Chrysler Repair: 2000 cirrus 2.5 liter: flaky starter motor, now ASD involved?, sensor circuits, physical proximity

Question
Roland, asked you last night some starter issues with my car, today i went out and was loking for tranny relay and i just for kicks, pulled out auto shutdown relay and tryed testing plug, had my dad turn car over and it actually tryed to start, plugged autoshutdown relay back in, and car starts fine,  earlier i had checked power signal wire at starter while cranking, no power to signal, so i was starting to do test that u told me about when i discovered these other relay, there are 4 in the bank, so, is it possible that something tripped auto shutdown relay?  what kinds of things trip that?how does that relay work. and is it possible the relay is sticking or bad?  it is starting fine now that i pulled it out and reinstalled it.

Answer
Hi Greg,
Those two relays are independent, circuit-wise. There could be an issue with connectors between the sockets and the relays (water/grease/corrosion) but otherwise they are unrelated; different fuses, etc. The ASD is activated by the engine control computer when it sees that the engine is turning over (crank and cam sensors), and it then provides power to the fuel, spark, oxygen sensor circuits. It is a collision fire safety device. The starter is of course for another purpose and should operate independently of the ASD. I don't see a relationship except for their physical proximity which is why you might look at that part of the distribution center for some common cause of failure.
Roland