My mom's old minivan has been sitting in the driveway for about a year and a half. It will not crank up unless we jump it off and when we hook up the jumper cables the radio comes on and the windows will roll up and down without the keys even in the van. This is causing the battery to not charge up enough to start the van on its own. Anyone have any idea what is causing this to happen? We would much rather fix it on our own and not get dominated by a mechanic but if we need to we will. Any help is appreciated.

mods:move this if it's in the wrong place

sounds like you have a short somewhere in the system causing the windows to mov eon their own. i'd start checking wires if I were you.

gross. that does not sound like a good time to me at all. i guess ill check it out though

do they move on there own or can you just mess with them without the keys in the ignition????

the radio comes on by itself as soon as the cables are on but i have to mess with the windows and seats and stuff. they dont just go up and down on their own.