96 Contour. Detailed explanation.

Hi All,

My girlfriend has a 96 Contour 4 cylinder.

She went to start it this morning and she said "it clicked and started dinging."

I went out and gave it a try and here is what I found:

(1)Interior lights were fluctuating/pulsing when I open door.


Inserted key , no turn. Lights and door dinger were normal sounding.

So I turned the key forward 2 notch

(2) The usual lights by speedometer came up (Airbag, seat belt, check engine, oil light).

(3) Then lights go dim on everything and dinging slows down.

When I turn 1 more notch forward to start

(4) Car doesn't turnover and all lights and sounds go dead.

When I remove the key from the ignition the speedometer goes up to ~40 MPH.



I just had the oil changed at Firestone and they noted some items like dirty air filter and some corrosion on the battery. (I cleaned the corrosion off this morning with wire brush both battery stems and clamps).

We get regular oil changes and tune ups and fix the occasional problem. So the strange this is that before I took the car into get the oil change the CHECK ENGINE light was on for about 10 miles. No big deal because the gas mileage was usual and the car seemed to be running normal. Got the oil change and the light was still on for ~1mile after I drove out the service center.

Now the car is having these issues about 100 miles after oil change.

We wil be changing the battery today as well as the air filter.



Any other suggestions?

\Thanks.

Changed battery and the air filter, runs great.