Question1998 Chrysler T&C. I have been troubled with an intermittent electrical -system problem for the past 6 months.
Symptoms – all are intermittent
1. The vehicle fails to turn over (no power) or turns over and starts then immediately quits .The odometer, fuel gage, and the PRD32L on the dash are out. The vehicle will “repair itself” within 15 minutes to 10 hours and the dash lights with be on, and the vehicle will start. This issue has left me stranded many times.
2. The speedometer pegs at 120mph, the tach and the rest of the gauges peg at zero, and the ABS light illuminates, but the vehicle runs fine, this problem happens while driving
3. The vehicle will not shift out of low gear no mater how fast you go.
4. The check engine light, and break light has been lit constantly for one month.
All of these issues are intermittent, and are extremely frustrating. I have had the vehicle in three different repair shops including the Chrysler dealership. NO ONE can find any problems, however I have never been able to have the vehicle checked when the problems were occurring.
AnswerHi Jon,
Thanks for the positive rating. I guess there is no easy way to get the codes without a reader and a fairly sophisticated one at that to get anything meaningful from the CCD bus.
But here are a couple of more things to try:
Check the - post battery clamp wire that goes to the left frame rail to make sure it is grounded and tight, similarly do the ground connection to the rear of the cylinder block at the wire that also comes from that clamp.
Then you would do well to check the following fuses, all of which supply power to the CCD bus, checking for any subtle cracks in the internal wire that might make the voltage supply flakey:
In the junction block under the dash: 2, 6
In the power distribution center under the hood: 28, 23
It could be a flakey connection in the ignition switch because 3 sections of that need to be functioning to provide the power as well, so try spraying some electrical contact cleaner internally to the switch using a straw applicator. Finally, you might want to consider whether the battery might be getting near the end of its life, because others have reported gremlins of a similar nature being found to be due to internal connector flaws between the cells that produce noise in the CCD and disrupt its function. But that would be a last resort if you have a relatively new battery.
I hope one of these hits pay dirt.
Roland
Hi Jon,
I can understand the frustration. It appears that there is a problem with the vehicle internal communication system called the CCD bus. If you can't make it happen at the shop then about the only thing I can think of is to try to get the on board diagnostic capability to readout any fault codes that it may have in its memory.
I believe that if you turn the ignition key:"on-off-on-off- on and leave on" doing this is 5 seconds or less elapsed time that there will appear in the odometer window a coded message beginning with a P and followed by 4 digits. So see if that happens now, and let me know if you get any numbers. And of course do it again when one of these symptoms occurs. You might be able to clear the problem when it occurs by disconnecting the - post clamp of the battery for about 10 minutes which may reset the system to normal operation.
The CCD bus includes the powertrain controller, the transmission controller, the dash cluster, the ABS controller, the airbag controller, and the body computer in a network that communicates digital data between them on a pair of twisted wires that have a bias voltage. So any breakdown in that system will play havoc. The trick is to get the system to tell you what exactly is wrong so that corrective action can be taken. Thus the fault code is needed either by ignition key or with a plug-in diagnostic readout. Why there is nothing seen at the shops is a question to me. But see if you can get anywhere with the self-readout and self reset described above.
Roland
