I bought this 2002 Mountaineer from Advantage Ford, Lincoln, Mercury in Duarte, California in 2003. I took the car in for this past weekend for its 90,000 mile major service, which included a transmission service. When I got the car back, I noticed there was a delay in the transmission when it shifted from 1st to 2nd gear. Moreover, in stop and go traffic there is an abrupt "clunk" when it changes gears. Advantage Ford has little else to offer but a new transmission. They examined the car and determined that I was suffering from the same defect that some many Ford SUV owners have already written about. Ford should be ashamed! I have always bought Japanese, and after I get rid of this piece of "junk," I will buy Japanese again. I have NEVER had a transmission problem in any car of mine with only 90,000 miles. My Honda has 162,000 miles and still runs strong. Ford, this ain't "American."

Ford has the worst customer relations in the world! this vehicle first lost its transmission at 74000 miles a year and a half ago. Ford delarship said they fixed it and put a 1 year warranty on it. 1.5 years later, it went out again. Dealership and Ford customer service said to bad for us! told them that I owned five fords in ten years and that this is unacceptable. they told me to pound sand! I will never own an other ford product in my lifetime. I will by anything but just on how bad they treat their consumers!!!! to all that read this, this could be you. tell your friends not to buy Ford products.

I left work on the 27th to go to the bank and it acted fine. I got to the bank and handle my business, came out got in my vehicle and started to back out the space. At first it wouldn't move, then it jumps into gear and rolls back, but then it sounded like something had broken in my engine area. I looked at the dash and there was no lights say service anything. I had no idea what was going on I called my brother he told me to call the recker.

It now sit over in the repair shop yard, and to make matters worse at first I had no idea when I bought the truck that it didn't have a dip stick for the transmission. I also heard from the repair man that mercury on made these vehicles for six months at first. The repair man called it mercury's mistake, because there was a lot of problems with the engineering of this vehicles. He told me he's put in 18 transmissions in the last year a lone on this brand of vehicle. He also told me that he thinks my vehicle is an 01 instead of 02 what I was sold because of the parts.

Personally I will never purchase another vehicle like this, Ford or Mercury.

Took the vehicle in the shop because check engine light was on and od light was flickering off and on. Replace sensor in engine cost me about 300.00 was told then that the solenoid in the transmission was going bad had to replace or the transmission would burn up. That was to the tune of 1200.00. The Ford dealership here that i took it to said that they fixed the problem. Picked the vehicle up from the shop drove for one day and the problem came back, put the vehicle back in the shop for the same problem then i was told that it was misdiagnose and that it needed the transmission repaired to the tune of 3999.00 and would not give us the money back for repairs that it really didn't need. I called the Ford Corporation and they said that it wasn't anything that they could do. I contacted the manager of the dealership and he said that if we get it fixed there than they would knock off 600.00 in labor, but i couldn't get my money back. i had to eventually had to call the owner of the dealership to get something done. the manager then called and pretty much want to sell me a vehicle. i guess this would make the problem go away. If this how ford treats it's loyal customers i don't want another for product.

Yep, Ford Sucks. I bought a 2002 Mountaineer with only 49K miles so my wife would have something nice to drive. I also bought it so that I wouldn't have to fix it!

After 10K miles, it had all the usual problems others write about regarding their transmission failure. OD light flashing, harsh shifts bypassing 3rd gear, slipping. I went to a Ford dealer in Sanford, FL. (not going to "mention" their name). First off, I went to get a transmission filter, so I could change the fluid. I thought that might be it. The dork in the parts dept told me that it was impossible for a person to change the fluid himself without a machine. That is a flat out lie! It's inconvenient to crawl under the vehicle, but it's very easy to do. Well, changing the fluid didn't work. I then had my wife bring it in. They told us the band was broken and it would cost ~$3500 to fix. I wasn't about to spend that kind of money. I did notice, however, that they left the band adjustment completely loose after doing their test! I tightened it back up so the band tensioner parts wouldn't fall into the moving parts. (That would be a real disaster) I bought a code scanner at WalMart and it kept giving me errors about the solenoid pack not working, so I went and wasted a couple hundred bucks on a solenoid pack. Anyway, after that, I keep researching and bought a couple books. The band actually was broken. I decided to fix it myself. The intermediate band was about $20, the rebuild kit was a couple hundred, but all I used were a couple gaskets. I also bought the intermediate servo (a fancy hydraulic piston and rod). Anyhow, it's been working since - for about a year and half and 15000 miles. The biggest problem is getting that big transmission out and back in the truck. I think I spent about $400, but could have got by for about $100 if I knew what I was doing. FORD, you should own up to this problem!

I have owned this Mountaineer for 3 years. Last year, the O/D light started blinking. I did a search online and was amazed at the number of complaints.

In order to fix it, the transmission "specialist" states that there is an aftermarket fix that has been out for about 1 1/2 yrs. This will put the transmission to the state that it was before, but no promises that it won't happen again since you cannot truly fix the problem with these transmissions. There are many factors involved and the wear on the piston is what is causing the problem.

On top of this, the timing chain rattles at 2500 RPM. I am still debating whether tto fix these, as it will reach about $4000 in repairs. Unfortunately owners of 2002 Explorers and Mountaineer got the rotten end of the deal. I have no faith in car manufacturers anymore.

I have a problem with the fact that my extended warranty just ended July of 2007. It never fails that major fixes happen after paying for an extended warranty. I had no idea there was a huge problem with Ford/Mercury transmissions until I took it to a local trans company. They had numerous Explorers/Mountaineers on the rack. I went with the dealership because I wanted a factory warranty. I didn't have the new transmission in my car a month before feeling and hearing problems. Ford had to provide another transmission. American cars are being beat out in sales by foreign makers because they don't care. It's always the quick fix that is an additional cost to the consumer. Seems like when you know there is a problem, the cost should burden the automaker.

This is my second Mountaineer, so you can call me a two time loser. The first one 1997 I had various small repair issues that didn't add up to much, but this 2002 transmission is a complete joke. When I first bought the suv less than a year later the linkage was slipping and the dealership tightened it up and told me there was no problems, all it needed was an adjustment. Should have know that the worst was yet to come. Now 45,000 miles later the OD light blinks and Check Trans lcd read out stays on. Have no 3rd gear and the shift from 1st to 2nd. intermittently works. Somehow made the 7 mile trip crawling 25 mile per hr. only to find out that Lawernce Lincoln Mercury charged me $100.00 to diagnose that I need a replacement Transmission at a cost of $3,999.00.

I have come to conclusion that Not only will

My 2002 Mountaineer started bucking and the revs would spike up instead of changing gears. The Check Transmission light came on. I drove to my dealer the next day who said they need to rebuild my transmission and the expected cost is $2,400-3,600. After searching the internet, I found this site and called Ford Cust Care and gave them the particulars of my car (incl. the mileage). They told me they could help me, but first I needed to authorize the repair at the dealer. I didn't feel this was fair as I had to authorize the work, not knowing how much they would help with or if at all. In any event, the rep called back a few minutes later stating that they cannot help me as my car has 70,000 miles on it and is out of warranty. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP...If the car was still under warranty they would be required to fix it. Ford was of no use and obviously will not stand behind their products.

I took the car to AAMCO and had a complete rebuild for $2,641.

Ford, doesn't believe in customer appreciation or retention and they just lost me as a repeat customer.