on the lift and found out that my front differential had gone bad. I purchased another one and hi installed it and I took it home because he could not find out what was wrong with the gauges on my way to take it to a dealer I was driving down the road and smoke and was coming from the front and back under my car another driving passing by signaled something was coming from beneath my vehicle and upon that I heard a loud bang popping noise and my vehicle lost power and I had to have it towed back to the mechanic only to find out that again the differential failed. I still do not have my vehicle and the gauges windows and radio still does not work. My mechanic checked all the fuses and adv that there was no problem with them. He did however call a Mercury dealer who adv he has had to change some of the front differentials on other Mountaineers but was not certain as to how many were done.

The contact owns a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer. While driving 65 mph, the contact noticed smoke coming from the front and rear of the vehicle. She then heard a loud bang and the steering wheel began to shake. The vehicle lost power, but did not shut off. The vehicle was towed. The Ford dealer diagnosed the vehicle as needing the front end differential replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred when the contact picked up the vehicle. Since then, the front end differential has been replaced five times. The Ford dealer was unable to diagnose the cause of the continuous failures of the replacement part. The contact also stated that the rear liftgate is cracked. A valid VIN was unavailable. The current mileage is 64,000 and failure mileage was 60,000.