Five problems related to overdrive light on have been reported for the 1996 Mercury Mystique. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
While driving on highway, transmission began to shift at odd times. Shortly thereafter, the shifts began to take excessively long between gear engagement. The following day, the o/d off light began to flash on the dash and the transmission refused to engage gears. Driver stranded. Upon inspection at dealership, I was told transmission was "totalled" and required replacement. Details sketchy, but technician reported that an internal failure occured and transmission lubrication was affected (stopped). Gears began running metal on metal with no warning and "internal damage" occured. Car was driven less than 12 miles after warning light on dash began to flash. This car has only 63k miles and the transmission is totalled by lack of lubrication with a full reservoir or Ford fluid.
The gear does not shift properly. From stop to low speed (<20mph) it whines, jerks and stalls. At high speed (40mph) it stops shifting and keeps whining at 3-4000rpm while it should shift up. The o/d off warning light comes up 2-3 minutes after starting the car.
When consumer put vehicle in drive vehicle went down to 20mph. Vehicle would go into gear, but would hesitate. Then, five to ten minutes later, overdrive light would coime on, indicating that engine would slowdown.
While driving in heavy morning traffic vehicle starts whining, then it stalls. Has to put gear in park to restart. Sometimes the overdrive indicator light comes on. Also, when pulling out in traffic, it doesn't engage in gear immediately, when putting foot on accelerator, it can cause an accident.
Overdrive light comes on while driving, causing the vehicle to jerk/idle high and cut off.