QuestionI have a 94 Concorde 4 door that has intermittent problems with the gauges cutting out. When this occurs the transmission will NOT shift.
It appears to occur when cold and when they do kick in they will stay operating until the vehicles is shut off.
When the gauges are operational, they all work and the transmission shifts fine.
When they are NOT operational. I have no needle gauges and the transmission will not shift.
Local mechanic is a Canadian Tire who doesn't have decent diagnostic and has manual speed/trip. Guessing map sensor or ECU but intermittent is strange. Would there be a manual fault check in this year?
AnswerHi Deb,
Yes you can get fault codes with the ignition key:"on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine lignt which remains "on" to begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat to be sure you have an accurate count. Group the numbers in pairs in the order they read out to form two-digit fault codes. The last number should be 55 which means "end of readout"
You can get a translation at www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html
I suspect there is a breakdown in the digitial communication system that ties together the ecm, tcm, bcm, and gauge readout. If the communication is lost, the trans won't shift properly nor will the gauges have readings. If you have had any leaks around the windshield on the right side you may have gotten some water/corrosion on the plugs/sockets of the bcm which is behind the passenger side kick panel below the corner of the windshield. Otherwise checking the plugs to those modules and also looking at the electrical solder joints of the two plugs at the back of the cluster circuit board may reveal corrosion or a cracked solder joint which could make the cluster intermittent. There is a Chrysler diagnostic readout box that would help on diagnosing a loss of the digital data bus (CCD). It is called a DRB II. I have a manual for helping to diagnose the issues that a DRB II might bring to light.
So those are my best suggestions. Let me know what you learn.
