Six problems related to cruise control have been reported for the 1998 Mercury Sable. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
On February 14, 2006 as I drove up to my neighbor's garage door, my 1998 Mercury Sable wagon had 'a mind of it's own'. It would not respond to the brake but accelerated 'on it's own' causing me to go through the door and hit the side brick wall of the garage. The insurance company totaled the car. After much research, I found many such stories with several makes of cars. The cruise control causes an 'sudden involuntary acceleration' which does not allow the brake to work these are only a couple of the links I found. . Read more...
The contact stated the vehicle experienced sudden acceleration. The contact set cruise control sat on 35 mph. When he went to tap the brake to deactivate the cruise control the vehicle accelerated. The vehicle would not stop. He had to turn the cruise control off by hand several times before the car would slow down. The manufacturer has not been contacted.
1) vehicle was having shifting problems with not easily coming out of the 'park" position. Dealer kept stating there was no problem. 2) oct. 30--traveling at 70 mph heading for a downhill with relatively sharp curve at bottom, braked to cancel cruise control with no response. Again braked hard with no response. Cancelled cruise control manually with steering wheel "off" button---just in time to avoid a certain disaster! later, I engaged the cruise control again on a straight stretch of road and again, the brake did not cancel the system! 3) dealer determined that the brake switch and harness had a strange burn in the wiring. Harness was replaced and (console) shift control and cruise control now are working normally.
Locked torque converter seems to disengage when going down hill. Also, speed control cannot control speed of car going down any slight hill. Seems to be not locked up, etc. Cannot use engine compression, etc, to slow vehicle. Cruise control us is useless on any type of downgrade! is this a design flaw or can it be repaired? vehicle is a leased car through wheels, inc. Thank you.
The engine idles too fast. Yh.
The idle speed control unit design is poor causing the vehicle to continue speed after the accelerator is released.