Dave, Chrysler doesn't really exist anymore, maybe Fiat has taken a play from Martin Shkreli?

 

 

I agree that we need to find out who is behind this. For items to go from $200 to $800 is absurd. $200 for a key, in the first place, is greed at the highest, much less $800. I can't speak for the SKREEM unit, since I never had to buy one, but, when Needswings was selling them for approx. $275, their new price is nothing but rape. Speaking of "Needswings", Rob should be able to tell us who is behind all this price gouging. He must have some information from his suppliers. You can't just accept price increases like these and NOT have a lot of questions. If all parts stores, had increases like these they'd be asking a lot of questions. I'm not asking Rob to risk his relationship with his suppliers, but I would think that they would be more than willing to let him know where this stuff has started, just to protect themselves.

In the meantime, what are we going to do to find alternate sources for our electronic related items, ie. keys and electronic unit's and modules? I still believe in the adage that need is the mother of all invention. Isn't there some bright electrical engineers out there, somewhere, that can start making these things on an as needed basis, and for an affordable price? For an example, the hot rod gang has for the last 60 plus years, spawned many new industries because of the need. Where did dropped axle's, multiple carb intakes, custom ground camshafts, stroker kits, locked rear members, aluminum heads, and so on, come from? Not the car factories! The same goes for the racing crowd. There even making steel duplicate car bodies and other items to take the place of the originals. Small cottage industries have grown to profitable concerns because of the NEED. As an example, I personally know the gentleman that started the "Escort" radar detector company. He is an electrical engineer that saw a need and went to work to make an affordable radar detector. Today he is a retired multi-millionaire. Just one example!

Pardon me for digressing so far, but I just believe there has to be a solution to our problem. If I was thirty years young instead of eighty years old, I sure would push hard to find a company that could help us out.

Thanks for indulging my comments,

Jim

 

I just want to be clear about something. I'm not blaming Rob at "Needswings" for the price increases. It would be easy for someone to interpret my comment above as calling Rob's prices "rape". Not so,for he is just reflecting the increase he has gotten. The "rape" charge goes back to the originators. That's who we need to get the name's of. If we can accomplish that, perhaps there is some government agency that we can approach for help. I would think that Rob and Needswings could help us out, there.

Thanks again, for your indulgence,

Jim

 

How come this disappeared from the "new posts" section? Did we hit a nerve with someone that doesn't want this post to be seen?

 

It disappears from the New Posts when you personally have looked at it, it then appears in the vBLive section, it still appears in the Daily posts for a while and the forum it was written in originally.

 

Probably not. The interactions between the ECU and SKREEM (as well as other modules) is rather complex. While it CAN be done, that "affordable price" part is the obstacle.

Relax. Josh is working on a solution. Give him time.

 

I would pay for the shipping of a dead skreem module, with the intent of inspecting and trying to see if the module has a detectable faults. It might be a relay module like failure that could be detected by probing or under my 60x scope. Let me know if you have one to part with, thanks Woody.

 

Woody, Josh Chase has already received a dead skreem and has looked into it and got far enough to declare that he is now capable of cloning a working used skreem to the user's VIN.
He stated he will continue to investigate the cause of failure.
He also stated that his clone charge will be $300, not including the cost of the working module.

 

WOW! Josh, Woody, and ala-xfire, that is great news. I'm sure glad to hear that someone is able to take on this problem. If I had an expired SKREEM unit I would be glad to donate it for the "team". Since I'm electrically bankrupt, I do not understand all this electronic stuff. I say "stuff" because I don't understand all this electronic equipment that's on these cars.

I hope that some of our members have a defunct SKREEM unit that they can donate for the cause. Hopefully, several members will have units that they can donate to help solve our problem. If all works out well, and comes to fruition, I hope it will be well publicized on this forum. We need the good news!

Jim

 

 

Remember the added motivation to develop a SKREEM fix is the very strong potential that the current availability of replacements may dry up.
From NeedsWings text on their SKREEM order page:
"In the near future we expect Chrysler to discontinue these as we are seeing it happen on other Chrysler/Mercedes vehicles and other crossfire parts. Get them while you can!"
As said in other SKREEM postings, I wimped out and bought a replacement at the "new" ridiculous price. Murphy's Law has been a buddy of mine for many years and I didn't want to lose my Crossfire without any possibility of having a "single point of failure" replacement part available.
That said, this very real threat to our community needs to reach as many forum members as possible to raise support for the efforts being made by members now working on a solution.
Strength in numbers! Otherwise the imbalance in the Supply/Demand curve of a single source SKREEM will continue to drive prices up until the supply reaches ZERO.
Just saying...

 

180 - I agree with you 100% and your original post about shaming the culprits. I do wish that someone who is in the know would let us know who the culprits are. I'm a little disappointed in Needswings not letting us know, what he must know, about the price increases. I thought he would pick up on this right away and help us out. Surely, there are others on this forum and the MB forum, that have some information they could share. I very much endorse the public shaming of the price gougers. If you and I, as well as many others keep this going it will not be "going off the rails". I wish it could go back on the main stream post's so more people would see it.

As for the others, Josh, Woody, and ala-xfire, I'm glad to get their information and to hear that someone is working on the problem. That's more than we knew yesterday, as far as I'm concerned. It sounds like the proposed improvements will be better (I hope) than what we have now, and will be cheaper than $600 or $800 bucks. If I am wrong, please let me know. I'm open minded and welcome any improvement to the Crossfire's electrical woe's and the key problem as well. Getting someone to do something is better than nobody doing anything. Maybe this will lead to bigger and better equipment for all of us.

Jim

 

Chooch - Good point. Glad to hear you support the efforts of others working on this.

Jim

 

I suspect that what is described above is what has just happened. Fiat - Chrysler has washed its hands of these parts and sold the rights to some company which is intent on making back its investment as soon as possible before most cars are consigned to a breakers yard. The oldest cars are 14 years old plus and not too many cars of that age are still on the road, so FC thinks why waste time in controlling spares for them especially as most parts come from Mercedes.

 

Same key/SKREEM is used by 1998-2004 Mercedes.

 

I agree Dave. I put that question to Josh some weeks ago, his response was essentially that the interactions between the SKREEM and ECM were rather involved and his idea of cloning a replacement from even a dead one was his quick answer for now.

The problem is, there are a lot of messages sent between the SKREEM and ECU during startup that the ECU must get the right responses to. There is no 'bypass' technique easily available. I was thinking there must be a way to set up, say, an Arduino controller to emulate the SKREEM's interactions with the ECU. Apparently, it just isn't that easy.

 

Exactly, Dave.

 

NEEDSWINGS DID LET ALL OF US KNOW!!! A short while back he ran a special price for the SKREEM and plainly said he did not know how much longer these prices would be available from Chrysler! What do you want? All of us were given a heads-up. Go back and check his post >> it is there if you read between the lines. I feel quite certain Needswings did not have the exact date of the price increase/cut off, but he saw it coming and he let us know the best way he could without any more info than you or I have. I wish I could make a more coherent and understandable statement, but there is NO BLAME to be directed at Needswings! He gave us all his best estimate of the situation and those who did not see the warning should not cast stones!