So for years I've owned my Mountaineer & it seems to have been reliable. Aside from transmission shifting problems that feel like I'm being rear ended or slammed into gear, the sunroof leaks and the fix I was given BY A FORD DEALERSHIP is to park downhill. Recently a grinding sound from rear wheel bearings and told they are not bolted on & quite expensive. Automatic power running boards that cost me $1,500 to have repaired due to them staying extended. Broken spark plugs in cylinder head, exhaust manifold weld cracked, a thunking sound when making a hard right turn. Recently I smelled the sweet scent of radiator fluid. It would take months but I found myself adding about 1 gal of fluid.

I read up and saw some complaints of different things and investigated. I looked under intake manifold, a metal tube runs from front to back & can rot leaking fluid onto engine but won't see it due to leaking under manifold & evaporating. No fault seems to be found. I check front and rear heater cores, apparently rear core is known to rot away, no fault seems to be found. I did see some crusty hoses so i replaced all heater hoses & clamps. Still had the scent & then one day driving it overheated so bad it went into limp mode, when it shuts down 3 or 4 cylinders to avoid any potential engine damage, only allows vehicle to drive like 30 mph & check engine light actually blinks! That was the broken plug i found later. So back to the radiator fluid disappearing trick.

I call around and am told to replace water pump, thermostat and housing. Original was aluminum and replaced with plastic one because original developed hairline cracks and seepage. So I flush & replace & then come to go to a medical appointment (retired disabled veteran on ssd fixed income) and there's a puddle under my vehicle. No leakage from heater, upper or lower hoses though, water pump looks dry, but somewhere inside shroud is leaking. All over car complaints see problems with these radiators leaking, but they're all 4.0 models. But the same 4.0 radiators were put in (2006 4.6L mountaineers as well as all the 4.0L engines).

Call FORD and they deny any knowledge, say won't flash pcm as tsb states, nor will they reprogram tcm as tsb states. I guess your smart people left when Mercury was disbanded...

My car is a 2006 Mercury Mountaineer. It now has a bout 112,000 miles on it. The problem is the vehicle leaks antifreeze from the seems of the radiator, where the unit is assembled. It's been leaking for a long time and I have kept adding antifreeze to it. I see on the INTERNET that this is a problem that has happened to a bunch of vehicles of about the same brand and model. This tells me that the problem is a factory defect that they know about. If you call them, they say they have no evidence of the problem. From what I see and read on the web, most of the vehicles that have or are having this leaking problem have less than 100,000 miles on them. Some as low as 45,000 miles. Surly FOMOCO can produce a better product than that. I know all the car manufactures have problems, but it looks like to me that FORD could fess up and take care of this one. Make the RECALL and fix this. I've been a Ford man all my life, and never owned anything but FOMOCO products, but it looks like I might have to change.( NISSAN is looking better all the time ). This is clearly a manufacturers defect. We, as the purchaser of your product, should have the peace-of-mind to expect that a car or SUV should last longer than 36,000 miles without a major mechanical expense, before we have to buy a costly extended protection plan. Because most or part of this money reverts back to the company that produces the vehicle anyway. I've had 4 back surgeries and on disability, but It looks like I'm going to have to pony-up and shell out more of my S/S disability check, witch is too small to begin, for something that a BILLION dollar co. should take care of to start with. I'm very disheartened and aggravated at Ford. Also I'm not ashamed to put my name and addr. behind this letter. Witch is Robert brown, 495 Cindy Dr., Ledbetter, Ky.42058. Hopefully they will do something about this, because this is a joke.

It seemed like my antifreeze was just evaporating and I needed to keep filling it back up. I would always look under my car to see if there was a leak or a puddle under my car. However, there would never be one; that is until last Friday (the 13th of July) when I noticed not only one puddle but two. I took it to the shop to get pressurized and was told my radiator is coming apart at the seams and I need a new radiator. My uncle told me he looked it up and found that there seem to be a problem with Mercury/Ford (Mountaineer/Explorer), but no recall has been done. Ford really needs to do a recall for this issue and reimburse everyone that has already done the repair. This is not the only issue I've had with my Mountaineer & I can promise you this I WILL NEVER BUY FORD AGAIN!!!!!

