I'm troubleshooting an issue with our family's 2005 Chrysler Crossfire. The car will crank, generally fire, and almost immediately die.

The SKREEM has been replaced roughly two years ago. Battery is new and fully charged thanks to a tender. Sometimes, the car will crank, fire, and die. Other times, the key can be turned to Start and absolutely nothing will happen. Lights/beeps, yes, but no click or crank attempts from the starter.

We have not replaced the RCM (Relay Control Module) yet. The fuel pump primes every single time when the key is turned to Run, whether the car attempts to run the starter or not. After three starting attempts, whether they are successful or not, the starter will not run again unless the negative battery terminal is disconnected and reconnected. The radiator fan does NOT go into fail-safe and run at full blast at any time during this process. Both key fobs work to lock/unlock the car via remote. The trunk unlocks as designed with the remotes. The spoiler stays down and does not rise up on its own (which is a sign of low voltage, I guess).

This is a fun new issue, the car belongs to my mom and has 19k miles on the odometer. She does not drive it often and keeps it on a battery tender when not in use. The last time she drove it, she unplugged the tender and had a full day of driving with multiple starts/stops and ignition cycles with zero issues. She put the top up and down several times and that worked fine.

Any help would be appreciated, I took this video when I visited them but we do not live super close to each other. So, I tried to gather as much info as possible and now I need to diagnose and buy some parts a bit blindly. Wondering if the RCM is going bad (or relay(s) in it) or the crank sensor or potentially fuel pressure regulator. This issue showed up with the car totally cold, it had been parked for several weeks when my folks first observed this happening.

Video of the issue is here:

You Tube

 

Nothing new and certainly not fun about it,
​​​​​​​Those are once again the classic SKREEM issues. Did the previous repair come with a warranty ?

 

Not sure, it was done at a dealership that (at the time) my friend owned. The dealership still exists though he and his family don't own it.

Edit: I thought a dead SKREEM (or dying) would never ever try to crank the engine. If you listen/watch the video, it fires and idles smoothly for the most brief period. My memory from our last SKREEM failure was a total no-start condition.

 

To me, in your video it sounds like your second try did not really get the engine to fire; i.e., just a bit too short on the starter engagement. The classic SKREEM symptoms is two short starts like you had on #1 and #3 tries, then no crank on the third try. (not counting your #2 here...boy this might be confusing.)

You can disconnect the battery cables for 15 minutes, then try again. See if you get two short runs, then nothing at all on the third.

 

So I tried starting it multiple times. The first few attempts went strong start, weak start, nothing at all (no click from starter). The more I tried, the healthier it seemed to get. Every time, I got three tries and then nothing. Disconnecting the battery - even for a minute or two - would give me three more attempts.

That sounds SKREEM-y given the three tries and total cutoff, right?

When it did fire (on the first try in my video) it was initially sounding pretty bad, vaguely misfire-y. That cleared up the more I tried to start it. Disconnecting the MAF didn't help. I think generally a crank sensor failure shows up with a warm/hot engine, not stone-cold. So either SKREEM or RCM?

 

My guess would be SCREEM considering the symptoms.

 

If I let mine sit for three weeks (and I often do) its first start is a bit rough as well. Measuring fuel pressure is easy - it's like measuring tire pressure, so do it and you better see 56-58 pounds at the end of the fuel rail, Summit Racing has several test kits under $50 that work very well, I have one and it eliminates guessing at times like this - for $38, since I lived ten miles from a Summit store at the time I bought it.

But again as others have said, this sure looks all "Dead SKREEM" to me.

Personally, I do not believe in hooking a car to a battery tender (and your house wiring, therefore the electric grid) without yanking the battery cable. YOu are connecting the entire electrical system of the car to the dangers in the grid, thru a cheap Chinease-made battery charger? How could THAT possibly go wrong? Not that it's my bussiness what others do with their cars, but we have enough electrical issues with these cars - why no do what I do - Start the car and let it run 20 mins every three weeks and you don't need that damn piece of China-made crap hooked to your car. (PLEASE do not get the idea I give a damn what others do with their cars - I dont. I just don't understand why people take car maintenance advice from TV advertisements. )

 

Definitely good to check fuel pressure. I have a kit that I can bring up the next time I visit them.

I've been using battery tenders for the better part of a decade, from reputable brands, across multiple makes/models of vehicles. No issues. Same for a gaggle of friends. Let's hold the "made in China" comments, please, plenty of us are using a lot of other items that are totally well-made and coming out of factories in China. Insinuating that items made there are by default terrible is... not a great look.

Sounds like SKREEM is the top culprit, though.

 

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A car battery is a very good filter for spikes through your electrical grid, especially if you have an EAGLE ELECTRIC 1577 RESIDENTIAL TVSS PANEL (or equivalent) installed on your mains. Just an FYI.


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Update on this. Replaced the RCM with a brand new unit and no change, same symptoms. I need to have my folks check fuses, sounds like 35 and 37 feed the SKREEM and 11 feeds the coil packs.

Crank position sensor is original to the car. Fuel pump makes noise when you turn key to Run. I can check fuel pressure at the rail next time I am up there. This is all made more fun because I'm 2.5 hours away from the car... ugh.

 

Your video has a clue in it - all those lights coming on, that is not normal AND its an indication that 35 and 37 are fine.
I tried pulling fuse 35 in my car - three cranks and nothing, as if the SKREEM was not talking at all (and it probably wasn't).
I tried putting 35 back in and yanking 37, I saw the car do the oddest thing, it seemed to learn a little, it never started but it seemed to "get better" at trying.
In both cases, I did not get a dash full of lights.

I'm starting to think you dont have a SKREEM issue after all - I just dont' know what to think.

 

Looking at your video, I can see your fuel gauge is near the red-zone. I'm guessing your Mom doesn't drive the car very often. Could the fuel be "stale". Do you know when she last filled up the tank with gasoline? Was it ethanol-free gasoline or the other stuff?

 

Not sure when it was last filled up. Probably a few months ago at this point and with "normal" 93 octane with ethanol.

I'd think that if it was bad gas, it would at least try to stay running, albeit poorly. And I leave half a tank of gas in my racecar for the entire off season with no ill effects - can't think three-month-old gas would be that problematic.

 

Maybe the gauge is off and it is out of gas?

 

Doubt that the car is truly out of gas to where it wouldn't even stay running for a few seconds. The issue is electronic, IMO.

Dad checked the relevant fuses (11 for coil packs, 35/37 for SKREEM) and they were all fine. I won't be up there until the week of Christmas, so my plan now is to bring my DRB III emulator and a crank position sensor and some tools.

 

Interesting . . . I just picked up a R170 car yesterday that had just been driven on Tuesday but when we tried it yesterday it was doing the same thing. I did not own the car at the moment so the details are thin but I had it towed to the house and I am headed out now to investigate. If it is the SKREEM I believe I saw on flea bay where you can get it bypassed and be done with it. Maybe I was dreaming . . .Keep us posted

 

That option is available, I don't recall the company.

 

So now I have beeps, no lights on dash and no click from the key being turned. owners manual is useless.

 

Here is the link for the SKREEM DELETE that was on the forum awhile ago. I saved it just in case but so far so good. I have no experience with this company or product.
Jim

​​​​​​https://www.precisionecu.com/product...e-plug-n-drive

 

I am dealing with the same issue. I think when it first happened, it did three tries like this then lockout. I have tried a couple of other times after disconnect, though as I recall, the next time, it just did one try, then lockout.

Did you ever get this resolved? You said you tried several times, could your issue now be that you did it 10 times and now the ecu or whatever is destroyed to prevent theft?