2002 Ford Mustang problems
Owners have filed 159 complaints with NHTSA about the 2002 Ford Mustang. Engine is the most reported problem area, at 17% of complaints. Next are air bags (13%) and cruise control (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 159 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Engine 17% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 25 and 9
- Injuries and deaths
- 16 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 40,000 miles 75 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 17 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 19 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 7 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 9 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 6 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 8 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 1 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 8 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 75 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 40,000 miles. For engine specifically, the median reported mileage is about 72,000 miles (11 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 25 complaints mention a crash; 9 complaints mention a fire; 16 injuries reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 86% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2002 ranks 25th most-complained-about out of 36 model years of the Ford Mustang with enough data (106 complaints in that window).
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
2 door ford mustang convertable was involved in a motor vehicle accident with another car on saturday 7/23/05 with 3 people injured in the mustang. The air bags did not deploy at all
There was a vehicle in front of me. Both vehicles were traveling at the same speed. The car in front of me anchored the brakes. I was 3 car length behind. Th ABS failed and did not allow the brakes to resume. We hit the back end of the car in front at 35MPH. The passenger seatbelt broke ending my fiance head into the windshield. The airbags did not deploy car was totaled and the toyota did not have a scratch: myself and my girl are both injured. I purchased this car 5/14.
My wife was pulling in to the drive way on her way from doing some errands a drive of less than 5 miles and its a rural road where you cant drive more than 30 miles an hour when she smelt like something was burning. She checked the gauges and everything seemed fine and then saw smoke coming off the hood. She only had time to park the car and get off as the whole engine bay got engulfed in flames.the fire fighters arrived and were able to control the fire from spreading but the front half of the car was totally…
While driving 40 MPH and when brakes were depressed the vehicle pulled from side to side. There was a clunk after the brakes were released, the front tires rubbed on the frame when turning, three belts were installed within 6000, the vehicle smelled like oil, even with the A/C on. The motor rattled before the gears were shifted, with the A/C on the motor would surge up and down to the point where the vehicle would pull.