No start in driveway?

296,000 MILES • 5.7L • AUTOMATIC
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LASZLO HALMAGYI
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  • 1 POST
A year ago van started to have dash gages problems, with no interior lights or windows. Only air bag and battery light comes on. Strangely 20 min later all worked fine, but driving down the street it happens and engine keeps running! But if you shut it down , no start and no gages, interior lights or windows, so I got a remote battery cut off switch this worked fine for almost a year, so now looking into this problem I find no ground at the start relay , if I override it it will crank but no start, all fuses are good inside fuse box and under hood. Along with all relay are good and tested. Not sure where to look next, I need a good local mecmechanic? I was an airport mechanic 36 years,
Oct 25, 2026 at 9:00 AM
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STRAILER
  • ✓Experienced Mechanic
  • 55,594 POSTS
Hello, I would remove the remote battery cut off first, then it sounds like the ignition switch is bad. I would make sure the battery terminals are clean and secure. This matches a well-documented pattern on 2004–2008 Ford E-Series vans: instrument cluster failure (especially the battery-saver circuit or related solder joints/internal components). You can get a used cluster from ebay as well. If you can send a video of the problem it would help me see what is going on as well. Please go over this video as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXLJbuAZ4CE&pp=0gcJCTAMAYcqIYzv

Oct 26, 2026 at 9:24 AM
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