Chrysler newbie.

Hi...

New to your ng, and more important new to Chrysler. Old long
retired guy, bought my first ever non-gm car today. Used but in
beautiful condition 94 LHS. So far I love it, but of course there
are a couple of faults in any 11 year old car.

First, didn't get an owners manual with it, and really need one.
Anyone point me to where I can buy, beg, borrow, rent, or download
one? Prefer in Canada, if at all possible.

The fuel guage. Intermittently goes between 3/4 of a tank and
none at all. Sometimes the fuel pump idiot light agrees with it,
sometimes doesn't. When the gauge changes, it seems to do it in
steps. Fuel tank ground? Suggestions?

And running lights. None show when the engine's running. I suspect
the two smallish ones nearest car center should light, but neither
do. Possible both bulbs are burned out, but any other thoughts?

Thanks, and take care.

Ken

 

You want the manual in Canadian, eh? I bought my owner's manual and the
shop or factory manual off eBay. The owner's manual was around $7,
usually they wanted more on eBay but I got lucky. Same for the shop
manual, around $25 or so. I think both are helpful and there are things
in one that are not in the other, even regarding maintenance. One nice
thing about the shop manual, it will decode that plate in the engine
compartment. My vehicle was built in Windsor in Canada!

My gauge also has a life of its own. I find keeping it full helps,
sometimes. The sending unit is inside the gas tank, so it's a bit of
labor to fix, if it's the sending unit. I'll have to use mileage until
I get it fixed. But it's annoying to have half a tank and it reads
empty. If it's a ground somewhere, that's a lot easier and cheaper to
fix.

I would check the bulbs if it's easy to get to them and a little twist
to unsocket them. If they are black, it's likely they are burned out.
I'm not a mechanic so maybe the others will have good suggestions.

 

The sending unit is bad causing the flucuation.
It is really easy to replace because the fuel pump is accessed thru the
trunk after you remove the access plate.
As far as the lites go, I assume you are talking about the dash lites, all
you can do is remove the dash and check em. replace if they are burnt

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

Hi Glenn...

Thanks for your reply; good news about the fuel gauge, hopefully
not too expensive.

The lights I meant is the ones that I think are called running lights,
outside the car. The ones that automagically come on whenever the
engine runs.

Looking at the front from outside, the outer ones are park/turn signals,
and work fine. Next is the headlight, seems both high and low beams
are in the same enclosure if i make sense. Then finally nearest the
grill are smaller round lights. Looking at them it appears almost
like there's a magnifying glass behind the bezel or something.
They never come on. Am I right in assuming that they should light
when the engine runs?

Thanks again, and take care.

Ken

 

The owners manual is OK, but a Factory Service Manual is far better.

Could be a bad sending unit. The fuel pump and sending unit on that car
is accessible by lifting the carpeting in the trunk and opening an
access plate over the fuel pump. Gotta kinda squeeze into the trunk to
work on it, but sure beats dropping the tank!

Chrysler's don't normally come with stupid daytime running lights.
Canadian versions got them, not US versions. Was your car originally
sold in the US? If not, then maybe the DRL fuse is out, or the DRL
module has failed. Dan Stern (frequent poster here) can steer you in the
right direction if daytime stupid lights are required by law where you
live. Otherwise, count your blessings you don't have to DEactivate them
to have a normal car that won't annoy everyone else on the road.

 

The have an owner's manual through techauthority.daimlerchrysler.com
for $10.00 USD, but it looks like they only go back to 1995.

-Kirk Matheson

 

It has been so long since I had worked on that system I cant remember, Have
you tried to pull the headlamp switch knob out while the low beams are on to
see if they turn on?

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

Hi Glenn...

Yessir, now I don't have to check the bulbs Great.
It pulls out in the A mode, or with the headlights on, but not
in either of the other two positions (off and park).

If pulled out with the headlights on, they come on, and so does
a small green led in the center of the switch.

If pulled out in the A mode, nothing happens. Perhaps because it's
the middle of the day bright, and I can't find that particular sensor
to cover it to test

Now my silly question - laugh if you must - are these the drl's, or is
there some other use for them as well?

