1999 Mercury Cougar from North America - Comments

I've had my 99 coug for 4 years and only had to replace the battery twice and am in the middle of the stupid alternator. I am in utter disgust over this design. I will never buy another Ford or Mercury product that has front wheel drive that's for sure. Everything else has been good besides a little rough idling in the mornings once in awhile.

I have had a 99 Cougar for 3 years now. Where do I start, my engine light has been on all 3 of those years, when you hook the car up to the computer it said "insufficent cat" well... to pass emissions all you simple do is have your mechanic clean the throttle body and a couple other sensors and it SHOULD pass emissions. Today actually my front passenger side wheel started making a funny noise, I think it may be a CV Joint or a Wheel Bearing. To add to my general problems with this car, if the valves are tapping, try using 93 or 94 octane and some octane booster, I've had to suffer through the bad gas prices with this car I can't wait until it's paid off because it is going bye bye!! :)

I have a 99 mercury cougar- I have had it now for over 4 years and since I got it I had problems.. my check engine light comes on every now and than and whenever I get it checked it comes up has 02 sensor, but when they check my sensors they are fine so I ignore it.. now the back of my car is makin a squeaky sound... when I'm driving for the first two minutes than it disapears.. and whenever its cold I have problems starting it.. this car is just a bunch of problems.. if anyone is havin same problems- let me know.

I have a 1999 Cougar, I bought it 2 yrs ago. 66000 miles when bought and in 18 months I had 118000 miles on it. It developed a leak at about 100000, under the right end of the motor. I was vigilant in checking the oil level, but it got away from me do to increase in the volume it was leaking. I was down 1.5 qts. I filled it back to normal level and lost a rod bearing later that weekend. I have been around a lot of engines and have never seen one loose that much oil pressure that fast. Is this a fatigue issue anyway with the 2.5L motor?

I had my 99 V6 2.5 liter engine cougar for 7 years and now the check engine is always on. Ford service department give me code of P0445 which is some kind of leak, which they could not find. When they reset the computer the light goes out and when I drive the car in raining weather the engine light comes back on. If anyone have this problem or solve this problem write back to the list service.

Looks like there is a lot of negative comments about the 1999 cougar. I bought mine about 4 years ago with 42K miles on it. The problems I have had are in similar too many mentioned on this site. I now have 95K miles on it. I have had to replace the sunroof motor, did that one myself, part cost around $80. I had a weird problem where my gear shift got stuck in 4th gear. The bolt in the transmission broke off while I was in 4th and the gearshift was just loose. If any of you know, transmission work is expensive. I had a freak accident where I ran over something entering the freeway and it kicked up into my transmission case and cracked it open, lets just say that was a $2k unfortunate accident. I had the check engine light come on for the performance valves being stuck in open or close. I had those fixed, apparently the clips that open and close those valves had broke. I just now recently have the check engine light on again, this time I am getting the O2 sensor running lean code. As well as O2 responding slowly code (bank 2). I have been informed that sometimes the MAF sensor will get dirty, especially if I use some sort of oil for my filter, which I do. I have a performance filter in that has not been cleaned since installation. Also I have been told to check or replace the O2 sensor, and run some fuel additive to help the fuel injectors. I do have a slight leak at the oil pan.

I have to say in reading all these comments I am lucky I don't have the alternator problems, Knock on Wood, or most of the other problems. The only thing that really bugs me about this car is when I step on it, sometimes around 5RPM

My car will loose power, almost like I did a down shift to slow down.

Looks like the common problems are the Sunroof, O2 sensors, MAF sensor, tires wearing out quickly (mine do wear out in the front kind of fast), alternator going out.

All in all I dont really hate or love my car. I do try to take care of it, regular oil changes, air filters, plugs, etc. With any used car you can expect to put almost $1000 into every year. Maybe I should re-phrase that to “any American car”. I just want to make to 160k miles, then I will feel I have got the most out of the car.

I too have a 99 Mercury Cougar with 94k miles on it. I just bought the car today actually. I was driving it home and the check engine light came on. I'm not positive as to what time it came on, but when I noticed it, it was right after I drove through a puddle.

Another bit of information is that I went to put some gas in it and the pump kept clicking as though it were full. My brother used to work at a gas station and he says that sometimes that filling the tank and replacing the cap can make the CE light come on. Any opinions??

