1994 MERCURY SABLE — Complaint #840681
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:FRONT:SHOCK ABSORBER filed February 7, 2011
NHTSA complaint #840681 (ODI reference 10380946) concerns a 1994 MERCURY SABLE and was filed on February 7, 2011. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 28, 2011. The vehicle had 139,500 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Ohio based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:front:shock absorber, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same MERCURY SABLE cohort independently describe similar suspension:front:shock absorber failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1994 MERCURY SABLE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 1994 MERCURY SABLE. THE CONTACT DROVE OVER A POTHOLE AND THE FRONT STRUT BROKE ON BOTH SIDES. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO A MECHANIC WHO STATED THAT THERE WAS A RELATED RECALL 94E036000 (SUSPENSION: FRONT: SHOCK ABSORBER). THE MANUFACTURER STATED THAT THE VEHICLE WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE RECALL. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED. THE CURRENT AND FAILURE MILEAGES WERE 139,500. UPDATED 07/08/11*LJ THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO A REPAIR SHOP WHERE THE FRONT STRUT HAD BROKEN IN HALF. THE REMAINING STRUTS CONTAINED STRESS CRACKS. UPDATED 07/20/11
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 840681 |
| ODI Number | 10380946 |
| Date Filed | February 7, 2011 |
| Failure Date | January 28, 2011 |
| VIN | 1MELM5344RA |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.