Began hearing "noise" that came and go after owning approx 8-9 months, dealer kept saying nothing wrong and finally a tech acknowledged the "noise" was normal and was just the cooling fan. I asked, well why is it always going off and on now when it never did before?? No explanation. Fast forward to August 07 travel to Florida with infant and it overheats, coolant very low, fan on constantly, but stops kicking on when fluids adequate. Returned to dealer over 4 x's with complaint and was never diagnosed til I told them of the loss of coolant....they never "noticed" the coolant was low when in for routine maintenance, yet they claim to check fluids each time.

Filed suit with Lemon Law attorney, won breach of warranty claim and finally got it repaired....only for it to leak again, in less than 1 year (2008), replaced again, underwarranty, I had to tell them the problem. Just had the vehicle there for something unrelated and they said I have a leaking radiator and act like they don't know the history, this would be the 3 rd replacement or 4 th radiator in this vehicle, the kicker is I just turned 72,000miles last weekend. Took the vehicle to my personal mechanic, the guys who noticed the leak in the 1st replacement, and they are unable to locate a leak or even residue to indicate there was something leaking. The dealer wants to charge me 787.00 to replace it. After filling him in on the history he agrees to give me 15% off parts and labor and says that perhaps I have an engine problem creating pressure that keeps causing the radiator to crack. I say well if i do, it was likely there for all the other cracks as well, which should have been picked up with the first one, when the car was under warranty. Does he think I am stupid? Funny how they have no problem diagnosing problems when the warranty is over, but can't diagnose crap when everything is still covered.

I will definitely not buy a car from this dealer again and likely never buy American again. Sad to say but, my first American car purchase and I am not happy. I realize it is not the dealers fault, but if they don't go to bat for their customer, why shop there. I told them I will see them next year for my free inspection only. Same dealer also told me need brakes and rotors 327.00, my guy said i only need pads right now, 129.00.

My 2006 Mountianeer started leaking coolant in November 2009 and after adding coolant and finding it low a few times I took it in to the dealer and they told me I had a cracked radiator. At that time I had 48,000 miles on the truck. The dealer did work with me on the price to replace it, however, it still cost me $430 to get a new radiator. Well after 11 months and 45,000 miles later I had to add 1 gallon of coolant to the new radiator. After keeping an eye on it and looking around I found coolant drips on the passenger side of the radiator and took it back to the dealer. After 1 hour at the dealer they came out and told me that I had no leak and it checked out on the pressure check. This was surprising to me since you could clearly see and smell coolant. I now have 95,000 miles on this vehicle and am contemplating what to do before I get stuck paying for what will be the 3rd radiator installed. FORD clearly has a problem with the radiators based upon all the complaints I've read. FORD should step up and RECALL the radiators instead of hiding behind it's dealers.

I'm starting to understand browsing around the net that this is a huge problem with the mountaineers I've called ford a number of times and they give me the same bs excuse that it's out of warranty and they can't help. I've had the radiator replaced twice by the dealer and this will be my third, that's 3 in under a 100,000 miles and still no recall on this model, even though the service manager told me on the last one that ford knows they have a problem with the model of radiator. Everyone needs to call the NTHSA nad file a complaint with them to get this problem fixed, 1-800-424-9393 or nhtsa.gov hopefully they will get ford moving on this problem.

FORD / MERCURY CUSTOMER SERVICE??? I purchased a 2006 Mercury Mountaineer in Sept of 06, since then I have had to replace 3 radiators in approx. 53000 miles. The first two were covered under warranty and of course this last one is not covered. I contacted the 800 number for ford / mercury and I was directed to customer complaints. Brianna Emp #61483 told me there is nothing they can do to help me. I asked to talk to her supervisor and she advised me that there was nothing anyone at that office could help me with. She directed me to contact the dealership because this sounded like normal wear and tear on my vehicle. WOW...What does customer service mean to Ford / Mercury?