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Mercury Mariner Start Problems
tysailor24
Member Posts: 2
Alright people, try to help me out here...my girlfriend owns a 2008 Mercury Mariner Premier with a V6 engine...had to add that my girlfriend owns it because I would never own a vehicle made by ford due to it's poor reliability, but anyway, she's owned the vehicle for a little over a year, has 19,000 miles on it, and is having problems. When she turns the ignition, nothing happens. The motor doesn't crank over or anything...just silence. I had to drive to pick her up from work two nights ago, I removed the ignition control fuse and the starter fuse, put the fuses back in, and it started right up. She took the car to the dealer and they couldn't figure out what it was due to the fact that it would start everytime they tried. They had said it may be the actual key...that if it happens again, try to spare key. Tonight, again, I had to pick her up from work. She tried the spare key this time with no results. I removed the same two fuses, reinstalled them, and still nothing. So the car is spending the night at her place of employment tonight and I'm going to have it out with Kings Automall FLM Dealer tomorrow. But has anyone else had this problem? If so fill me in on what the problem was.
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Just had 1100 miles in my wife's mariner. As I was about to park it, noticed a faint buzzing sound. Turned the ignition off (no buzzing) turned the ignition on and started the engine-buzzing sounded again. I,brought the vehicle to the dealership were I purchased it from. The technician listened to it and said it is the fuel pump. He said it is normal. Asked how come it was not there before,he said that it appears usually after couple of hundred miles. Even when changed,he said it will sound again after a couple of miles. Has anybody had this kind of experience? Advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you
The main thing to remember about vehicle problems, especially a random one is what was wrong with someones elses car has no real bearing on what is wrong with your car and guessing otherwise is very likely to have you throw a or some parts at the issue and have it still occur.
2008 Ford Escape Junction box which is similar to 2008 Mercury Mariner.
PCM Power Relay battery junction box, Run/Start Relay smart junction box
Where to begin when you have a Ford Escape no start condition
Ford uses an antitheft system to tell the PCM to energize a starter relay located in the battery Junction box. The image shown here is from a 2008 Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner. So your first job is to find out whether the no start problem is due to a bad relay or some other component or wiring harness. The easiest way to test the starter relay is to locate it in the battery junction box and find another relay in that same junction box that has the same part number or same size and swap the relays. If the engine starts, you’ve nailed it down to a bad starter relay. If not, you’ll want to check for power going to the starter relay contacts and the relay control coil.
How to test for starter relay power
Grab your voltmeter and yank the starter relay. You’ll be testing the terminals in the relay socket. Look at the bottom of the relay to find the terminal number and locate those same terminals in the socket. With the key turn to the START position, you should see battery voltage on terminals 2 & 3. If you don’t get battery voltage on those terminals, check fuse #11 30A (again, this is a 2008 Ford Escape—yours might be different).
In this case, power flows from the battery to the IGN switch. Then it flows to the transmission range selector (the park/neutral switch) and then to terminals 2 & 3 in the relay socket. If you see battery voltage on those two terminals, check for ground on terminal 1. If the anti-theft system passes, the PCM provides ground to the control coil on terminal 1. If you get ground, the PCM and antitheft are working.
No power at the starter relay
If you don’t see battery voltage at terminals 2 & 3, check the gray/violet wire at the IGNITION switch when turned to the START position. If there’s no power on the gray/violet wire, replace the IGN switch. This is a fairly common failure.
No power on the starter relay control coil ground
If you don’t see good ground on terminal #1 in the starter relay socket, that means the PCM isn’t getting power or the anti-theft system has passed. In that case you should see the security light on.
I hope this gives you a trail to follow on your Do It Yourself trouble shooting.
You can find a 12V test light at your local Harbor Freight or Auto Parts store.
Everybody is asking for help trouble shooting a no start condition.
Reference to help from Ricks Free Auto Repair Advice.
ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com/2007-ford-escape-relay-locations/
ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com/ford-escape-no-start/
My Mercury Mariner 2010 had starting problems on and off. It turned out to be a faulty INERTIA SWITCH. This switch is often overlooked. I had the mechanic bypass it. Car runs fine now. Check this fix first before changing the starter, etc.