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My buddy Stan is having a bad day


JerrySTL

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Stan and I served in the USAF together. He calls me when he has car or computer problems.

Today his 2014 Chrysler 300 won't completely shut down. The accessories still stay on. It has one of those fancy keyless starting systems. He told me that he'd disconnected the battery to keep it from running down. That seemed like a good idea to me. I told him to (1) try the emergency key in the key fob to try to shut it off that way. He didn't even know that there was such a thing. If that didn't work, (2) start the car and make sure it's in park and shut it down. If that doesn't kill everything, try shutting it down in neutral and see if that works. He said that he'd call me back after he tried all of that.

A few minutes later he called back. The battery is in the trunk of that car and after he disconnected it, you might guess this, he closed the trunk. Like many cars, including WoJSTL's Nissan, you need battery power to open the trunk. There's no keyhole on the trunk lid. I told Stan that there should be a way to lower one of the back seats and reach into the trunk area to pull the emergency trunk release. It took a while longer for Stan to call back this time. Seems that he could get the rear seat down but at 69 years old he isn't all that limber anymore. Plus his trunk was pretty full so it took a long while and lots of effort to release the trunk.

He connected the battery and tried my suggestions to no avail. So he disconnect the battery again and shut the trunk. HE SHUT THE TRUNK! 

He had to crawl through the back seat again to release the trunk. This time he tied a cord to the emergency release and fed it through the back seat opening. He's going to try to get an appointment with the Chrysler dealership tomorrow.

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2 hours ago, JerrySTL said:

Today his 2014 Chrysler 300 won't completely shut down. The accessories still stay on.

I found the owners manual online.  

image.png.1fb78819b6f1703cf15c7317758b964b.png

It appears the car NEEDS to be in Park for everything to shut down as expected.  << This is a clue... 

I also read in the net.. that some times the key fob battery may be low, and that can possibly cause this.  Key fob batteries are cheap... I'd try that, but don't bet the farm on the results.  I don't think this is the problem.

The other thing I read... there could be a sensor for the shifter that is bad, or soon will be, that detects when the car is in Park.  That sounded expensive to fix.   

I'm sure there are a few other possibilities too that could cause this.  Control module fault, etc... 

I'd be interested to see what was the problem.

 

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

I found the owners manual online.  

image.png.1fb78819b6f1703cf15c7317758b964b.png

It appears the car NEEDS to be in Park for everything to shut down as expected.  << This is a clue... 

I also read in the net.. that some times the key fob battery may be low, and that can possibly cause this.  Key fob batteries are cheap... I'd try that, but don't bet the farm on the results.  I don't think this is the problem.

The other thing I read... there could be a sensor for the shifter that is bad, or soon will be, that detects when the car is in Park.  That sounded expensive to fix.   

I'm sure there are a few other possibilities too that could cause this.  Control module fault, etc... 

I'd be interested to see what was the problem.

 

 

 

 

I agree. I had him start the car and make sure that it was in Park and if that didn't work, Neutral. Neither helped. The shifter isn't connected to the transmission by linkage or cables like in the old days. It's all electric now so the possibility of things like control modules is likely.

I had him use the emergency way to start and stop the car that doesn't require the fob's batteries to be working. No joy.

Stan is supposed to tell me what the mechanic finds.

Oh! That car actually as two batteries: one under the hood and the other in the trunk. I guess there's enough electronics that it needs two batteries.

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12 hours ago, 2Far said:

Stan sounds like he was an excellent pilot. 

Stan was a training specialist. However I have a riding buddy named Bill who was a navigator. He's the most likely to get lost during a ride. I've had to chase him down a number of times when he'd make a wrong turn. Doesn't matter if it's a cue sheet or an actual map. 

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34 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

Stan was a training specialist. However I have a riding buddy named Bill who was a navigator. He's the most likely to get lost during a ride. I've had to chase him down a number of times when he'd make a wrong turn. Doesn't matter if it's a cue sheet or an actual map. 

 

13 hours ago, JerrySTL said:

He didn't even know that there was such a thing.

 

13 hours ago, JerrySTL said:

HE SHUT THE TRUNK! 

Many of these little details sure help explain why he bought a Chrysler 300. :whistle:

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I just checked and mine does not have a trunk key hole either.  There is a release handle, but you would have to crawl into the trunk to access it or just attach a battery or charger to the two charging / jump start points under the hood to energize the circuit?   Battery and fuse block is in the trunk.  Probably part of the Daimler Chrysler era.  My Chrysler Concorde had the battery mounted in a compartment in the passenger front wheel well.  As I recall you had to remove the tire to change the battery.

