1999 Taurus will not always start.

My wife went out to start the car a week ago and when she turned the key to the run position the dashlights lit up like normal but when she turned the key to the start position everything went dead. not even the headlights would come on. She tried this a few times and on the forth turn of the key everything started like normal. when I got home I looked at it because I thought that it might just be a loose battery wire, I made sure they were tight and just left it alone.
Now Today I get a call at work from her saying that it will not start at all and that the same thing happend, but this time when she removed the key to come in the house there was a clicking/tapping sound coming from the dash.
I came home and there was defently clicking sound coming from the drivers side part of the dash. The battery in the car is only 4 months old but i tried to jump it anyway but it had no effect. The dome light wouldnt even come on!
So I took the negative battery teminal off(which is also new) so I could stop the clicking. When I put it back on the clicking was stopped, so I tried to start the car again and it started right up. It seems like there is something that needed to be reset?
What could it be?
How can I fix this and keep it from happening again?

Check the postive cable hooked to the starter also to make sure it is tight. Checked the connection from the battery to the fuse block also. I'm not saying this is the solution but it could be part of the problem.

I am having the same issue an would like to know what you come up with. i am going to try the previous response tonight.

I have checked all connections and they are all very tight.

Seems like in my old Taurus, the pos. battery cable ran through the starter solenoid on the fender. I would clean up the cables on the solenoid. If it still did it, maybe try to jump the solenoid with screwdrivers to see if it will turn it over. Since the lights will work with the engine and key off, it must be losing power on the way to the firewall. Maybe it is a bad solenoid. The other thing to do is start testing the power cable with a 12 volt test lamp.

Since the lights will work with the engine and key off, it must be losing power on the way to the firewall.

When this happens the lights will not come on at all, Nothing gets power!

It happened again today, I turned the key and nothing. I had to disconnect the negative terminal and reconnect it, then it fired right up.

bump

Replace the starter relay (solenoid) if it's sticking it can cause all those problems your talking about. My guess is when it's sticking it draining all the power or cutting all the power. When you turn it off it lets go and allows you to reset. If you don't want to replace it then wait for it to start clicking and track it down before you turn it off. It's probally sitting snugly up against the driver side fender, wich is why you hear it under the dash.

I went and bought a new relay today. I installed it , so now i,ll just have to wait and see if it fixes the problem. Thanks for the help!

The positive cable was loose on mine. Tightend down connection and all is well now.