That problem with the gas pump shutting off while filling the car with gas is a known issue. A dealer will replace that filler tube or whatever it is for free. They will probably have to order the part, but when you come in for installation you will probably want to make sure very little gas is left in the tank. The dorks at the shop I went to said the 1-2 gallons I had in the tank was too much.

Another freebie upgrade is the dust boot on the headlights.

Danny.

I have the 99 cougar also. I had 2 alternators put in and three front wheel bearings 2 on one side and one on another. I also had both headlights replaced for water leaking in and one is leaking again. this car is a pos. I will not buy another ford or mercury again. my car is fast I had it to almost 140 on the highway. anyone with comments let me know, I am currently dealing with front axle problems. I have a clicking when making a left hand turn. I don't know where these bearings and ball joints are made, but they are junk too. I can't believe that they rivet the lower ball joints on and not bolted on. what a crock. trevstyle914@hotmail.com.

I have a 99 cougar v6 2.5L I bought it 3 weeks ago and it was in good conditions, this week the check engine light went on, autozone told me I had to replace the EGR something I don't know what it was called, but I bought the part and changed it, the only problem with the car now is the sunroof which I don't know what it is, you can hear it trying to go up, but it just sits there, I heard it was one of the cables or something, maybe someone here can tell me with more detail what it is?

Thanks vicsoto58@hotmail.com.

Well gang, doesn't seem like the problems have been fixed in the 2002 model either! I just bought a 2002 Cougar and guess what? The moment I signed the papers and pulled off the lot, the engine light came on! I had Auto Zone to pull the code, and... ERG valve. I haven't even made the first car payment more or less trying to get car repairs! I am petrified! What do I do?

OK so my timing belt shredded again, fourth one in 17k miles!!! Each time over $500.

It was at a repair shop for 2 weeks and they couldn't figure out what was wrong. I called the guy to see what was going on, and he told me to come pick up the car and not to ever bring it back as he wasn't going to fix it again... no one can seem to figure out why I'm losing timing belts. I can't even get it on the road enough to trade it in.

Other than the timing belt, no other problems thank god. So a little advice, no one ever buy a cougar, they are pieces of crap. If you can help, email me at ryan_48162@yahoo.com

I have a red 99 mercury cougar. At first me car was the bomb. The second day I got it I was trying to semi race it. But I quickly learned that this little Honda V4 had better take off than I did. I have a V6 2.5 liter engine so I did tell me parents right away because I wanted the car. The car now is about 3 years old. I got it on valentine's day, it was sitting outside after soccer practice.

Now 2006, I have had to replace the starter, alternator, fly wheel, two batteries, a few belts. I am having problems with my car starting up. It does this "skeeter" noise. At this current moment I am in the process of getting some work done on it. I am not sure what it wrong. But non the less I love my cougar it fits my personality and red it my favorite car.

In spite of all the problems it is the same thing with most car even if you buy them new. I have three other cars and two of them are not American. so it is not just American cars. Cars are not built to last forever or even a while. When companies build cars they build every part of the car multiple times. It is a never ending story of your car. IF your are having problems too let me know I work on cars.

I have a 99 Cougar 2.5 V6 with all the bells and whistles. Only problem is they don't work! My sunroof broke around 85k and although the problem is a small one with the plastic portion of the track, I am told that I must buy the entire assembly... motor, swithch, sunroof panel and all. I also went through 2 alternators in the first 6 months of owning the car. The first failed outright and the second had a flying short-circuit that would cause all kinds of weird malfunctions after about 4k RPM. I have also had the "intake manifold rudder controller" replaced. (The electrical jobby that controls the butterfly valve) I had to do this after notices losses in power at higher RPM and/or after the engine was warm. I now have an error code reading that both banks are running lean, the car is also running rough at low RPM and I'm scared that it's going to turn out to be injectors since it doesn't stumble if I beat the MAF with a screwdriver. I also had to replace brakes sooner than I should have, but this wasn't a huge issue. The fact that a Ford dealership improperly seated a rear caliper and the thing came loose on the freeway, started knocking around and tore the wheel weights off my wheel was though. I am sooooo fed up with Ford and American cars in general. I got the cougar after a cavalier, the cavalier may have been worse. It's troubles started at 12k miles. My first car was a Honda with 130k miles on it, and I never had anything, but routine maintenance. Never going American again unless I'm getting a work truck.

A V4 honda? that's a rare thing to race.