Hi All,
Here's my sad story - about 10 months ago I drove my 2005 crossfire automatic roadster home after doing some errands and parked it in the driveway. Next day I hopped in to go to breakfast, put the key in as usual, lights come on on the dash, I hear the usual noises like the fuel pump, but when I turn the key to start, nothing happens - no starter solenoid click, nothing. The shift lever wouldn't come out of park.

Symptoms:
1) dash board lights come on when key is turned to the on position
2) turning the key to the start position, nothing happens
3) there is a black square in the space on the instrument cluster that should show the gear shift lever position (P, R, N, D, etc..). I didn't notice this until after I started my diagnostics, so I don't know if it was there from the very beginning or occurred latter on.
4) with my foot on the brake, and the key in the ignition in the "on" position, the shift lever was stuck in the park position.
5) never got the 3 starts and you're out. Key Fob opens and closes the door locks. Console switch group works.

What I've tried so far:
1) I removed the lower dash panel, removed the brake light switch, tested it with an ohm meter, seemed to be okay, re-installed it checking the clearance and travel. Pushing 3 times on the brake pedal, a little harder each time, turned the key to the ON position, shifter comes out of park now.
2) Given that the RCM is usually the issue, I swapped out the RCM with one from a working XF, no change. I put the RCM from the not working XF into the working one, and everything seemed to work okay.
3) I measured all of the pins on the RCM and pulse module with the ignition key in the on position. I pulled down the fuel pump secondary relay coil using a 5 ohm resistor on pin 3E (pin 3, connector E on the RCM) to ground. This activates the fuel pump relay to apply 12V to pin RCM 3B, fuel pump power, but I didn't hear the fuel pump go. I bled the fuel rail schrader value, connected rcm 3E back to ground, watched the fuel pressure climb, and measured 60psi from the fuel pump. Fuel pump seems to be okay. I put a 5 ohm resistor on pulse module connector A, pin 2 and connected that to ground through a momentary switch. If I close the momentary switch nothing happens, but if a turn the key to start, and close the momentary switch simultaneously, the start motor engages (12V on PM 1B gets connected to PM 1F). Unfortunately, the car still doesn't start. I think the RCM and the PM seem to be working as expected. Some other details: to jump the connector pins, I opened the back panel on the connector. To protect the PCM, I pulled the socket out of the connector (RCM 3E or PM 2A). The space between the pin coming out of the RCM housing connector and the plastic of the connector plug was very tight - the lead of a 1/4 Watt resistor worked pretty well. Initially, I tried using a 100 ohm resistor to ground, but that didn't work - the relay didn't close, but it turned out that you need at least 160 mA to activate the relay (the spec sheet for the relay says 120 mA min - not sure why it's 160mA...)
4) I dropped the TCM panel under the passenger seat to inspect the TCM for any transmission oil wicking up - the transmission and radiator fluids had been replaced about 2 months earlier so I just want to be sure. I disconnected all of the connectors on that panel, didn't observe any oil, but still sprayed all the connectors with electronic contact cleaner and reinstalled - no joy.
5) I removed the center console to get to the SLA. (more details below) The SLA connector was another connector that just would not come out. Eventually, I used a thin metal shim between the connector and the housing to remove it. There is a small hook on the connector plug body that engages into the housing connector body. I measure 12v and ground on the correct SLA pins. I measured the continuity between the SLA CAN bus pins and the TCM CAN bus pins. I measured the SLA can bus termination - it was 37kohms.
6) I had bought a micropod II clone a while back, but it did seem to work. Looking on the web, I found that there was a defect, and if you soldered one leg of a transistor to ground, it would work. I spent a while doing that, but I finally succeeded. I connected it up, and seemed to be able to talk to all the modules. I checked if the SLA was reading Park, and it was. The TCM was reading Park, and it was. I could talk to the instrument cluster (change the time, enable/disable the gear position indicator, etc...), so I still don't understand why I have the black rectangle in the IC. I read a DTC on the IC - P0600 IC/HVAC no can bus communication.
7) So now that it seems to be a CAN BUS issue, I read up on the CAN BUS. As far as I can tell, the PCM, the SKREEM, the SLA, the TCM, the CAB, and the IC are on the same CAN BUS. The BCM and the CLP/SSM are on another CAN BUS. The PCM and the SKREEM modules have the 120 ohm termination resistors. When I back probe pins 1 and 11 on PCM C4, I measure 140 ohms. When I do the same thing on the other working XF, I measure 60 ohms. When I remove the PCM C4 connector, and probe pins 1 and 11, I measure -3Mohms (yes, negative 3 mega ohms) => I have a voltage on the pins. Measuring voltage, I measure -0.67 Volts. With the negative battery terminal disconnected, I measure 0 volts and around 100 kohms. I'm guessing I have either a bad module on the can bus or an open can bus wire. I've started measuring the continuity between the different modules, but first I have to make long probe leads so I can connect one end to the PCM and the other to inside the passenger compartment.

Sorry for the long post, but if you've made it this far, thanks for reading my sad story. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I like to write down more details then are probably needed for discussion, but I find I usually have to refer back to what I did before to solve some other problems that may come up.

-Jerry
PS. I just notice I misspelled rectangle in the title, but it won't let me edit the title.


More details on removing the center console: This was not as easy as the youtube videos and some of the forum discussion make out. I had four issues removing the center console
1) it seems none of the videos I watched or blogs I read were on a limited - the center console part between the seats has a pneumatic lock with very little slack in it. It took me a while to figure out how to remove it, but how I finally did it was to remove the cup holder pocket and using long nose pliers pop the T bar of the pneumatic switch out of the forks in the lock. Then I removed the clip holding the pneumatic switch to the lock. Now, after removing the 2 screws and 2 nuts, the boot on the emergency brake using a heat gun, I could slide the console out.
2) If you have an after market radio, remove the auxiliary cage that is used to hold it into the XF OEM pocket. I have a Kenwood radio with the cage. It looked like the cage should just come out with the fascia, so I started prying up around the trim. The trim came up, but left the attaching half behind. Once I figured that out, I removed the cage, the fascia came out easily, except in my case, the black backing plate was separated form the silver trim. Fortunately, using PVC primer and glue, the plastic glued back together without a problem. Seems just as strong as new.
3) Removing the connectors from the center console switch assembly was a bear as many youtube videos suggest don't remove them it you don't have to. There is one long 14 pin connector and a couple 4 pin connectors which only have one pin populate. The long connector came out fairly easily, but the small ones wouldn't budge. I probably don't have the hand strength I once did, but even with pliers, I couldn't get them out. The pliers just seemed to be destroying them. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I drilled holes through the connectors - they only had one wire in them, so I drilled a 1/16" hole close to the line separating the connector plug from the housing connector. I then put a small allen wrench through the hole, and pried up on the allen wrench using a screwdriver. The connectors came out pretty easily after that.
4) Removing the ashtray, cigarette lighter housing - some videos say move it one way or another and it should pop out - didn't work for me at all. Reading the blog about adding paddle shifters, it recommended cutting the plastic holding the two sides of the console together - it's a plastic bar behind the SLA, i.e., towards the trunk of the car. Using a exacto knife balsa saw, I cut the plastic bar. Now I could lever the two sides apart, and pull the ashtray console out.