Five problems related to engine belts and pulleys have been reported for the 1998 Mercury Mystique. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Approx. 3 weeks ago, the original battery in my car was completely dead . It had showed no signs of losing power prior to that day. I bought a new battery and when I hooked it up the engine started turning over. The keys were in my pocket. As a result the starter died. I had the car towed to a local service station. They replaced the starter and a cracked serpantine belt. A few days later I was driving from NJ to PA when I heard a strange buzzing sound under my hood and I smelt the faint smell of something burning. I pulled over, turned off the ignition and looked under the hood. I did not see anything out of the ordinary. The car would not start back up. I had it towed to a near bye service station. Again the starter had to be replaced along with a burned relay wire and a battery. When I went to pick the car up, the new battery had died and we noticed some more burnt wires near the fuse box. I than had the car towed to haldeman Lincoln Mercury in allentown, PA 610-797-5005. Until this point I was reluctant to take my car to the dealer because they had been extremely unresponsive to past issues I have had with the transmission shifting delayed and hard and also with the check engine light and a engine timing issue. These issues happened right after my warranty expired and despite three seperate letters to Ford, the company did nothing to address my situation. I conveyed this entire story to the service advisor, mike siemons, at haldeman Lincoln Mercury dealership and he gave me the customer service number for Ford. On 2/10/01 I spoke with a customer service rep. Who stated that he would relay my report to a area account rep. Who would help remedy my problem. I was informed the rep. Would call me by the end of business today. So far he has not called. The dealership informed me today that I needed to pay $2k+ for a new wire harness and a 3rd starter in as many weeks. They attribute the problem to a battery that leaked acid. This isn't the proble.
Engine cooling- temperature runs on the high range of normal. Engine - two bolts fell out of water pump pulley causing unknown vibration which in turn caused failure of serpentine belt which caused belt to fray into engine which in turn dislodged timing belt and caused oil light to come on. Dealer not "user friendly" during repair process which drug out the repair for a week. Engine has not run in the same fashion since the incident even though two different dealers have addressed the problem. Engine now stalls during initial start up almost causing engine to die entirely which has almost been the cause of several accidents. Tires- uneven and unusual wear on rear tires causing tires to wear prematurely. Windshield- unusal amount of chips perhaps caused by design and shape of windshield. Ignition- when removing key ingintion stays stuck into the steering column causing buzzer to sound. Did I mention that we will never buy a Ford product again especially since we have only owned this car since December 1999. ( dot number: 23912 ur tire size: p205/60r15 ).
Noise is coming from engine area because only one bolt is holding the pump pulley, two bolts are missing. Yh.
Serpentine belt broke and water pump froze causing vehicle overheating and damage to engine, after replacing engine, belt and pump vehicle is continued to run hot. Mjs.
While driving vehicle would suddenly stall. This was caused by the timing belt coming off the crank shaft pulley. This problem occurred several times. The belt had been replaced, but dealership was unable to remedy the problem.