2000 Chrysler Concorde LX Sedan 4D

I have a 2000 Chrysler Concorde LX Sedan 4D. Recently upon starting my car
dashboard lights, airbag, brake and abs come on and stay on while the car
is running. Also air condition, power windows,turn signals do not work
while driving. This does not happen all the time. Please help?? Nino

 

Bad clockspring.

 

Most likely one of two causes:
(1) Battery going bad. On the LH cars, the kinds of symptoms you
describe are obseverved when the battery is going bad (possible
intermittent internal battery short.
(2) The connections at the positive jump post (just inboard of the air
filter box - remove the little black cover for access to the stud and
nuts) are loose. With the exception of the hot wire to the alternator,
*ALL* power from the battery to the vehicle goes thru the positive jump
node - three cables: cable from battery, cable to starter, cable to
everything else. The cables are clamped together on a stud by nuts.
The nuts can get slightly loose, giving a high resistance and
intermittent connection. Make sure those nuts are tightly clamping the
cable terminals. They can fool you because the heat and arcing (from
their being loose) can bond the threads of the nut to the stud - you
apply torque and it feels like it's tight. You have to first loosen the
nuts to break the bond between the nuts and the stud, then proceded to
tighten really good and tight. (Careful - don't let the wrench touch any
surrounding metal while in contact with the nuts - that's 12V right from
the battery. If you short it to ground, you will get a lot of sparks
with high potential of damage and/or injury to yourself.) You can also
tell if the nuts are not clamping the cable terminals by attempting to
rotate the terminals around the stud - if they rotate by hand, the nuts
are not tight, i.e., are not clamping the terminals tightly.

Similar to (2), check the negative jump post (at passenger side strut
tower) - which is the main battery ground to the body - for tightness.
It being loose can behave similarly to a loose positive jump post. You
might also check the terminals *at* *the* *battery* for corrosion and
tightness (battery located under the air filter box - access by jacking
up and removing passenger side front wheel and removing fender liner -
or by removing air filter box).

Check for (1) first by having the battery properly load tested by a
competent and honest technician. Be aware that if they connect to the
battery thru the positive jump post for testing (the most convenient and
likely place for them to hook up), if the positive jump post connection
is in fact poor, it can falsely indicate that the battery is bad. BTDT.

Good luck. Post back with what happens.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Ignition switch. It's not returning to the 'Run' position after starting. Next
time it happens, jiggle the key, or lightly turn it back (counter clockwise) and
see if things go back to normal.

 

My dad-in-law ("Mr. Know-It-All") bought one of these, which is how I
got his '86 Fifth Avenue. Same identical symptoms, and I traced it
down to oxidation at the battery terminals which caused excessive IR
drop at the positive feeder for the fuse distribution block. Cleaned
the terminals and clamps, no further problem. There are several
different tie points at the positive post...clean/tighten them all. I
always dress battery terminals with No-Ox-Id (hard to find, but the
best) and that usually prevents a recurrance.

Also, a discharged battery (or one with one or more sulphated cells)
will give this same symptom after an inadequate jump start.

 

If you have a large amount of keys on your key ring the ignition switch may
not return back to the proper position allowing some functions to not work.
As another poster said try jiggling the ignition switch to see if
everything starts working. Do this while not driving the vehicle

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

check the battery connections and replace if corroded, poor grounds do all
sorts of weird stuff to electrical circuits and dc offers a battery connection
repair kit
also have abs a nd bcm checked for fault codes