My mother passed away and left her immaculate 1996 Mercury Sable LS to my daughter. Last night a branch fell during a storm and broke the rear window. Now it thinks the key isin the ignition all the time. When the door is open, it 'dings' but the key is not in the ignition. It stops 'dinging' when the door is shut and the remote no longer works. The other strange thing is the radio stays on and the electricwindows operate, all without a key! It has the anti-theft device, would therebe a sensor that was disconnected when the window broke?We will get the window replaced tomorrow. Any help is muchappreciated. Edited by: SableCat

Well, I found the solution thanks to my brother Dennis who knows a lot about cars. I thought I'd post it in case anyone else has this come up.


The window was replaced but it still dinged likea key was in the ignition. You couldoperate the electric windows without a key and the radio stayed on.My brother suggested pulling relays and seeing if it would reset. I pulled the relay for the rear defroster and after about 30 seconds it stopped dinging. I plugged it back in and it wasfixed.


Hope this helps someone else.

I have had the radio stay on after the ignition is turned off as well (usually just momentarily) It was another problem that I was suspicious of with the battery drain problem but isolating it didn't seem to make any difference.