No single event led to the failure. This appears to be a structural defect in the rear lift door of the Mercury Mountaineer. The mounting plates for the rear door hinges have failed. Note that the hinges have not failed. The failure is in the mounting point in the door. One side has completely cracked through and the other side has partially cracked. The consequences are that if both mount points fail there will not be any thing holding the top of the rear lift door. The door could therefore separate from the car and fall off the vehicle. If the mount points fail, the only items holding the door would be the side lift cylinders. These cylinders would not be strong enough to keep the door attached to the vehicle. The failure was discovered 2 days ago. Actions taken so far are limited to getting estimates to fix problem. Mercury dealer representative was not helpful since vehicle is a 2000 Mountaineer and not under any warranty. His response was limited to saying he had never seen the problem before and giving me the name of a collision repair shop. However, I believe this is a major structural failure and a severe safety issue since if the hinge mounts fail completely and the door falls off the vehicle when on the highway, a major accident might result.

- Raleigh, NC, USA

My 2000 Mountaineer had 17,000 when purchased. I had noticed the dealer had just put new 235/75R15 Goodyear Wrangler R/ts on it. I was not suspicious but should have been. Ever since purchased I have had a vibration in the front end and my front tires have worn on the inside al the way down to a unsafe tread depth within 10,000 miles. The dealer alligned the front and checked for front end problems two days after purchase. At that time they found it was out but claimed they had just alligned it three days before also. At around 30,000 miles I had to replace the front tires because they were unsafe. I took them to the dealer and the GM told me that it was normal tire wear. I know quite a bit about cars but he did not know that. At that time they checked the front end allignment again and check for problems again and found nothing. A few weeks later the vbration got worse so I jacked it up myself and found that the one A-arm nut was loose. I tightend it and drove back to the dealerand showed one of their mechanics the problem. It had loosend up again already so he tightend all the A-arm nuts. Ileft and within 10 miles one was loose again. I went back to the dealer and told them to replace all the A-arm bolts and nuts. I have since went through 2 more sets of front tires, so that is 4 sets of tires in 63,000 miles, but they say there is nothing wrong. Anyone having these same uneven tire wear and vibration problems please contact me. 865-776-2246 brian

- Sevierville, TN, USA