Extremely intermittent no crank condition?

FFMECH58

MEMBER
2011 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY
3.2L
V6
2WD
AUTOMATIC
140,000 MILES

The vehicle has an extremely intermittent no crank issue. Specifically, the starter control relay engages for about 1/2 to 1 second then drops out. I am losing power to the control side of the relay and, of course, to the starter solenoid.
Since the TIPM and PCM and WIN modules all talk to one another, I did want to verify that I am not losing the ground for the control side of the relay.
The relay lives in the TIPM and the ground control comes from the PCM. How can I or the customer "watch" for loss of that ground side control wire from the PCM?
What or how does the TIPM provide power to the control side of the starter relay? From which I believe it does.

1 Reply

KEN L

MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
42,840 POSTS

You can connect an outside monitoring circuit to the ground pin of the relay, but I have seen the TIPM go out in these cars causing this issue (common). Also, a CAN scan will tell what's going on, you can get a CAN scanner from Amazon for about $30.00. here is a video to show you how:

https://youtu.be/u-4syLc-ifQ

Here is the starter wiring diagrams including the relay and instructions on how to change the TIPM out which is easy because it-self initializes. Check out the diagrams (below). Let us know what happens and please upload pictures or videos of the problem.

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