The 1989 Mercury Cougar has 4 recalls, the most serious being front seatbelts that may fail to retract after being pulled out, leaving occupants with slack belt webbing that cannot properly restrain them in a crash.
Earlier repair attempts for the seatbelt retraction problem did not fully resolve the issue: a cable inside the tension reliever mechanism can break or bind, preventing the retractor from drawing the belt back in. Whether on factory-installed belts or replacement assemblies provided in the earlier fix, the result is the same — the belt stays loose and does not hold the occupant securely. On the brake side, turning the steering wheel to full lock at low speed can cause the front brake caliper on the inboard wheel to contact the stabilizer bar. That contact nudges the caliper piston inward and pushes brake fluid back into the master cylinder reservoir, which means the brake pedal will travel further than normal on the first press after completing the turn before braking force builds back up. The remaining recall affects only vehicles with the 3.8-litre engine: a fuel vapor hose may not be connected at the fuel tank vapor valve, allowing fuel vapors to escape into the engine bay rather than being routed through the emissions control system.
