1999 Mercury Cougar V6 Automatic from North America - Comments

I own a 2000 Cougar and am having problems with the exterior and interior lights pulsing. It is so bad that I may have to give up driving it unless I can figure out why it is doing this and fix the problem. The alternator has already been replaced.

According to my manual if your tool light is on it can be turned off by holding the unit and select buttons on the trip computer for 5 seconds.

Okay, first of all I love my cougar. She's all dinged and banged up on the outside from hitting a deer and getting banged by shopping carts in parking lots, but I still love her. Unfortunately, she's a pain in the ass. All her parts are expensive. Had to get new O2 sensors, new gaskets, new alternator, new battery, new rims since one of them was cracked and kept slitting my tires, check engine light is still on, broken brake pad sensor, blinkers stopped working, had to replace 2 parts to get them to work which cost 150 bucks, and now finally my driver's side window will not BUDGE!!! It's 90 degrees out in October and I can't get my window to go down!!! Oh and did I mention that my air conditioning is broken?? Yeah I think that basically sums it up.

I bought my 99 black Cougar six months ago. I was excited when I got it, but a couple weeks later the engine light came on and it misfired at 70k miles. New plugs and wires fixed that, but that was a pain to do.

I got some noises in the front left tire area, but not bad.

The moonroof always worked, the trunk sucks (if I push the button in the car, I have to literally run to the back to open it before the motor locks again).

If I could get the engine light to shut off, nothing would be wrong with it. It runs fine, I don't know why it is on. I took just the positive battery terminal off and left it for about five minutes put it back on and the engine light was off for about an hour.

But other than that, I love my Cougar. From what I have heard with these cars, it's either a hit or miss from the good ones and bad. I just got lucky compared to your cougars. After the 02 I hope they come out with another Cougar.

I have a 1999 red cougar I have had problems with the ac,brakes,and now it goes dead after about 10 miles when it gets hot I guess, but it will start again I took it to auto zone several codes came up it don't know where to start please let me know if someone else has had the same problem.

I just bought a 99 cat and my check engine light is also on. It seems to misfire when I accelerate kind of hard when on a curvy road or turning hard. I went to auto zone to have the codes ran and it basically said the O2 sensor was bad. I'm going to follow a friends advice (he drives a BMW M3) and use sea foam to clean it out in combination with new spark plugs and wires and maybe it will help. I'll leave an update later.

My 99 Cougar has 126,000 miles on it. No real problems, I replaced tie rods and a water pump at 124k. Not surprising for a car of its age. It's a great car, accelerates well, good handling, fun. My ONLY COMPLAINT is the crazy cupholder in the front, though Ford did redesign this for the later models.

People having problems with the trunk: it is on a timer, if you don't get to the back quick enough after hitting the inside button it will lock. This is to protect whatever you may have in the trunk from being stolen.

I have a 2000 Mercury Cougar, V6, Auto. 112,000 miles.

My only real complaint is the sunroof, which broke 2 years ago thanks to a known design flaw that Ford refuses to recall. It's a $1,500+ repair job which just isn't worth it for a sunroof. It was fixed for the 2001+ model years, but '99 and '00 owners are out of luck as far as Ford is concerned. (Find out more at www.cougarsunroof.com if you're interested.)

Other than that, I had a leaky gasket in the exhaust system around 30,000 miles or so. It wasn't a big deal (since what was leaking was exhaust--which is just blown out of the tailpipe anyway) but it was under warranty so it was fixed.

Alternator was replaced around 60,000 miles or so (and surprisingly still fell under extended warranty so all I had to pay was a deductible).

Brake rotors have been resurfaced, but have not needed replacement.

There are a couple of minor annoyances. First, the cup holder is not just useless--it's almost guaranteed to spill your drink when you make a right turn. Second, to open the hatch you have to lift as you push the button on the remote--if you wait so much as a second between pushing the button and trying to lift the hatch it will catch again. This is probably because it's so heavy just hitting the release doesn't allow it to rise high enough to avoid catching. Not a big deal, but it is annoying and it makes the inside hatch release useless (there's no way to push it and then get back to the hatch in time to lift it--you have to use the key or the remote).

With the exception of the sunroof issue, I have been very happy with this car. The sunroof is just a bad design that was fixed for later years. Shame on Ford for not recalling/fixing the problem--or at the very least, allowing owners to have it repaired for just the cost of labor.

Ironically, when I bought the Cougar it had been previously returned to the dealership under the Lemon Law. Apparently, there was a "constant vibration" that the previous owner could not get fixed. After about 6 months I felt a vibration, but got the wheels balanced and it went away. Now the only time it returns is when I go too long without having the wheels balanced and tires rotated.

99 V6 auto owner here, I've had about $9000 worth of repairs in the last 2 years, but most of that has been my fault from over-driving it. just figured I'd check in and let all you people with flickering lights to have the negative voltage Diode checked, it is Fuse D1 in the power distribution box. unfortunately, it is also fun to find at a dealer since it has been discontinued, there are only about 10 left in the country at dealers. good luck.

I also own a 99 V6 automatic cougar and now a manual one as well. The only things that are my biggest problem is in the automatic the transmission is broken. It's missing 2nd gear and it doesn't even go into overdrive. I've had for a little over a year and still haven't replaced it b/c of the cost. Also, I have the same problems with the starter grinding out. I was told it was the flywheel and that some teeth on it were missing/chipped. The trunk problem is also wrong, but it doesn't bother me much.

I had the problem with it shaking uncontrollably as mentioned above but I got new back tires and that has seemed to fix it. Other than those I love my cougar but I also hate them for their troubles.

I bought a 99 V6 cougar about maybe 4 weeks ago and I have had it a total of maybe three days the rest of the time, I wanted the car cause I'm the typical sportsy shopping girl and it was a hot car but nopppeee bad idea on my part

the alternator went

wouldn't start

i herd the dealer had to replace a sensor? what ever that does

and all this other stuff that I have no idea about.. I don't have to pay for anything my parents are but come on now.. for a first car this is pretty lame.

My dad bought the 99 cougar v6 limited addition color for my first car and I love it its really cute and everything but the dealer sold it to me with a bad alternator and so it killed my battery, they took it in to Ford dealer to get fixed and they have had it for 3 weeks now mainly waiting for parts to come in but still that's a long time.

There not bad cars, just treat them good.

Wow, at least I'm not alone out there. I've had just about all the problems people talk about.

The engine on night light

Oil leaking.

Moonroof problems (I'm afraid to open it for fear it'll break)

I've been experiencing starter problems for a while. I just today took it into get it repaired and they called with the flywheel issue...sigh. It was only going to cost around $300 to repair. Now the flywheel costs an additional $150 and they told me they're going to have to remove the transmission to fix that. Lord only knows how much labor is going to be on that.

The only pro is it gets far better gas mileage than my truck. Can't win em' all.