My 2000 mercury cougar will not start. The

Tap on the side of the starter with a pry bar and a hammer while making sure to stay away from the electrical connections. The high pitched noise you are hearing is the starter drive spinning but not engaging. This should help get the car started so you can get it to a repair shop or the parts store.

almost sounds like the cruise control is engaging

Have your mechanic adjust your idle up a bit sounds like it is idleing to slow.You might want to try some injecter cleaner in your next tank of gas as well sometimes a little dirt or sludge will cause your vehical not to get all the gas it needs when not under a load.

dont listen to that stupid ******* its right under your headers if you look in front of your motor there is a metal plate that says hot, take that off and you will see your headers and its under that i have the same problem with my cougar.

The master cylinder or the slave cylinder have failed. I would check for a clear oil looking leak coming from either the firewall/above the clutch pedal or under the transmission. Either way you would need to replace the master or slave cylinder. Hope this helps!

My first suspicion is the battery connections may be lose and also the battery may now be run down. If you take the terminal connections off and clean them and the terminal posts so that they are shiny clean and charge the battery you can try again. If the car starts, that was the problem. If it doesn't, then look for the starter solenoid and lose connections there and also look toward the starter next. A tech with a volt meter can run independent checks and narrow it down further but having good connections and a charged battery are necessary to get started with the other tests.

Replace the battery. The 15 volts is normal, it means the charger is charging properly.

engine is shot. you most likely cracked your block cuz you ran it to hot. bummer. tell insurance you want a new car. lol

On most Ford/Mercury auto's thre relay switch in on the starter, sounds you are not getting a good ground.

what is anti-theft light doing? It should come on solid for about 2 sec after you turn the key on then turn off. If it is flashing after this then it is not seeing the computer chip in the key and you have a PATS problem.