1997 Ford Mustang Cobra
Safety record from NHTSA: recalls, owner complaints, investigations and service bulletins.
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Vehicles › Ford › Mustang Cobra › 1997
These records cover every 1997 Ford Mustang Cobra. To see whether one car still needs a recall repair, decode its VIN or check it with NHTSA.
Owner complaints
6 complaints
What owners report most
Latest complaints
- Service brakes, hydraulic
Tl*the contact owns a 1997 ford mustang, cobra. While the contact was parked in his driveway he applied the emergency brake and the vehicle suddenly began to coast down his driveway. The contact called the manufacturer and was informed nhtsa recall #00v349000 parking brake: conventional did not apply to his vehicles vin number. The current and failure mileages were 93000.
- Engine and engine cooling › Engine
1997 ford cobra number 6 spark plug came out and car stalled had to be towed. *nm
- Engine and engine cooling
Two times the air intake sucked in water and blew the engine. one time ford covered the cost of the engine and the second time the $7000 charge was paid by my father (previous owner). *jb
- Seat belts › Front › Retractor
Drivers side seat belt fails to function, will not catch/stop forward motion when jerked/pull on. I ask mechanic to look at it when it stopped retracting. car was in for an oil change. he advised me that the seat belf will not function if I were in an accident, offering no driver restraint. basicly the car IS not safe to drive.*ak
- Power train › Manual transmission
Manual transmission locks in reverse gear. *la
- Parking brake
Consumer started the vehicle to warm it up, the emergency brake was fully engaged from the night before, while exiting the vehicle it began to roll backward but before the consumer could hit the brake it had already hit another vehicle. nlm
Defect investigations
NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened these reviews into vehicles including this one.
- Spark plug ejection from cylinder head
On september 6, 2005, odi received a petition requesting that the agency investigate allegations of engine spark plug ejection in certain model year 1997 through 2004 ford vehicles with triton V-8 and V-10 engines.odi received a total of 474 non-duplicative complaints on the subject vehicles where the complainant, or…
On september 6, 2005, odi received a petition requesting that the agency investigate allegations of engine spark plug ejection in certain model year 1997 through 2004 ford vehicles with triton V-8 and V-10 engines.odi received a total of 474 non-duplicative complaints on the subject vehicles where the complainant, or the dealer repairing the vehicle, reported that a spark plug detached from the cylinder and/or ejected from the engine.as of december 8, 2005, odi IS not aware of any allegations where the alleged defect resulted in a loss of vehicle control, a crash, an injury, or a fatality in any of the 10,319,810 subject vehicles.in addition, odi IS aware of only two incidents where the vehicle stalled without restart.information contained in the odi consumer complaints and obtained from 72 telephone interviews with complainants showed the following:(1) 99% of the complaints were on my 1997 to 2002 subject vehicles.(2) most the complainants reported hearing a loud pop while driving or upon starting up the vehicle followed by a loud, repetitive clicking or popping sound.(3) many of the complainants reported that the popping sound was accompanied by some loss of vehicle power; however, in 99% of the incidents reported, the vehicle did not stall.in the very few incidents where the vehicle did stall, most vehicles could be restarted.(4) only a small percentage of the complainants cited that they smelled gas or a slight burning smell when the incident occurred.(5) in all but a very few incidents, vehicle damage was limited to the engine.in one incident, the complaint reported that the fuel rail was damaged and replaced after one of the spark plugs ejected from the engine; however, the complainant reported that the damage did not result in any type of fuel leak or fire.in another incident, the only incident where a fire was alleged, the complainant reported that no fluid leak was observed, but that a fire resulted after the spark plug had ejected from the engine and he had restarted the vehicle and driven to another location.none of the complainants reported any damage to the vehicle hood.(6) only two complainants reported that they observed what appeared to be some drops of fuel coming from the cylinder where the spark plug had failed or on the spark plug itself; however, each of these complainants reported that there was no smoke or flames as a result of his incident.as the petitioner noted, and odi?s analysis showed, it IS possible for a spark plug to detach from the engine cylinder threads in the subject vehicles.however, odi?s analysis of 474 complaints describing such incidents found only a very few alleged any safety-related consequences.none of these showed any evidence of a serious safety consequence.given the large population and relatively long exposure time of the subject vehicles, the complaint analysis indicates that the risk to motor vehicle safety from the alleged defect IS very low.in view of the foregoing, it IS unlikely that nhtsa would issue an order for the notification and remedy of the alleged defect at the conclusion of the investigation requested in the petition.therefore, in view of the need to allocate and prioritize nhtsa?s limited resources to best accomplish the agency?s safety mission, the petition IS denied.
Service bulletins
Technical service bulletins and other communications the manufacturer sent dealers about this vehicle. Ask a dealer for the full document by its number.
- 6092126Some vehicles may exhibit a no crank condition.
- 6090814Experiencing a no crank condition.
- 637787This bulletin states that some 4.6L fqr engine assemblies may have a smaller or larger knock sensor threaded hold than the one in the original engine assembly.
- 620287Some vehicles with manual transmission or with automatic transmission may exhibit a front end accessory drive (fead) belt that has become broken or frayed and / or detach from the engine.
- 613762Some vehicles with a T-45 transmission may shift from 4TH to neutral (pop out) when the clutch IS released.
- 613630Some vehicles equipped with manual transmission and with automatic transmission may exhibit a front end accessory drive (fead) belt that has become broken or frayed and / or detach from the engine.
- 612936Some vehicles equipped with manual transmission and with automatic transmission may exhibit a front end accessory drive (fead) belt that has become broken or frayed and / or detach from the engine.
- 612717Some vehicles with manual and automatic transmissions may exhibit a front end accessory drive (fead) belt that has become broken or frayed and / or detached from the engine.
- 612305Some vehicles may exhibit a no crank condition.
Every Ford Mustang Cobra model year
Bars are owner complaints, dots mark years with recalls. Select a year to open its report.