The contact owns a 2003 Mercury Sable. The contact stated that while driving 5 mph in reverse, the left front coil spring broke and punctured the sidewall of the left front tire. The vehicle was taken to a local repair shop where the coil spring was replaced. The contact called the manufacturer who offered no assistance. The current and failure mileages were 109,950.

- Lapeer, MI, USA

2003 Sable wagon was driven home and parked in driveway. When we went to move it again a horrible grinding sound was coming from the front end, sounded like something scraping on the driveway or caught in wheel well. Car was subsequently parked. When it was light and upon further investigation, a piece of the front end coil spring was found lying under the car, approximately 1 foot long that is sheared off from the rest of the spring. No visible rust on the part, just apparently a defective part that broke. Now the car has to be towed to fix the problem. However the rest of the spring is embedded in the tire, wedged between it and the wheel well. It is impossible to move the car even to allow for a tow truck to get under it. The tires were also just purchased approximately one month ago and this certainly has ruined at least one of them.

- Lemont, IL, USA

The contact owns a 2003 Mercury Sable. While driving in reverse 1 mph, the contact heard a loud noise from the front passenger side tire. The contact then noticed that the coil spring punctured the tire causing it to burst. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer who replaced the coil spring. The failure mileage was approximately 54,000.

- Westland, MI, USA

The contact owns a 2003 Mercury Sable. The contact stated that while driving 40 mph, the front driver side coil spring broke which caused the tire to become flat. The contact had the vehicle towed to a local mechanic who replaced the front coil springs. The contact called the manufacturer who offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 79,000.

- Presque Isle, ME, USA

I was backing out of a driveway and I heard a loud wooshing noise. I got out to investigate and saw my front driver's side tire was flat. I tried to remove it but couldn't get a jack under the vehicle because it was so low to the ground. I finally managed to jack up the car and had a lot of trouble removing the tire. Upon further investigation I realized that the spring had broken and lodged about 3 inches into my tire. I had to have the car towed to a service station and the total cost of repair was $600.51 in addition to the cost for towing and two new tires. I had just driven 40 miles on the express way at 70 mph and I could have been killed had this happened en route.

- Fowlerville, MI, USA

My 2003 Sable suffered a front left coil spring fracture that destroyed the front left tire and caused me to veer into a fence post while driving in a parking lot. The coil spring that sliced into the tire was pinpoint sharp, as was the smaller portion of the spring that fell off the car. The front left tire was destroyed, the strut an spring assembly needed to be replaced after the car was towed to a repair facility. The car was not drivable. The fence post damaged the left door of the car. If this failure had happened at highway speeds, the tire would have been shredded to pieces and the car would be sent off the highway with catastrophic results. I am afraid to drive the car at highway speeds. The car was inspected by a Ford dealer 4 days after the front spring failure and found to have corrosion on the rear springs with the paint or enamel on the spring compromised causing rusting on the springs an possibly causing a future failure of the springs.

- Lake St. Louis, MO, USA

While backing out of driveway, note* a driveway with not even a crack in it, the front driver side tire blew. Upon removing tire, part of the spring fell to the ground and the remaining spring was found to have punctured the tire.

- Wapakoneta, OH, USA

2003 Mercury Sable ls 4 door sedan front coil spring snapped and punctured front winter tread tire while setting in my driveway. Location Pennsylvania during winter.

- Dawson, PA, USA

2003 Mercury Sable catastrophic coil spring failure.

- Gowanda, NY, USA

Ford springs. On Saturday, January 5, 2010, the front drivers side coil spring on my 2003 Mercury Sable gs snapped and punctured my tire. (car has 70K miles). There is corrosion on the coil but only were it failed. I have saved the piece of coil that was in my tire. My brother is a mechanic and told me that there may be a recall on the spring. He did the work on the car because I needed to be at work on Monday morning but told me to check it out. I found many complaints on the Consumer Affairs website but none for my model year. I contacted Ford and registered a complaint (#0289562315). The gentleman told me that my car wasn't included in the recall and that my car wasn't covered under warranty. He told me that I would be responsible for the cost of the repairs. I am very worried about the rear springs too. I frequently drive with children in my car. At the very least, I expected them to offer to inspect the rear springs but they offered nothing. Ford should pay for repairs when they are aware that a part is failing. I needed to replace the 2 front struts, buy 2 new tires (mine were discontinued) and pay for a front-end alignment.

- Canton, MI, USA

2003 Mercury Sable with the first 5 years of service in the northeast. The car is now in tampa Florida. At thanksgiving one of the front coil springs snapped, puncturing a tire...fortunately the car was parked at the time. As a result both front coils and suspension had to be replaced along with a tire. We were told that the previous 2 years were recalled for this same problem in the northern states(winter salt leads to this problem).