Thanks, and take care.

Ken

 

Ken Weitzel wrote:

They're wanna-be "fog" lights. Not good for anything except spewing
random photons around and annoying oncoming traffic.

 

Make sure the front end reinforcement recall was done on that car or someday
you will have an awful surprise when one of your front wheels caves in.


I had a 94 LHS. Be aware that the ride is almost fully dependent on tire
quality. Stay away from the original Goodyears which rode like rocks after
a year of use. I switched to some Uniroyal self sealing tires and they
were terrific on the car ride wise at least.

The head lights on that car sucked.

If the car is noisy inside and/or you get a clunk from under the AT shifter
console when parking, it is probably the rear AT mount. It has a large
effect on the noise, vibration and harshness of the vehicle.

Great rear seat in that car.

 

Hi Art...

Thanks for the warning... one of the wheels falling off isn't a good
way to start the day, so instead I called the local dealer. Read the
service advisor the serial number, and within minutes he told me that
the repair was done in 2000. Whew! He did say there are two others
outstanding, but not safety related. (driver seat power issue, and a
shift handle something or other).

Still haven't found an owners manual, still can't get the drl's
(mandatory here) to work. Perhaps because a third party remote starter
has been installed. One relay in the engine fuse compartment removed,
and a single wire jumper installed in its place. The relay sits loose
in that compartment, perhaps I'll stick it in and see what happens.

The tires - one had a slow leak. Looks new, so I got walmart to
patch it. They inflated all of them to 35 pounds, even though the
door sticker suggests 30. Ride is harder now, but guess fuel
economy improves a little. Dunno which is right(er).

And - seeing you had one - do you remember how the sun roof looked
when properly closed? With this one if you use the close button it
stops with the rearmost part down about a quarter or three eighths
of an inch lower that what "looks right" I can make it look level
and nice by juggling the open/close button, but...

The back seat sure is comfortable. Makes me wish I was about 50 years
younger

Take care.

Ken

 

That one's easy to spot. If there is a bracket that wraps around the
engine cradle frame member and "doubles" the LCA bolt ears, then its
been done. Hardly even have to get down on one knee to see it

Power driver's seat track inserts- if the seat jerks or twists sideways
when moving fore/aft, get it done, otherwise ignore it.

The shifter is an interlock thing- supposedly the interlock that
prevents you from moving the shift lever can fail allowing you to shift
out of "park" with no key in the car. I positively hate "nanny" devices
like that anyway (DRLs, automatic headlamps, auto-release parking
brakes, 'can't shift into drive without a foot on the brake' interlocks,
etc.) so I've been HOPING that it would fail on my wife's car. No such
look in 237,000 miles :-(

Daniel Stern is on a business trip right now, or I'm sure he'd have
already piped up with a cheap and reliable aftermarket DRL module. I'm
sorry I don't remember the name of the module he recommends, but I seem
to recall that he considered it a better implementation than most
factory DRL systems.

Eww, that's cheesy! The underside of the cover for the relay compartment
has a nice diagram that tells you what each relay is. Flip it over and
hold it beside the relays, and you'll see which relay is bypassed.

Now it COULD be that the previous owner did what I did- there's an
unused relay slot, and I carry a relay-bypassing wire in that unused
slot just in case my fuel pump relay or ASD relay (or any other
essential relay like cooling fans) takes a poop while I'm miles from
home... but you shouldn't really leave a relay bypassed like that.

 

I had no sunroof in mine. I think it was the only option in 94 and we
bought one off the lot without it.

 

Hi Steve...

The plot thickens... the bypassed relay is marked starter relay.
Removing the jumper and replacing it with the relay prevents remote
starting. Hear it doing other things, but the starter never turns.
But the key won't start it, either

Perhaps this explains why there's another (added) switch hanging
beside that fuse box that does nothing more than crank the starter?

Putting the jumper back, I noticed that the remote will again start
it, and it turns on the parking lights. (all of them).

