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You are here: Experts > Home/Garden > Auto Repair > Chrysler Repair > 1999 Chrysler Town and Country Limited Editon Engine shut off
Chrysler Repair - 1999 Chrysler Town and Country Limited Editon Engine shut off
Expert: Roland Finston - 11/10/2009
Question
QUESTION: We were driving home from a wedding this afternoon when the battery light came on followed by the ABS light and the failure of the fuel gauge, tach and speedometer/odometer. The fuel gauge started to register again and then everything shut down and the engine died. All this happened in the space of about a 1/2 mile as I looked for a safe place to pull over. checked battery, starter, ignition, altinatior; replaced PCM but still not fixed. Now we just keep it running.
ANSWER: Hi Kristina,
I need to know exactly what is and isn't working now, what warning lights are 'on', what parts of the instrument cluster do and don't work. When you say "we just keep it running" does that mean it is driveable or if not, what is going on with the engine/transmission. How did you find a PCM so fast to get it replaced? Was this done at a dealership or an independent shop?
Roland
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Sorry about typo--meant to say we just can't keep it running for more than a few seconds.Engine 3.8L; No warning lights show, no codes; AC and air re-circulation/top two wiper lights flashing on dash board;engine light came on code said EGR valve needed to be replaced and was replaced twice check engine light now off this occurred around same time dash board lights were flashing don't know if it is related--probably not;then after EGR valve replace several months later the car shared shutting down; these lights were reset and when the car acted up again"shutting down" the flashing continued again;When car was shutting down abs and battery lights came on;Also for last six months battery inconsistently would need to be recharged for no apparent reason and was also replaced but same problem still continued;battery cells checked out ok; when I turn key to manually unlock driver's door a relay starts to flicker on very top of left hand side interior fuse box;when I turn the key off from ignition and pull out key occasionally just more recently the battery saver relay keeps clicking repeatedly; car was tested for draw by self and dealership showed no draw; dealership recommend pcm replace; we replaced by ourselves and they reprogrammed it successfully.
Answer
I wonder if when the dealer 'reprogrammed' the pcm they also took into account the vehicle theft security system? I assume you have that feature. The problem is when you set the alarm by locking the door with the key, the power door locks, or the key fob, and then come back to start the engine, if you don't successfully disarm the system, the way the engine controller protects against theft is to allow the engine to start but then it shuts it down (kills the spark/fuel pump/injectors) after about 2-3 seconds of operation. If the programming of the pcm was done today, and then you drove it home, and then you secured it, and then tried to start it and it shuts down in exactly the same amount of time, then you may indeed have an alarmed body computer which needs to be disarmed. Just a thought...In the meantime, please just experiment to see if the time between start and die is consistent/repeatable.
The relay that is clicking on the upper left is the door unlock relay, and it may be doing that if the battery voltage were a bit too low to activate it properly. I don't know what the 'battery saver' relay is, of which you speak. I will await your observations about whether the run time before shut down is variable or consistent. Once the 'no run' problem is resolved we can try to understand the balance of the current problem which I am still not clear about.
Roland
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