1997 Mercury Villager Reviews from North America

I just bought this van used, and I am having issues with putting the van in reverse. 3 times in the last 2 days, putting the van in reverse instantly killed the engine. Setting the SE light as well as others on. But I have turned the van off and restarted, and none of the lights come back on.

Can someone tell me what this problem is??? I am hoping it's the tranny.

Great clean, high mileage, but outside looks like brand new.

Could use a carpet cleaning on the inside, but that's minor.

Alternator, approx 180K.

Several front end parts.

I had three Villagers (93, 95, and right now, a 97).

Best Mercury ever made, because all running parts are made by Nissan, and most of them are Japanese made.

Hard to find one with major problems. Engine and transmission goes forever.

Some electrical problems due to poor Ford quality.

ALL OF THEM HAVE AN EXHAUST LEAK PROBLEM (this is a design problem by Nissan!). Expensive to repair and the problem appears again. You have to live with that problem.

Very reliable. Drive from Ontario to British Columbia and back without any problem.

If you need parts, try Nissan; cheaper and easy to find.

I have a 1997 Mercury Villager. Still own it, still running. I have the same sort of problems with this vehicle. When taking off from start, it shifts hard.

Check engine light was on a couple years ago, but mechanic fixed problem. Now check engine light is on again and I believe it may have bad 02 sensor. I am trying to find it on the engine. Anyone have a photo they can post of where it is located on the engine?

Well it has got us from point A to Point B for many many years, but same problems such as doors sometimes lock even with keys in the ignition. Had to call for help one time. Passenger window only goes about half way. If I roll down all the way, it gets stuck. Driver electric seat motor must be going bad, because it moves extremely slow if at all.

Can someone post where the 02 sensor is on the engine?

Has been reliable for many years, but of course the small problems.

The only non wear/tear items to be replaced have been the throttle position sensor, ball joints and half (drive) shafts.

When we got rid of it the dash lights had burned out, and the rear air had never worked, but that was due to a damaged window seal that allowed water to drip on to the control. We never bothered to have it replaced.

We were very happy with this vehicle, to the point that we replaced it with another used (2002) Villager.

It was pretty trouble free considering its age. The body was still in good condition, it never failed to start nor did it ever leave us stranded.

It has always driven smoothly and comfortably, gas mileage was reasonable, and it did everything we ever asked of it with no fuss.

I had the water pump replaced at 75,000.

The air conditioning compressor was replaced at 200,000.

The engine would misfire when warmed up. My mechanic tried many different parts of the ignition system. The change out of the distributor repaired the problem. It seems that the photo sensor, in the distributor had caused the problem. The amount of change out was $250.00.

I just spent many hours resolving the problem of the rear heat/air fan not blowing. After checking all fuses, relays, switches, I determined it was the front climate control (manual air/heat) that was bad. When I took the normally not repairable control apart I found that one of the soldered leads from the board relay had melted away. With small soldering iron I re-soldered the lead to the board and fixed the problem and saved big money!