October 18, 2005 U. S. department of transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Office Of Defects Investigation nvs-210, 400 7th street sw Washington, DC 20590 dear department of transportation: I am writing because of a safety concern with Mercury 2000 Mountaineer. My Mountaineer, VIN #[xxx], has a problem with the airbag safety system. I believe this problem is caused by a design deficiency. The airbag warning light on my instrument panel flashes several times and then comes on steady. I took it in for repair and the service representative at the Ford dealer told me the wiring harness was bad. They said that tests showed that the harness was corroded. Since the harness runs under the carpet on the floor, water and salt had probably entered the harness and corroded it. They said that my airbag system was unreliable. I believe it is unreasonable and dangerous to install a critical safety system component in a known location of corrosives and moisture, unless that component is designed to protect against those hazards. It appears that the airbag wiring harness is not so designed. As these vehicles age, this could become more and more of a problem. The repair is expensive, I was quoted $970. The trade in value of my vehicle is about $8600. As these vehicles age they will have less and less value and the cost of repair will become a larger and larger percentage of vehicle value. I believe you should query Ford Motor Company and find out how prevalent this problem is and see if the frequency of the problem is increasing. It should continue to be monitored as these vehicles age. Perhaps Mercury should act to replace these harnesses before they become inoperative. [xxx] updated 07/18/2012 information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

- Burnsville, MN, USA

Intermittent airbag light would come on. When I took to dealership, it was always out, and instead of paying extravagant diagnostic fees they said may not show problem, I did not get it looked at. It was repaired today....a harness electrical shortage which I feel should not be charged to the customer. The short is for something that only a certified tech repairs. Airbags harnesses on this vehicle per the repair tech go out regularly, which sounds like a defect to me. The repair passed on to me was more than $300! also, iac attached with too little silicone, which causes the iac to burn and malfunction. It was also repaired. I do not have parts.....dealership kept them.

- Suffolk, VA, USA

We were rear ended and both seats broke, flinging us into the back seat. We then went into the oncoming lane (because my wife could no longer reach the steering wheel or the brakes) and were hit head on. Complaint #1 - the seats should not have broken. Complaint #2 - the airbags never deployed.

- Rogers, AR, USA

While leaving parking lot, accelerater pedal became stuck. Driver came to a stop by hitting other cars. Air bags did not deploy. Cause unknown.

- Gainsville, GA, USA

The air bags failed to deploy during the accident.

- Thomasvill, GA, USA