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1 minute ago, 2Far said:

The battery in Poot's Dodge Journey is in front of the left wheel, behind the splash guard. What a G.I.A.N.T. PITA to change. I know that the battery in a Porsche Cayenne is under the driver's seat.

Some of the auto parts store advertise that when you buy a battery they will install it for free.

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45 minutes ago, sheep_herder said:

Yep, some of the places in town stopped this practice. May have been a liability issue or lack of employees during covid.

For the most part, they'll do the engine compartment, no interfering appurtenances, replacement. I didn't ask, but I don't think they'da done the battery on my Silverado (Up against the p-side firewall, cross-brace over the top and a breaker/fuse box mounted to the top of the battery).

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4 hours ago, JerrySTL said:

Oh! That car actually as two batteries: one under the hood and the other in the trunk. I guess there's enough electronics that it needs two batteries.

From what I read on the internet...  You made a good guess.   One battery, the one in the trunk is  deep cycle battery for the electronics.  There is enough stuff still running even when the car is 'off' that a single battery would be drained.

The 12 volt battery in my 2016 Pruis is there to run the electronics, lights, etc.. and some stuff that needs to be on all the time.  In a year the battery will be 7 years old.  I wiil get to change that battery, which is under the hood.   In the 2005 Prius the 12 volt battery was in the trunk.   The high voltage battery is there to power the eclectic motors and the hybrid system charges the 12 volt battery too. 

I have found some extra procedures that I will need to follow when I change the battery.  Plus I read I may need to re-initialize the power windows auto up/down  function too.   

Nothing is simple anymore. 

image.png.ae36913f50a57a9b3e7f051907ea6780.png

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Update 2: Rodents are chewing on the wiring. Might be squirrels as Stan hasn't seen any mice. He often parks his car outside instead of the garage.

Mechanic can't find a new wiring bundle so he's going to have to trace down all the chewed wires and do some splicing. That's going to get expensive.

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Well that's bad news...   I hope it was only one wire bundle that was chewed.   Even that can be MANY wires.   :(

Then getting to a place where the tech can trace and spice.  A lot of stuff may need to be removed from the car to gain access to the wires. :(

So much for 'going green'...  switching from oil based wire insulation to soy based wire insulation. 

I'll guess the wires tasted good.   The problem is... they will still taste good  after it gets fixed too.   Stan needs to use the Google (or ask the tech) how to prevent this from happening again.  

If it is squirrels,  parking in a garage with the doors closed could be the cure.   

When I parked my Prius outside (at my old home, the only place it could be parked) one day when I checked the cabin air filter, I found a mouse nest, and a dead mouse.  That was a job to clean that of of the car,  and air ducts, etc... 

 

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45 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

And people want the right to repair their car mobile networked computer system, all by themselves.   

 A modern car now contains around 100 million lines of software code, and is expected to have around 300 million lines of code by 2030. For comparison, a passenger plane has around 15 million lines.

I agree they should have the right to make their own repairs.. good luck with that. 

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8 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

And people want the right to repair their car mobile networked computer system, all by themselves.   

 A modern car now contains around 100 million lines of software code, and is expected to have around 300 million lines of code by 2030. For comparison, a passenger plane has around 15 million lines.

I agree they should have the right to make their own repairs.. good luck with that. 

Holy cow!  How do they ever run without needing a reboot more often?  

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13 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

And people want the right to repair their car mobile networked computer system, all by themselves.   

 A modern car now contains around 100 million lines of software code, and is expected to have around 300 million lines of code by 2030. For comparison, a passenger plane has around 15 million lines.

I agree they should have the right to make their own repairs.. good luck with that. 

which passenger plane?

I'd really like to see how they made that comparison.  15 million lines of code isn't much anymore

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  • 2 months later...
46 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

I told him to poison the little bastards.

This...

My JD battery was in my garage over the winter.  The tractor was in the shed.   About once a month I'd throw in some bait to feed the mice.   

image.png.36828f7bc367bfc5b0065df294b386f1.png

 

Last weekend the battery got reinstalled into the JD tractor, and it started right up.  

I'd rather have the mice eat the bait than the wires in the tractor.

 

 

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