- Tampa, FL, USA

The contact owns a 2003 Mercury Sable. While driving 20 mph, the contact heard a loud popping sound coming from the front passenger wheel. She exited the vehicle and noticed that the front passenger side tire was blown. The vehicle was towed to a local repair shop and inspected by a technician, who determined that the front passenger side coil spring failed. As a result, the driver's side coil spring also failed; however, the tire was not punctured. The driver and passenger side coils springs and two front tires were replaced at the cost of $720. The contact is in the process of notifying the manufacturer. The failure mileage was 49,400 and current mileage was 57,000.

- North Homestead, OH, USA

On January 17 while backing out of my garage, my 2003 Mercury Sable was making a horrendous noise. Upon investigating, I discovered what I thought was a flat tire. My husband removed the tire to take it for repair and discovered a major problem. The inside of the tire looked like it was opened with a can opener. We bought a new tire, put it on the car but it was still making that awful noise. The tire was rubbing the wheel well. At that time, we knew that there was a bigger problem. After removing the tire again, my husband discovered that the right front coil spring was broken! it happened while sitting in the garage. I called Ford Motor Company after researching this online. This is a big problem with the Ford Taurus as well as the Mercury Sable. To my dismay, they will do nothing about it. I am only glad that this did not happen while traveling at a high rate of speed. My only hope is that there will be some recall on this problem so that other car owners do not have to go through all of this inconvenience.

- Canonsburg, PA, USA

Drivers side coil spring broke and collapsed when car was placed in gear. Protruding edge of spring punctured and deflated tire. Spring and tire were replaced by mechanic at substantial expense. Old tire and spring were discarded.

- Ortonville, MI, USA

-driver side suspension coil spring broke. Fortunately this was when car was sitting still. Coil punctured tire and broke the strut & some kind of a linkage. There was no warning sign of this problem. -replaced parts including passenger side parts knowing this was a material fatigue failure & would eventfully occur on other side too. -this part is the same as on 2000 & 2001 Sable that are now covered under an extended warranty. -this is a safety issue & should be a recall item !

- Lake View, NY, USA

Day 1 - failure or left front coil spring - speed approx. 30mph spring just popped with a loud jarring bang. Had vehicle towed to repair facility - repaired and replaced left front spring assembly. Next morning - failure - left rear coil spring. Resulting in tire blow out speed 5 mph. Currently back at repair facility. Ford/Mercury are known to have spring problems but evidently unless someone dies nothing will be done about it. Contacted Ford about the problem the said no recall nothing we can do. Just look at the complaints - obviously this is not a freak occurrence.

- West Homestead, PA, USA

2003 Mercury Sable suspension-front:springs:coil spring NHTSA action # PE04044 campaign id #04V332000 this is a old problem that is still here and alive. My 2003 Mercury Sable has broken a spring and destroyed the driver side front tire. I call the local Ford dealer service department and was told there are no recalls for this problem. I had my car towed to a repair shop and they said this is a normal problem with Ford & Mercury. They replaced both struts and coils and tire and alignment for $1366. The car had just arrived home and was in the garage when the tire blow. This could have happened while driving and caused injury. I think the recall should be extended to include all Ford & Mercury cars until this problem goes away. I have cut off about one foot of the old coil to prove a faulty coil before the car was towed to the repair shop and took pictures of the tire and coil spring while still on the car.

- Mchenry, IL, USA

Putting car into reverse, I felt the air go ut of the passenger front tire. Upon further investigation it was the coil spring that broke and punctured the tire.

- Westfield, NY, USA

My wife asked me to check the strange noise in her car when she started to back out of our driveway on the morning of December 8, 2008. I removed the right front wheel expecting to see worn out brake pads. Instead, the wheel started to move toward me when I began removing the lug nuts. The coil spring was broken into two parts. Fortunately, it broke overnight and doesn't appear to have damaged the tire. Time will tell whether or not it weakened the inner sidewall of the right front tire. Failure analysis of the 28 cm length of spring broken off from the lower end of the spring is as follows: The broken cross-section of the spring has a dark rust section, about 15 mm circumferentially and 2 mm radial from the exterior surface. The exterior surface of the spring is rusted where there is no longer any protective black coating near the defective cross section. This surface area is about 25 mm circumferentially and 15 mm long from the fractured cross section. There are about 4 radial fracture lines emanating from the bottom side of the spring starting at the 15 mm X 2mm rusted area. There appears to be pinpoint rust areas throughout about 70 per cent of the remaining cross section, by my naked eye. I will be replacing the coil spring today or tomorrow, either myself or at a garage. This appears to be the same type of failure as recall number 04N-332. This defect is one of the reasons why I am laid off. I have been a friction material engineer for over 25 years. No wonder americans have stopped buying american automobiles. This Mercury vehicle has been much better than my Dodge vehicles up until now.

- Novi, MI, USA