LMAO. The reasons for more PM's might be obvious. Geeezzz.

 

Hi all,
Got a new battery yesterday, did not solve the problem. Strange thing still happening.
To be exact, this is what happened: speedometer stayed at zero, spoiler raised up, hand-brake light on, low brake pad light on, ABS light on, BAS/ESP light on, automatic trans locked into gear (it locked in 1st gear if it happens while I was at the traffic light, and it locked in 5th gear if it happened while I was on freeway). It could happens anytime, I don't see a specific patten. Restarting the car will back to normal.
Any ideas?

 

Exact same problem I'm having. Did you figure out the problem? Or is it still having issues? Thanks for your time.

 

YOu are describing a bad battery and/or 'dirty' power to the vehicle electrical system.

If your battery is a white "Varta" battery - replace it. DO NOT TEST IT, replace it-today-now.
If your battery is over three years old and the following list does not help, replace it.

On to the list.....
There is a little box near the battery where a pigtail from the positive battery terminal goes. This is a distribution point for several items in the car - pry the cover open and verity the nuts are all tight.

Verify the battery terminals are tight and clean - remove them from the battery and brush the posts and terminals with a steel wire brush if they look bad.
Follow the battery ground cable to the bolt that attaches it to the fender - is the lug clean? Is the bolt tight? If either battery cable's terminals are really bad looking, it could be that the corrosion has set into the crimp and you need either new cables or at LEAST new cable terminals.

Open the box next to the battery that contains the ECM/PTCM, RCM and BCM - is there ANY evidence of water in there?

Look under the passenger side floor mat for water intrusion.

Look in the trunk/hatch area for water intrusion - paying close attention to the PASSENGER side.

If you find water intrusion in any of these areas, you are about to spend a LOT of money. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

 

Thanks for the information

I cleaned every ground I could find, pulled the cover near the battery, loosened and re-tightened all the connectors. Used my battery terminal cleaners to clean both terminal connectors and battery posts, trickle charged the battery all night on a tender and performed the rcm re-solder.

There is no evidence of water in the RCM/ECU control box, none on, in or around the TCU on the passenger floor, and only an old trace of dried water on the trunk floor, under all the styrofoam. I wiggled all the connectors to the black box, and there is no evidence of water inside or outside.

Next, I'm going to replace the battery, and install the old one in my '72 Dodge, which has a 10+ year old Interstate battery. The manufacture date of the Crossfire's battery is February, 2010. The Energizer has 770 cca and 920 ca. Tested with a voltmeter: 12.85 volts while off, 14.5 volts while running, and 10.6 volts while cranking.

Will let you know the result of replacing the battery. I'm thinking it's something expensive, instead, but worth a shot. If that doesn't work, new battery cables. After that, Chrysler dealer to get a proper scan. p0600 on my scanner gives a non-specific fault.

 

Replaced my 3 year old battery with an Everstart Maxx H6, from Wal-mart. The Crossfire hasn't had any of the crazy limp mode issues, nor a lit up christmas tree dash since it had the old battery replaced last night. Will continue to monitor the dash for the next week or so and see if the problem was the battery all along.

The old battery is still fully charged, and works fine in my other vehicle. I'll take a completely dead battery back to get the core charge refund, and keep the old Energizer in my '72 Dodge, until it dies in another 3 or 4 years

Going to trade the Crossfire in or sell it, since I need a small van or truck. Anybody want a 41,000 km (25,000ish mile) '04 SSB, auto, coupe? 11k.

 

The battery can REALLY send you off the rails in the Crossfire. I had a Durango that did the same thing - all sorts of weird issues, then changed the battery and I was fine!

I know it makes little sense, but modern auto electronics are VERY fussy about having clean electrical power.

 

Then what's your opinion of installing a large farad ( boomer sound system type ) capacitor across the battery ?

kinda like this : Power Acoustik PCX-5F Digital Capacitor - Walmart.com

 

In a lot of cases, I think that would help. But in my case, the car cranked and started, but when I let go of the key, it died. I would think that, during cranking, even a 5 Farad cap would not be enough. But I COULD be wrong.

Certainly, in the case of less-severe troubles, the cap may very well work. For $50, perhaps this would be something for some people to try when having all these problems.
If I owned a shop that dealt with such issues, the cap may be a good trouble shooting tool.

 

Forum etiquette. Much of our learning is trial and error.

Search before you ask.
Title should be specific.
Post final solution.
Be civil.
Caps equal shouting.
"Thank you" never hurts.
Remember this forum is in American English and can be a challenge for some.
Technical nomenclature is new to novices.
acronyms abbreviations and initials may need explanation
Keep it fun.

 

Thank you for helping diagnose the bad battery, everyone :-)

 

Problem fixed, Good as new!

It was the ABS module causing all the problems, please see my previous posts regarding the issues I had.

Also confirming 2004 year model uses a different ABS module than the other 2005+ year models, you can find the exact part number from a diffent thread. They have different wire connector so are not interchangable.

 

I had caught the "specific year" looking at parts on Ebay.. nice to see it confirmed. But your saying "Just" the ABS module gave you all those symptoms? As I've got spoiler up-ABS light only and that would make me think module is good on mine - and narrows to clock spring, yaw sensor ect.

 

Every car may have different problems, but in my case, Yes, after replacing the abs module only (that was over a month ago) all the following issues are gone: speedometer stayed at zero, spoiler raised up, hand-brake light on, low brake pad light on, ABS light on, BAS/ESP light on, automatic trans locked into gear.