21st Jan 2007, 09:23
My parents (I'm 38, BTW) own a 1998 Mercury Sable station wagon and they love it. It has been a very good car for them, and it now has nearly 150,000 miles and is still good. Like some of the other people stated, I periodically spray WD-40 in the door latches and locking mechanisms of all the doors and rear hatch when I visit just because the rarely used back doors can get difficult to open otherwise, as if they want to stick. They have never had the dome light issue, and maybe the WD-40 has obviated that problem. They had an issue with difficult starting for a while, but the spark plugs had never been changed and the electrodes were worn down to the porcelain! I consider that a testimonial to the quality of these cars for the computer to even keep the engine running under those circumstances. They were beginning to have the hard shifting issue, where shifting into reverse especially would produce a hard thump. They changed the transmission fluid and filter, and it cleared up.
What do you mean by "the battery won't run"? Perhaps your headlights are dim if your voltage regulator or alternator are bad, and the car tries to run off the battery, which wears it down even more.
28th Dec 2004, 23:58
The WD40 trick worked for me. The insides get frozen open an auto-body guy told me. As soon as I said it he said "do you have a Ford?" My check engine light keeps coming on now because of a torque converter issue. I told the dealer from day one the car shifted rough, but they said it was no problem. Big con job from everyone why does Ford/Merc still make a car for going on 20 years now with bad trannys? It runs fine though, but 145hp is not enough for this car. Smooth ride though, but I may have to rebuild the tranny since I can't buy a good used car for $1500 or so. My next car will be a Pontiac, they are sweet, but I still want 4 more years from my Sabble GS.