Like battery is dead

Having problems with my 2000 Villiager estate. Started yesterday, drove it to work, drove it to lunch, drove it to pick up my boy from his grandma's and parked it in their drive way for a couple of hours. Came out, went to start it up and nothing. No gauges, no engine turning over, no radio, nothing. Just as if the battery was dead. Turned the key off, took it out tried again still nothing. Moved the gear shift, and finally the gauges lit up and the thing fired right up?? No problems with the clock or settings (time stayed correct and radio settings also fine) so the battery seems fine.

This morning got up to leave for work and the same thing. Nothing. Took the key out, got out and buckled my boy in the back got back in the car, checked to make sure still in Park and tried again...fired right up? Was thinking about getting a new battery for it, but remembered that I had a Chevy truck that used to do something similar and it was some kind of saftey feature with the brake pedal and gear shifter.

Anybody know if there is something like that with Mercury Villagers too or is this something else? Anybody every had that happen before? Other than that the van is in great shape, super clean, 87K and runs great once started. Crappy in town gas mileage though :smile: .

Any input greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

my father's does the same thing,,,,,been to the dealership several times with no resolve,,,YET! AND CRAPPY MPG!!!!!!!

My MPG is about 15 in town but jumps to around 25 Highway. :screwy:

No problems with the van yesterday (after the mornining start) or yet today (knock on wood) started. Started fine at lunch, when I picked my boy up, after dinner, and first crank this morning. Weird.

If anybody does no what this is or how to solve it, please let us know.

Thanks.

is there alot of play in your shifter on the column? mine had alot and was getting so bad that it wouldnt even go all the way in park. so i was having the same trouble as you. i knew something was loose so i followed the shifter linkage all the way down to almost the brake pedal and noticed a allen head screw that attaches the linkage to another linkage was so loose it was about to fall out. i put some locktite on it tightened it down and problem solved.
cant rermember if it was in my 95 or 98 van. but that is what it sounds like. because if it isnt in park or neutral you wont have any gauges or radio and wont be able to start unless in park or neutral. so i dont think its going all the way into park. good luck.

No not a lot of movement in the shifter at all, although I will check into that. Good advice, thanks for the input I hope it is as simple as that.

This morning I was leaving for work and it happend again (didn't happen at all yesterday) and I tried shifting to Neutral (trick I used with my GM truck) to no avail, pumped the brake and nothing, checked the "Security" led on the dash and it was barely blinking. Slammed my driver door by accident and it started blinking normally, so I tried it. The Dash lights came on for a second on 3 (accessories) but when I turned the key to 4 (start) it all went dead again.

I reapeated the door thing a couple of times with no results, then pressed the parking brake to realease it and roll it out of the way to drive the other car and bang thing fired right up. I think it is either the damn Secure-pass lock or hopefully just an ingnition or battery issue. Having my mechanic run a starter/ignition/battery diagnostic to see if by chance any of those are having a problem. If not I will suspect it is the security system.

Really frustrating, since I haven't seen or spoken to many (one on this forum and now maybe two) other owners who have this issue. I guess this is a good thing though, since with my Impala just about everyone I speak to who owns one has had all of the same problems that I have, which means another high quality from GM :biggrin: .

Well, looks like the problem is fixed (knock on wood). My mechanic looked over the ingnition, starter and battery and found the battery terminal connector to be badly worn. Replaced it for $20 and haven't had the problem reoccur since. Getting better MPG too :biggrin: .


Hopefully this fixes it for good.

Thanks to everyone who replied and PM me with possible solutions.

Take care.

glad to hear youre up running. hope that does the trick. sorry for the bad post, thought yours was same as mine(prblem).

It very well could've been the same issue, I thank you for the time in giving me a possible cause. I too am glad that it was something simple (and cheap) to fix.

Thanks again to everyone who offered assistance. Much appreciated.