Upon leaving work in the am I started my vehicle and none of my dash gauges were working nor were any of the electric window or the radio. I then called my mechanic who adv me to bring it to him. While I was en route to take my vehicle to him it started making a weird noise like I was in a helicopter and I started smelling this weird smell like oil burning at first it thought they messed up my oil change and I was furious. Upon arriving at the shop he immediately smelled the odor put it up on the lift and found out that my front differential had gone bad. I purchased another one and hi installed it and I took it home because he could not find out what was wrong with the gauges on my way to take it to a dealer I was driving down the road and smoke and was coming from the front and back under my car another driving passing by signaled something was coming from beneath my vehicle and upon that I heard a loud bang popping noise and my vehicle lost power and I had to have it towed back to the mechanic only to find out that again the differential failed. I still do not have my vehicle and the gauges windows and radio still does not work. My mechanic checked all the fuses and adv that there was no problem with them. He did however call a Mercury dealer who adv he has had to change some of the front differentials on other Mountaineer but was not certain as to how many were done.

- Woodbridge, VA, USA

The contact owns a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer. While driving 65 mph, the contact noticed smoke coming from the front and rear of the vehicle. She then heard a loud bang and the steering wheel began to shake. The vehicle lost power, but did not shut off. The vehicle was towed. The Ford dealer diagnosed the vehicle as needing the front end differential replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred when the contact picked up the vehicle. Since then, the front end differential has been replaced five times. The Ford dealer was unable to diagnose the cause of the continuous failures of the replacement part. The contact also stated that the rear liftgate is cracked. A valid VIN was unavailable. The current mileage is 64,000 and failure mileage was 60,000.

- Rock Hill, SC, USA