1997 Mercury Sable from North America - Comments

I have a 1995 Sable that was left to me by my late father. He and I spent roughly $1500 in having the overheating problem "fixed." New water pump, new thermostat, low mileage engine to replace the one that was destroyed through overheating. Now, less than 3 months of having the car straight from the shop, it is totally blown again.

I told dad the car didn't seem worth the cost of fixing it the first time... I certainly know it isn't worth it a second!

My 1997 sable or as I like to call it "Cash Burner" has all the same problems ya'll have all come to deal with. The problem with the Sable's are the water pump (s). The blades are made of a soft metal... If water is ran in the place of the coolant in will rust away. I'll bet that some or all of you folks have rust in the rad. Auto zone make a rebuilt water pump with stronger blades. This will correct your cooling problems. Also because the small radiator you must replace the water pump every 50,000 miles. This car should have been recalled... but Ford keeps getting your money to fix something that's not the problem.

I don't know what you guys are doing to your cars, but seriously - learn to fix them yourself... I see so much "took it in and cost me $$$$" in 8/10 of these posts... It would cost you a fraction of that to fix that stuff... and most of it is easy fix stuff... even overhauling/replacing transmission is easily done in a day or two. I had my 97 Mercury Sable for 2 1/2 years and didn't have a single problem. Then hop out of the car one day and the cooling fan is still running. I unplugged it and looked around and in 30 minutes had diagnosed the problem to be either a Thermostat stuck, Temperature Sensor was bad, or the Cooling Fan Relay was shot. So I called my local garage and had them give me an estimate on how much it would cost me to replace all three things (seeing as how the thermostat probably needed to be replaced as did the temp. sensor, since they were down over time, and the car was almost a decade old) The parts were roughly $50 total and the labor was going to cost me a whopping $500!!! So I went out and bought a Haynes manual (Chiltons work too) for $20 and fixed all 3 myself! In about 2 hours my car was up and running like the day I bought it. And trust me, I've had NO professional training, just took Automotives 1 WAY back in highschool! Common guys, its not that hard to fix stuff, just stop being lazy! That's why a lot of people hate this car, because they want a car that has absolutely no problems whatsoever - which will be only a morrbid fantasy as long as cars exist...

Obviously, you are living in Alaska... The damn things overheat in any condition "above" 70 degrees. And, yes I've replaced every doo-dad possible to replace, including two transmissions.

Anybody out there with any "backyard garage" solutions that worked... Please respond...

I own a 1997 Mercury Sable GS with a 3.0 single cam (Vulcan) engine. I have owned it since 1998 and now have 179K miles on it. It was a "program car" before that. It has had a transmission problem for the last 50K miles (Goes into neutral at almost every stop. I have to boost the RPMs to almost 2K to get it to go into gear. I busted an axle one time when it went in.) I'm just nursing the transmission along until it fails completely.

Ever since my heater core went out a couple of winters ago, I have bypassed it and use an electric heater plugged into my cigarette lighter socket. By the way, there was a recall in the 1990s for replacement of the coolant and other things, which I had done already.

I had developed a leak in one of the transmission lines between the radiator and the transmission. The local Ford dealer said the replacement line was not available. A good local mechanic charged a lot for parts and labor (Due to trial and error method), but finally found some transmission fluid lines (Rubber lines with metal tube crimped on either end) that worked. Although they were reluctant to tell me where they found them, I suspect they were intended to fit a Ford Windstar, which has the same transmission.

Both front axle bearings, located just behind the front disc brake rotors have been replaced. I consider this just normal wear and tear for a vehicle with this many miles on it.

The interior overhead light did have a problem where it would increasingly stay lit longer and longer after the doors were shut and I was driving down the road. I pulled the delay relay from the fuse panel and now only use the overhead map lights!

