Found on road dead is right, my car has 160000 miles before it broke down. The early symptoms that I noticed was my brake light would come on every now and then. When my car first broke down a plastic pin or clip that connects to the column above the transmission next to the senor disconnected. I noticed this when my car wouldn’t move and then I put it back into the hole so it can shift into which it did when I started it. I then went to a store and got a metal pin to hold it in place so I can shift into my gears. after I left the store about 30 min later I was trying to get up to speed and my car wouldn’t go over 45 mph and then wouldn’t shift into any gears and I parked it on the did of the road. I later replace the plastic pin that holds the shifter cable to the transmission column and still nothing. I then thought it was the transmission range sensor because the brake light is on and still nothing. When I turn on my car the brake light remains on and I can shift out of park and when i do that it will shift threw all the gears. I’m starting to think my transmission gone but I’m confused why the brake light is on.
I owned about eight Fords over the years and they were all made like that. 160,000 is about 20,000 more than I would recommend driving one. Get rid of it before it kills you.
The Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable models of that era had weak transmissions. They have fans on this forum who will say otherwise but I have personal experience with them and I know better. I don’t believe @pleasedodgevan2 is one of those fans after reading his post. Our 2001 model Sable didn’t make it to 100K before needing a transmission and my mother-in-law’s 2003 model fared a little better at 130K. She drove it with a slipping transmission around town for a couple of years but she rarely exceeded 35mph. Your brake light probably comes on because of a badly adjusted or faulty brake light switch. They are about as cheap as a switch can be.