A story about a Challenger that won't start...

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I found this to be just dumb enough and funny to share:

Customer had his 2013 Challenger towed in. He said it stalled without warning and wouldn't restart. Got it in, pulled codes, found ASD relay circuit low. Found the circuit wire and sure enough it was shorted to ground. UNTIL the TIPM was unplugged. What in the actual??

After much back tracing and cursing, the culprit ended up being a shorted washer pump. It back fed through the control circuit which is also controlled by the TIPM and caused a chain reaction that geeked the PCM. You've got to be kidding me...

At least this job keeps you thinking on your toes once in a while!
 
Good times. Our techs get weird ones like that and pull their hair out trying to figure it out. Customers still think you just hook up a scan tool and it tells the tech the problem.
 
I had a ford contour (mine) and I went out to get something from it at the parking lot at work and heard it buzzing. Put my hand on stuff and found it to be the ignition module/ coil pack. I yanked its relay and it shut up. IIRC I swapped it with the horn relay and had no further issues.

Cracks me up that dodge still uses these things-- they had them in K-cars in the 80s!
 
Hey man, it's that "Extra care in engineering...Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge".

Remember that slogan from the '60's? It made us laugh then. Any company that got that many government contracts had to be crooked.

By the way, what is the ASD relay? What is the TIPM (a module)?

The PCM is the Power Control Module, no?
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Good times. Our techs get weird ones like that and pull their hair out trying to figure it out. Customers still think you just hook up a scan tool and it tells the tech the problem.


So true! Weird thing about this one was that the scanner didn't report ANYTHING about the washer pump! I do a brief inspection on ever car I touch, including wiper/washer operation. I had noted that the washers were inop, but that's as far as it went. I did a system scan using my Solus Ultra and other than comm codes due to the aftermarket radio and the ASD relay code, the only other code was for "Throttle plate - unable to open". I assume the PCM uses the ASD circuit to power the throttle motor, rendering that system inop as well.

In the end, lots of small clues that really had nothing to do with one another, until they did.
 
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