There are a lot of positive things about the car. I like the ease of reaching most of the maintenance parts on the car, with the exception of the heater core (You have to remove the entire dashboard to replace the heater core, which is why I am using the electric heater here in the southeast US). The Vulcan engine is well made and has no timing belt to break. The electronic distributor is great, for any of you that ever had to deal with replacing points, distributor cap and rotor on other vehicles in the past. This is the first vehicle with anywhere near even tire wear for long intervals between four wheel alignments. Changing oil is a breeze with the exception of the oil that comes out of the oil filter and gets on the engine and starter/solenoid.

I also own a 1996 Mercury Sable LS with the 3.0 dual camshaft 200 HP Yamaha engine with 140K miles. Something messed up with the differential section of the transmission and it is now parked semi-permanently (Due to the high cost of transmission replacement) until I have need of a "winter rat" since the air conditioning does not work (Leak in the AC line in the dash area - $700 quote to fix, including removing the dash), but the heater core does work in this car. I had an overheating condition in this car a couple of years ago. The (Nylon?) impeller in the water pump had split into three sections. The indication was that it would overheat mostly when the car was at a standstill or the engine was taxed by driving uphill, etc... The mechanic had to replace the alternator once by dismantling the right front suspension to get to the alternator. The fuel pump was replaced once around the 100K mile point.

There is one thing that has failed in both vehicles. I cannot raise or lower the right rear power window either remotely (From the drivers door) or at the right rear door. I also cannot lock or unlock the power lock to the right rear door. Has anyone else had this problem?

I have a 1996 Sable, and when I shut off the car the cooling fans stay on? What could be the problem?

"29th Mar 2008, 22:09.

I have a 1996 Sable, and when I shut off the car the cooling fans stay on? What could be the problem?"

I'm not sure if that is a problem. I guess it stands to reason that if a sensor thinks the coolant is too hot, it will have the fans continue to run to pull air through the radiator fins. It seems to me that I've heard cooling fans continue to run on cars even after they've been shut off.

I read the post below and it's not very constructive. Not all people have the space, knowledge, and tools to fix most problems on their cars. This is why there are so many shops to offer service. I'm a certified mechanic and I've come across three of these models of mercury and they have all been in trouble because of poor design, poor workmanship, and shoddy cheap materials. It is not normal for water pumps to fail this often and for any engine to be prone to overheating. I've had customers come in with gently driven adult vehicles experiencing serious problems before 80,000 miles. This is not normal. This is a trend caused by, simply put, a car that's not worth your money. I only wrote this because I have a customer coming in today and I have to half tear this thing apart and I already know what I am going to find. Stay away from this car.

"I don't know what you guys are doing to your cars, but seriously - learn to fix them yourself... I see so much "took it in and cost me $$$$" in 8/10 of these posts... It would cost you a fraction of that to fix that stuff... and most of it is easy fix stuff... even overhauling/replacing transmission is easily done in a day or two.

I had my 97 Mercury Sable for 2 1/2 years and didn't have a single problem. Then hop out of the car one day and the cooling fan is still running. I unplugged it and looked around and in 30 minutes had diagnosed the problem to be either a Thermostat stuck, Temperature Sensor was bad, or the Cooling Fan Relay was shot. So I called my local garage and had them give me an estimate on how much it would cost me to replace all three things (seeing as how the thermostat probably needed to be replaced as did the temp. sensor, since they were down over time, and the car was almost a decade old) The parts were roughly $50 total and the labor was going to cost me a whopping $500!!!

So I went out and bought a Haynes manual (Chiltons work too) for $20 and fixed all 3 myself! In about 2 hours my car was up and running like the day I bought it. And trust me, I've had NO professional training, just took Automotives 1 WAY back in highschool! Common guys, it's not that hard to fix stuff, just stop being lazy! That's why a lot of people hate this car, because they want a car that has absolutely no problems whatsoever - which will be only a morbid fantasy as long as cars exist..."

When the cooling fans stay on.. replace the cooling fan relay that's located behind the battery. Try whacking it with a hammer first to unstick the relay. Or drill off the cover and unstick the relay, and reinstall it with bolts.