Do you happen to know (in layman description) where the drl module
is? Maybe I could look at it just for the heck of it. (old retired
electrical guy)

Good to know about the seat, it has twisted a couple of times going
back. Seems the door side keeps going, center sticks and need just
a bit of encouragement. I'll let 'em fix that one for free

One more, if I may, just to be on the safe side. Want to remove
the radio to look at. (display is intermittent). GM uses the
passcode system to know I didn't steal it. Does Chrysler have
anything similar, or can I just pull it and put it back.

You'd get along well with my next door neighbor. Retired Canadian
Air Force captain (pilot). Love Chryslers, won't touch anything
else, and despises anything designed to protect him from himself

Thanks again, and take care.

Ken

 

Hi Art...

Thanks. I'm probably going to regret this one, too. Granddaughters
like it, but no one will if ever it decides to leak

Take care.

Ken

 

Sounds like a hack job to me, but then IMO most aftermarket "alarm
systems" and "remote starters" wind up being hack jobs.

No, I really don't. I've never seen an LH car with one. I fired a
private E-mail off to Dan, hopefully he'll pipe up on here in a day or so.

Yep, that's the one.

Unless its there in a higher-optioned car than wifey's 93, the anser is
no. I've popped a completely different junkyard stereo (with CD instead
of cassette) in place of the one that came in her car.

The gene pool gets nasty when we take all the chlorine out of it... ;-)

 

The Chrysler Daytime Running Light module used in the mid '90s is
failure-prone and expensive. This car used the high beam headlamps as DRLs
-- the high beam mode of the large outboard lamps, not the inboard ones.
Since your module failed in the friendly way (DRLs quit working -- rather
than their staying on all the time) suggest you dispense with the
poorly-designed factory module and retrofit the $39 module from
www.webelectricproducts.com . This will burn your front turn signals full
time as DRLs (except, of course, when they are flashing as turn signals).
This is legal under Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108. If you never
want to horse with burned out bulbs, or at least not for a long time,
swing by the Saturn dealer and pick up a set of front turn signal bulbs
for an '04 Saturn Ion. These will be marked 5702KA and last practically
forever (meant to tolerate GM's inappropriately high voltage regulator
setpoints).

The headlamps on that car, by the way, are awful. If you drive at night at
all, swing by Crappy Tire and pick up a set of GE Night Hawk 9007NH bulbs
(not Sylvania Silverstars!). If you drive *much* at night, put in headlamp
relays.

DS

 

Dyment Distribution Service in the greater Toronto area (haven't got their
phone number, find it on www.yellowpages.ca ) handles all the Chrysler
literature for Canada. Pick up a factory service manual while you're at
it.

First repair to achieve with your new factory service manual!

 

Hi Daniel...

Thanks very much for your help; I sincerely appreciate it!

Surely the high beams don't run full out - are they perhaps
connected in series?

Anyway, I agree that the third party option you suggest is far
better, but just before I order one I'd really like to see the
module first. Rationale is that given the extremes of folks who
like them and those that hate them there's a possibility that they
may well be simply disconnected. Maybe a long shot, but I'd like
to look

Crappy tire didn't have a haynes manual, but wallyworld had a
Chilton - says covers us and canadian 93 thru 97; so I got one.
Not a single mention of drl's

So I looked myself, didn't find it, but what I did find is another
weird thing. Standing in front of the car, looking at the firewall
in front of the passenger seat. A group of 4 connectors, arranged
2 x 2. The upper right wire (tan coloured) on the upper right
connector has been cut, and the connector side has been spliced
to a much heavier black wire that tie-wrapped to the cable and goes
out of sight.

Could this possibly be a work-around for disabling them? Or is it
more likely part of the third party remote starter job? For what it's
worth the workmanship is nice. Shrink tubed splice, tie-wrapped,
etc.

If you think it's worth the try, I'll give putting it back as original
a shot and see what happens And if you know where that module is
and what it looks like please let me know

Thanks again, and take care.

Ken

 

They aren't run at full intensity, no. Chrysler made a poor decision on
how to implement them, though, hence the module failures.

Reasonable enough

Haynes and Chilton are garbage. Get the FACTORY book only+

The other thing about factory DRL is it prevents you installing relays and
good wiring to help reduce the headlamps' deficient nighttime performance.