2000 Chrysler Concorde LX Sedan 4D

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