1. Home
  2. Chrysler Cars
  3. 1994 Intrepid electrical-help please.

1994 Intrepid electrical-help please.

I have heard that these cars have a long list of electrical problems, but I wanted to bounce mine off of you good people to see if I am heading in the right direction.

I seem to loose part or all of my instument panel and the ability to shift gears. 99% of the time it is when I first engage it. I will have functions on the panel or partial functions that do not work right (PRNDL and airbag all lit)

Sometimes after a few minutes after starting , everthing just comes alive again.

Is this the onboard computer block or could it be something else?

Thanks in advance for any help and feel free to talk "techno", I am an electronics technician but not in the automotive area. Thanks again

Reply to
John Hepburn
Loading thread data ...

If the first gen. is as similar mechanically and electrically to the 2nd gen as I think it is, it sounds like a classic symptom of the battery going south. Used to be that alternators would pretty much keep things working in spite of a bad battery once the engine was running, but apparently these systems protect the alternator from overload when the battery gets beyond a certain point, and the result is that the operating voltages drop below the thresholds required to keep things like the sensors and dash lights operating properly when the battery gets weak.

Alternator problems on these cars are very rare, and what you describe sounds like a bad battery for these cars.

If you have a volt/multimeter, measure the voltage at the battery both with the engine off and with it running with lights and inside fan offf, and then with lights and inside fan running full speed. Should see right around 12 volts for the first scenario, and around 13.2 to 14.8 volts for the last two.

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

Reply to
Bill Putney

Reply to
scott

Highest probability is an ignition switch. 93's and 94's had a bunch of switch failures. The switch sticks between start and run.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

Well, I thank everyone who responded to my post and to those people who have had this type of problem previously and posted about it.

After checking the grounds and verifying that they were o.k. I headed for the ignition console. (I knew it was not the battery because that was replaced a month ago for other reasons.)

I disassembled the covers (No easy task) and located the main electrical connector on the left hand side of the steering column. Just by giving it a nudge inwards, my instrument console came back to life.Funny , I could jiggle it around and simulate all the various forms of the problems I was having.

I thought it just may be poor connections so I removed the connector and gave it and the socket a good cleaning....No luck.

So it looks like the cam or switchs themselves inside the assembly are worn out. I will pick up another one tomorrow (On holiday's) and that will be my little driveway project.

Thanks again to everyone that responded and I hope my post helps someone else out.

Reply to
John Hepburn

Car has multiple grounds which need to be checked.

Reply to
Art

Reply to
mic canic

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.