Hello again,
My 2005 Chrysler Pacifica has a weird fault that just popped up out of nowhere. Recently it had been sitting for a few months (warmer weather I was just riding around on the motorcycle and left the van parked). When I returned to it, it started up fine, and nothing seemed the matter.
The next time I went to use it after that first drive, it is acting up. It starts up fine, but the radio, dvd player, heating/cooling system, headlights all fail to turn on. I figure I can drive it fine without all those things, so I hit the brake to put it into gear, but when I do this I do not hear the safety mechanism disengage on the gearshift, and it will not allow me to move out of park.
I tinker with it a bit: disconnect the battery for a few minutes to reset the system, check fuses (mind you I did not go through ALL of them just yet). With the battery reconnected, I put the key to the running position without starting it, and go back to the fuse box. I can hear a relay clicking, turns out it was the front wiper hi/lo. I pulled that relay out and switched it with another one. The clicking persisted in the same position (did not follow the relay to the new slot I moved it to).
I started the vehicle, but the same issues described before persisted. For some unknown reason to myself, I turned the key to the ignition start position again with my foot on the brake, and I heard the gearshift safety disengage and I could move it out of park.
I cannot find my code reader, but when I start the vehicle and wait 10 seconds or so, the ABS, traction control, parking brake, engine light, airbag systems all illuminate. The front headlights are supposed to be daylight runners, but even they don't turn on when the car is started. Though, when I turn the key to the ignition start position I notice that the headlights come on.
I know there is a lot to take in here, but I am confused. The computer has been replaced once before a couple years ago, I am hoping it something simple like a weak ground, but am confused why turning the key all the way clockwise basically remedies all the issues that I have seen.
Regards!
What you are describing with all those lights on and with the issues happening is that a large portion of electrical things in that car are either off due to circuit interruption or possibly a bad ground. Cars that sit tend to set up some corrosion in connections and get much worse than ones that are driving daily.
Check all the big fuses and make sure they are clean and shiny and not rough and crusty.
What you are chasing or looking for is a bad connection or two or more bad connections that are teaming up to look like a monster... This is a simple problem... You just have to look for it and find it.
Use a test light across fuses. Put the ground wire on the neg terminal of the battery and touch both sides of every fuse. You can see the power arrive and the power leave. if only one side of a fuse lights the light then there is a poor connection or its blown.
Also check the grounds that way. If you get a bright light from some metallic box or other object on the body, there is a bad ground for sure.
I finally got tired of my bass ackwards way of turning on the heater/radio and stuff and started testing everything. I was literally placing wires in place of the relays to make things turn on, it got quite frustrating sticking 4+ wires in place of the relays, haha.
I tested the ignition switch, the wiper multi function switch, the headlamp multi function switch. I "installed" a new ignition switch (by which I mean I hung it by the wires and turned it with a screwdriver, with the key in the SKREEM ring). Nothing was working.
After much banging my head wondering why the back wipers worked, the front ones didn't I started doing something I should have done a long time ago. I got out a logic probe and tested all the sockets for the relays.
The 'wiper on/off relay' should have ground on 87A, which (when the relay is not on), should also connect to the 'wiper high/low relay' 85 and 30. The 87A pin did not have ground, and subsequently of course neither did the 85 or 30. I ran a rudimentary jumper wire from the ground terminal to the 86 pin on the 'wiper high/low' and all systems are working fine.
It got too cold tonight to figure out a way to fix the ground issue, but it is fixed, albeit very 'jury rigged'. It is an internal ground, probably on the circuit board itself in the IPM, so I will likely just throw a wire onto the correct pin for the relay and call it a day.
it's a Chrysler van they have horrendous electrical systems pray it's something simple like a bad ignition switch and not computer modules going out which often do
@scottykilmer
Thank you for the reply! I was fearing the computer issue, if the ignition switch is fine, this thing is getting trashed/donated.
@scottykilmer
I am not sure if this is technically legal, but is there any way to share service repair documents on how to test that system on this van, or an easy way other than taking the whole dash apart; like is there a wiring harness I can access from the footwell section under the steering wheel?