1) No I haven't . I'll go look.
2) I totally agree.

 

Mick - did you ever figure out your problem? I am in the same boat - no starter engagement. New battery on 8/16/2019 and RCM was rebuilt by DJ. I am getting a 1/2 second pulse of 12.5VDC at 1F from the PM (but the starter doesn't even kick) then nothing. If I connect 12 VDC to pin 6 of connector C106 (the other end of the wire from 1F), the starter wil engage. Did you find out or prove what (if anything) gives the PM the "go" or "no go" command?

Thanks - Randy

 

Randy, No I didn’t. I bought a pulse module off eBay, but before it was delivered, I decided to re-solder every joint on the RCM. This fixed my problem but I was not able to identify what the actual cause of the fault was

 

Roger that - glad you got it running!!

I'll keep digging into my problem and see what I can come up with.

Thanks!!

Randy

 

I did, however, figure out that when there is 12VDC on B2 of the Pulse Module, when A2 is pulled to ground, the starter relay closes and passes the 12VDC to F1. I assume that ground for A2 is coming from the PCM since A2 is connected to connector C4, Pin 35 of the PCM.

 

I know you saw the relays working but are the contacts clean? Dirty contacts will not complete the circuit if they are too damaged.
The RCM seemed to be the cause of the trouble as noted in other posts.
Somehow I doubt your problem is as complex as you are making it, we can get carried away with our problems and end up not seeing the woods for the trees.

 

Best of luck !
Mick

 

Dave, I couldn't agree with you more!! Especially since the car showed absolutely no signs of a problem prior to this. As far as clean contacts on the RCM are concerned - I'll crack it back open and give them another look, but I sent this in to DJ for a complete rebuild and it looks like he replaced all the relays except the horn relay as they (the 4 other relays) have a darker metal case that the horn relay does - so I know they are different than what I sent in. I would assume that DJ used all new relays, but it's worth a look. Hell, it doesn't cost me a dime to do that. But still, I think it's something simple that I am missing - I mean how often do the PTCMs go tango uniform without a warning in these cars? From what I am reading (and I've done a lot of reading), it's not very often.

What also throws me is that after messing with this problem (way back in May), for no apparent reason, it cranked and fired right up when I was holding the RCM (opened) in my hand - so I KNEW it had to be RCM related - bad board, broken trace, something along those lines and maybe I had bent the board just right to make good contact, but I couldn't get the car to start again no matter how I held/twisted the board - so I sent it to DJ for a real thorough check. He said it worked fine before he rebuilt it and worked fine when he was done - I feel like I am banging my head against a tree trying to figure this out.

Thanks for all the suggestions and walking with me through this - I'll get it figured out or there will be a TON of SRT parts up for sale ;-)

Randy

 

Could it be in one of the wiring harness going to the RCM? A loose contact or bad wire?

 

Big possibility on that. Out of frustration today, I puilled the RCM out of the box and tapped it about 6 times on the heat shield ... and the damn thing started!! Let it run for about 10 minutes and shut it of and it went back to the mystery no start symptoms. Not sure if me tapping it on the heat shield or moving the wires getting it out of the box triggered the start, but no amount of movement or tapping after that allowed it to start again. I pulled the cover off of the RCM and looked at the solder joints on it and saw some that could use a little cleaning up. They may be good, but I work in the aircraft industry and some of the solder joints would not pass (flux left on the pads, too much solder on some, non uniform, etc). I always think the inspectors get too picky when they critique my soldering, but now it's ingrained in me when I look at finished solder jobs. So, since it doesn't cost me anything, I am going to clean up the "suspect" solder joints and go from there - actually, I am going to touch all of them for good measure. I'll do a good inspection of the relay contacts while I'm doing this and make sure they are clean. If that doesn't work, I'll start tracing all the wires and connectors that go to the RCM and see if there is a failure of one of those.

But, like you and Dave said, I am really thinking the problem is near the RCM.

Thanks again - I'll keep you all posted.

Randy L

 

I retouched and cleaned up all the solder connections on the RCM as well as inspected/cleaned the contacts of the relays and that did not help (I didn't think it would, but I feel better now). I also put the RCM on the bench and hooked it up to 12VDC (Power to D2 and Ground to B5) to check continuity after the 2 relays (Traction and Engine Control) close and everything works as expected per the diagrams. I feel pretty confident that I can call the RCM good.

Looking at diagram 8W-10-21, the next step in the path goes from the Engine Control Relay to the C5 connector on the Powertrain Control Module (PCM). I disconnected the C5 connector from the PCM and checked for continuity from E6 and E4 of the RCM to the PCM C5-9 and C5-3 respectively and the wires checked good. Did some wiggling of the wires in the C5 connector to make sure they were seated tightly in the connector and they were good. Inspected the mating connector at the PCM and it looked good as well. After all the inspection, I plugged it all back together and checked for 12VDC at C5-3 and C5-9 with the key on and that checked good. I tried to start it one more time and the car cranked (starter engaged) for about 1/2 a second, acted like it wanted to fire and then stopped cranking. I tried again and got no starter engagement. Disconnected the C5 connector again, wiggled/pulled all the wires in it again, plugged it back in and got the same result - 1/2 second started engagement and then nothing. Looking at the C5 connector, there are 4 ground wires in it - locations 5-8. I am thinking that I have an intermittent ground happening here. Those 4 grounds go to location G101 which is behind the windshield washing tank.

So, my next step will be to really look at that ground location, clean it up and make sure there isn't an intermittent problem there. Also, the C5 connection is a "spade" type connection and with my naked eye in the dim light of my garage, it looks like the female (socket) side of the connection at location 7 ~might~ be a bit wider than the others. I'll see if I can tighten that one up so it clamps on the spade tighter.

I'll let you know what happens.

Randy

 

Solution achieved ... I think. As the months wore on, the issues became more like the SKREEM problems as I could get the car to crank a couple of times if I unhooked the battery cable and reconnected it. But, sometimes by doing this, it would start, so I wasn't convinced that it was the SKREEM. Reading the FB posts from people that had used SOS Diagnostics and Precision ECU, I finally bit the bullet and went with the immobilizer delete that Precision ECU offered. It was a couple of hundred cheaper than SOS and I was OK with not having the SKREEM in there. Got the parts back today, installed the ECU (left the SKREEM on the bench), followed the instructions to let the car recognize the now reprogrammed ECU and then tried to start the car ... AND IT FIRED RIGHT UP!! Shut it off and tried again and it started right back up. So, for now, I hope this issue is now behind me and I will never have to worry about that stupid SKREEM again. Curiously, one of the problems that I noticed as all this was going on was when the car would crank, it would only crank if I held the key in the start position. Now, I can let the key fall back to the RUN position and the car will still continue to crank until it starts. Not a big deal, but I found that interesting that the "auto crank" (or whatever you call it) was starting to not work as the symptoms worsened.

Side note: without the SKREEM, your FOB will no longer lock or unlock your doors - no biggie to me - at least for now it's not.

RL

 

Thanks for following up some people never do! Glad to hear your car is back up and running. Also thanks for confirming that the Precision ECU immobilizer delete works but it is unfortunate the remotes no longer work afterwards. Did you have to send your keys also? Are you able to tell us how much it cost for the delete?

 

I have an email into Precision to see if the locks will work with the FOB if I reinstalled the SKREEM. I don't want to just throw it in and try and end up messing something up. If I remember correctly, it won't work, but I am clarifying to be sure.

The cost was $404 and all I had to send was the SKREEM and the ECU.