Need Help ASAP

[kervin22]

Okay everyone, this is a stumper. My brothers van 99 Chrysler Town & Country has been having some starting problems lately. Every couple of days when you go to start the van it will start then die out like 15-20 seconds later. Then it will start again then immediatly die off. Then it will do that twice more. After the four times it will not even try to start. On the instrument panel it reads "alarm set." You cannot start the van for 2 hours after that. Once the 2 hours are up it will start and run fine. They took it to the local Chrysler dealership and they replaced two of the computers (not sure which ones yet, will post when I see which ones they replaced), they also replaced a bad wire which the dealership thought was causing the problem. That worked for about 2 months. Now its back to every couple days it will not start. They took it back into the dealership with both set of keys and they told my brother they couldn't find anything wrong. Please help, has anyone heard of this before.

[96Grand]

The alarm is still activated when you try to start it. This is why it dies right away, the anti-theft system prevents it from being started.

Have you tried resetting the alarm by putting the ignition key in the drivers door and turning it to the right, holding for a second and then back to the left and then starting the van?

Try that and let me know if it works.

To verify the system, proceed as follows:

Open the driver's door.
Remove the ignition key (but keep it in hand).
Lock the doors with the power lock switch.
Close the driver's door. NOTE: After the doors are closed, locking the doors with RKE will also arm the system. NOTE: If the VTSS indicator lamp flashed, the system is operational and verified. If not, there may be a problem with the system. System initialization is accomplished by:

Opening the hood to ensure the hood ajar circuit is closed.
Rotating the key in liftgate cylinder to unlock/disarm position. Arming/Disarming - Active arming occurs when the remote keyless entry transmitter is used to lock the vehicle doors, whether the doors are open or closed. If one or more doors are open, the arming sequence is completed only after all doors are closed. Passive disarming occurs upon normal vehicle entry (unlocking either front door or the liftgate with the key). This disarming also will halt the alarm once it has been activated. Active disarming occurs when the remote keyless entry transmitter is used to unlock the vehicle doors. This disarming also will halt the alarm once it has been activated. System Self-Tests - NOTE: System self-tests can be entered only with the DRB or MDS machine
You may also have a bad Arm/Disarm switch

Testing and Inspection

Check the door ajar switches for a good ground
Check the hood ajar switch for continuity when closed
Check the liftgate ajar switch for continuity when closed
Check the grounding locations
Does this van also have a remote starter installed or previously installed?

There could be some bad wiring involved w/ a remote starter that would also cause this problem.

Let me know if anything here helps, if nothing seems to help, I would have the dealer check the BCM & PCM.

[Chet42]

Stupid alarm didn't stop some slease bags from stealing my 04 caravan, a month ago, they actually they did more damage when they disabled it and drove it off from my driveway. When the police found it the dash had been ripped out and half the wiring was dangling on the floor from under the dash. The police said they had used a new hightech kind of slimjim with some kind of device attached to it to defeat the door sensor. Go figure.

A neighbour a few houses down lost his 05 Sierra 1/2 ton the same night, they still haven't found it and he had one of those expensive aftermarket alarm systems.

If thieves want your vehilce bad enough no alarm system is going to stop them.

Chet.

[dodges 3]

I heard of a guy who wired his tool box, (truck mounted) to 120 volts. Imagine the shock you'd get when ya try and steal its contents...

[flyingwolf]

Imagine the shock he would get when he is convicted for attempted murder.

[dangodinez]

I have the exact same problem with a 98 Chrysler Town & Country, and it has been going on for two summers and only in the summer not in the fall winter or spring, I have replace, 2 PCMs (I now have 2 spare PCM's) Except what happens with us is that the instrument cluster goes dead first (Which is what currently is happening) then the ABS and Security lites stay on, then some unpredetermined time later the symptoms that were previously mentioned occur with a trouble code of 1998, "No mesage received from Transmission COntrol Module" I've worked with the VTSS, cycling the alarm and that did not worked, I looked at the wiring diagram and found that Alarm and Cluster run through the BCM, I have a problem condeming the BCM because there are no codes, and when it works its fine I am hypothesizing a component common to all is malfunctioning, There is a Pink wire common to the cluster, TCM and the VTSS. I'll let you know

[dangodinez]

The Pink wire from PCM and TCM is a data feed and go to the data link, and the pink wire in the cluster is a power source, now all this info is from a Chilton wiring diagram, I am leaning towards the BCM now...

[dangodinez]

The Pink wire from PCM and TCM is a data feed and go to the data link, and the pink wire in the cluster is a power source, now all this info is from a Chilton wiring diagram, I am leaning towards the BCM now...