[lovesmonica]

I have a 2008 Chrysler TC Limited 4.0 that I am having electrical issues with. It starts fine but while driving its like everything blanks out for a second as if the key was shut off and on again. All the gauges will reset, all the instrument lights come on, the wipers cycle, the lights flash on, the power seat will adjust while driving, the radio turns off then on, but the engine is not affected and it doesn't reset the clock or anything when it happens.

Sometimes it happens once randomly, other times it will do it multiple times in a row. It seems to happen more often in warmer weather, when you first start driving, when the AC is on and when the engine is at low rpm. It usually doesn't act up if in park but put it in drive and it goes crazy.

Today it acted up big time, while driving the seat kept moving back and forth in addition to the other problems and for a bit it didn't want to respond to any of the push buttons for pwr door open or unlock. The seat makes it really interesting driving moving forward and back. The best part is the looks you get driving with the lights flashing, wipers wiping, seat moving forward and back.... pretty interesting stuff.
any help would be greatly appreciated, Thank You

 

[dana44]

Wow. That's almost as good as the ghost we have in our house that checks on the children when they visit or spend the night, one mom came and got her child at 3am one time. Sorry I can't really make any recommendations, but odd a seat would move unless you have a memory circuit for the seat setting, which I didn't think Chrysler had (but may be wrong on that), and when it comes to the electrical gremlins of this level, time for a dealer visit, almost sounds like there is some kind of systems check going on or body control module problem self-testing, but the seat still intrigues me to no end. Does the seat have a memory button for multiple drivers?

 

[ImperialCrown]

You may want to start with a battery terminal removal and cleaning if you haven't done that already.
If it goes nuts when put into Drive from Park, there may be a wire harness rub-through that grounds or a circuit that opens when the engine/transaxle tilts when put into gear? It will tilt the other direction in Reverse.
I would think that there may be fault codes in the CCN (cluster) module, MHSMM (memory heated seat and mirror module) and probably others that may help point to an area of interest. Does your EVIC display any faults?
They may be 'loss of communication' faults which could involve the inter-module CAN bus. The lights and wipers will default to 'on' if the modules lose contact with the column switches. The 'hunting' seat drive motors may also be from a confused setting. Diagnosis may involve a scan tool for this.

 

[chuzz]

I'd check the connector to the BCM, if it has one. Most are located under the passenger side kick panel and sometimes if the cowl drains get stopped up, water can run down inside the kick panel and corrode the connector. Of course, I'm not a mechanic and am probably way off base here.

 

[ImperialCrown]

The instrument cluster has become the CCN (cabin compartment node) and now handles most of the duties of the former BCM. It can do self-tests and store fault codes.
There have also been software flash updates for many minivan modules since 2008.

 

[chuzz]

Thanks, IC. I wasn't sure where the changeover took place. I was thinking around 2007 when the Caliber was introduced and featured the TIPM.

 

[ImperialCrown]

The changeover was spread across a few years, usually when a major model redesign took place.
Durango was first to use a CCN and CAN bus in 2004.
For the minivan, the older RS (2001-2007) used a BCM and PCI bus until the new RT minivan (2008-present) which uses a CCN and CAN bus.
Caliber, Compass and Patriot used the CCN and CAN bus from the start.