Faults:

I am hard on this SUV... An ABS sensor in the rear differential at 60,000 miles.

Front differential seal blew out, draining the diff at 75,000 miles. Dealer took out the front drive shaft to get me home. When I got home, I put a used front diff in myself. AWD worked fine. I tow heavy cars on a trailer a lot. I am an abusive owner of this Mountaineer... poor thing.

6 disc CD changer jammed at 80,000 miles. Replaced and is working fine. Don't put MP3s on cheap burned CDs in it, and it will last.

Center differential chain drive went bad at 102,000 miles. Dealer took out the front drive shaft to get me home, and I left it out rather than fix the center diff. Still works great, just no AWD. I did pull out a huge tree stump with a chain a week before it went out. That may have pushed it to expire.

Check engine light finally came on at 122,000 miles... first time it ever came on! It is an EGR carbon buildup issue.

General Comments:

I beat this car hard. I am brutal to it. I bought this Mountaineer for my company car. Company paid for it. Had trailer brake controller installed. It had 16,800 miles on it and now has 122,000. Other than losing AWD a couple times because of front and center diff failures, it has been a very reliable suv. It always starts and the V8 is quick. The trans works excellent.

I haul a car trailer with dual axles that weighs about 2500 pounds. I pull home cars that weigh 3500 to 4000 pounds regularly. I pulled a 1960 Cadillac home from Marshaltown, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska and it worked well. I even pulled home a 2006 Ford F150 crew cab on my poor little trailer. I only managed 35 mph. I took it home on side streets, no hwy.

I don't see anybody else having front diff and center diff failures like me, so it must be my horrible abuse to the SUV that caused it to break.

Faults:

Here is my WONDERFUL experience with my lovely 2002 Mercury Mountaineer 4.6 V8 AWD Luxury Edition.

1. Wheel bearings; I've replaced them soon to be 6 times! No warning that they are going bad until the wheel about falls off. $350 per bearing.

2. The coil around the strut; dealership fixed for free.

3. For some reason the previous owner had the parking brake disconnected; didn't know until I took the vehicle in for brakes, the shop said not only is there no brake, it's disconnected. Fabulous.

4. O2 sensors; 2 are bad.

5. Driver's side rear passenger door; some sort of a short in the electricals, the window won't work, nor will the switches on the door. In fact if you lock the car, you can still open the door, the alarm will sound for some reason, but the door doesn't lock! If you pound on the window a little bit, it fixes the problem and the door works, until you hit a speed bump and it shorts the door out again.

6. Front dome light; the switch is suppose to click when pushed. Well sometimes, whatever it is in there, gets knocked out of place and you have a loose hanging switch that doesn't work. Once again, a little pound knocks it back into place. Classy right??

7. The ABS sensor; something with the sensor had to be replaced. Covered under insurance, vehicle was stolen and they must've driven it like jerks and messed it up.

8. The rear-diff has been humming FOREVER! I have allowable leakage from the seal; it's only a matter of time before that goes.

9. The front rear diff... hums. I'm thinking either my front rear diff is going or it's my transfer case. When you accelerate from a stop, then let off the case, you get a god awful bang and the whole car jerks. Sometimes I think parts fell out of the car.

10. The infamous TRANSMISSION went at around 130,000 out of nowhere; that was $2000 to rebuild.

11. The battery; I don't remember what was wrong with it, but it had to be replaced.

12. The spark plugs went bad, I needed new coil packs, and the car would randomly shut off when idling. $600.

13. After fixing the spark plugs, a spark plug shot out of my engine, causing my truck to sound like a Harley. Completely tore out the Helli coil pack, that needed to be replaced. $250.

14. I do have to say my tires lasted 80,000 on my truck, that was nice.

15. My caliper is frozen, need to get that fixed.

16. The back window randomly fell on my head while taking grocery's out of my truck; that hurt!

17. The back hatch likes to randomly open while driving...

18. The driver's seat is suppose to move automatically once the key has been either put in the ignition or taken out; it only does it 50% of the time.

19. My radio likes to turn up and down on its own. Sometimes when I go to turn it up, it turns down...

20. I couldn't get the thing out of park when it was in my drive way. I thought I was going to break the shifter. After letting it run for 15 minutes, it finally shifted.

21. For some reason, 2000 miles after an oil change, the oil mysteriously disappears; there is no carbon on the tail pipe, no leaks, and I never smell burnt oil.

When my truck got stolen, I thought I was in my glory, I figured that it was the best thing that could've happened, then they found it 3 weeks later in Newark with only minor injuries, so yes I still drive this death trap.

I'm currently waiting for the wheels to lock up from the bad diff or transfer. I can only drive it at about 35 mph, so when it happens, I don't die! I love the pick up on the truck, the way it looks, and when everything's working it's an amazing truck, but OMG, when things go wrong, it's ridiculous.