Two problems related to wiring have been reported for the 2002 Mercury Sable. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2002 Mercury Sable based on all problems reported for the 2002 Sable.
Wire harness failure in rubber boots from body of car to rear lift gate on station wagon model. Insulation cracking and wire breaking completely in flexible rubber boot causes erratic behavior and ultimate failure of high brake light, back up lights, license plate lights, rear windshield wiper, rear window defroster, open lift gate and open rear window safety sensors and stereo speakers. Insulation and wiring within boot has become brittle and fatigued. Clean breaks in wires from opening and closing lift gate are evident. Wires where insulation has broken through are coming in contact with other circuits where that insulation has broken through and results in "confusing" operation of lights. Ie put car in reverse and high brake light comes on - put foot on brake and high brake light goes out. Backup lights don't come on at all. Ie turn on rear windshield wiper and license plate light comes on. Wiring does not appear to have sufficient number of multiple internal copper strands or supple enough insulation to provide needed flexibility during regular opening and closing of rear lift gate. Believe this to be a latent safety defect. Manufacturer should have known during design that wiring in boot to station wagon lift gate would be prone to catastrophic failure with regular use.
I have a 2002 Mercury Sable w/ 40,000 miles on it. The car had to be taken back numerous times the hub caps fell off after the 6th time they replaced with alloy wheels. The right & left sway bar end links have been replaced. The altenator went out and was replaced. The transmission had to completely be overhauled. The powertrain control module replaed, the spark plug wire replaced, replaced processor and key. #4 plug wire shorting out caused coil to go bad and fouled #3 ac coil asy-ign replaced after fixing $3 & #4 showed up on power balance retest,but said road test was ok at this time suggested fel management. It scares me that so much can go wrong on a 2002 auto. I did have extended warranty on the altenator and transmission, but I would have hated to pay the $3028. 00 charge to fix the problem, I wasn't real happy to pay the deductible. The extended warranty got stuck paying even though I had the car in under orignal warranty for the same problem.