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Caliber No Start (wire harness issue)

170K views 142 replies 14 participants last post by  Prop1 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
ADMIN NOTE: This is an issue that is cropping up as the years go by on these cars. This thread should give all pause to think. It will help those that have the fortitude to dig into these cars and trace a simple fix that requires long hours to get to that point. One has to wonder why a car that has such an elaborate electrical system would not have been built with more protection of the wiring harnesses. Post #60 links to a picture of the main harness that is at issue.

Hello all...newbie here. I have found this forum quite helpful so far....read a lot here! Here we go.... I have a 2008 Caliber (wife's car). The wife went to leave yesterday morning and problem! No crank, no click, no nothing. After beating my head and several google reads, I got some great reads here. I did some digging under the hood. I find out no power to the solenoid lead to the starter when the key is cranked. I was misinformed by her uncle (ex Dodge dealer mechanic), that I had to find the starter relay. Which I did find the relays in the wheel well ahead of the front drivers tire. Of course, they are never marked. So with my test light and some digging I traced the wire back to the TIPM. From what I can gather with the few tools I have....the TIPM is not allowing juice through it to the solenoid to engage the starter. Everything else works just fine and the battery is only a year old. Another victim of the dreaded TIPM? We haven't had the car even a year yet. Any advice, tips or anything would be great!! I'm kinda wondering if it is possible to pick up a used one....money is tight (as always!). I heard you can't put a used one in.
 
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#74 ·
Can't be an AC. AC is only used on the diesels. I used the 2008 Parts manual to get the number.

Used one with the local salvage boys. $100. They are a few for $60, $80 on Ebay but throw the local boys some change. I have to reprogram that too now? At a dealer.
It depends on the Caliber it came off of. If it had the same options it will work as soon as it's plugged in.
 
#78 ·
we own a 2008 caliber that would just not start, usually when the weather changed. then, it would start like a day or so later. it would run great for a week, a month or more then just nothing. I thought it was the starter. I have limited time with this vehicle as my son uses it out of town. I took it to a local mechanic, He said it was the starter. I paid for a new starter. It ran good for like a week or so then the same problem. Really confused I looked at a the wires and such. I put a tester on it. the first tester I tried said it had to be running to hook up? . On a good day when it would run no codes related to my issue would come up. A friend of mine is pretty good a electrical stuff tried giving advice. He also was confused. he had me check this and that. Alot of stuff I checked out I was not sure about but what ever. Finally I gave up when the same thing happened when my son had the car out of town. What do you do. I told him call a dodge garage close to you get it towed and we'll have to suck it up and pay for them to fix it. LUCKILY the mechanic there wasn't a jerk. He checked the relay the is below the fuse box. I'm guessing the ones you mentioned that are on the fender. Not sure as I wasnt there. My son says all he knows is they are under the fuse box. There was corrosion either on the connector of the relay or under the the relay connector. The mechanic said if we had any further problems to bring it back and they would have to change out the harness. So all this mechanic really did was change the relay and clean up the corrosion.Not sure if this helps or not. seems like you checked everything pretty good. I would try checking around the relay for corrosion or maybe the contenuity of the wires from the relay.
 
#79 ·
The relays were checked during the course of this thread. The only thing left was the PCM. It's likely the bad storm was ripe for water leaking into the PCM and fried it.
 
#80 · (Edited)
This is quite similar to the nightmare I had with mine! My relay was checked by the mechanic yesterday. It was good. It kicked the fuel pump on when he crossed some connections. Mechanic said twice that it would start! Not happening! I am after a ECM/PCM for it. We stick together we will get these things figured out! :)

I went up and got some part numbers off the ECM. Of course the one sticker was over top of part of the other....I tried to peel it back gently to get more numbers but no go. I did find another salvage place just before closing time this afternoon. He has one coming off an 07 Caliber. I forgot to ask about similar options. I will try to get back to him tomorrow. If needs flash/reprogramming does it have to be on the vehicle or can you just bring the part in? I hate to keep dragging this out but I am pretty much committed for the long haul now! The part will be in Minneapolis on Fri. morning.
 
#81 ·
Yes, it needs to be installed in the car. There is a secondary computer in the dash cluster that it will need to be talking to during the programming.
 
#82 ·
Sorry I been away awhile! Am still dealing with this car. I will try to sum it up. Local mechanic and I spent well over 3 hrs. (with much help of the 07 manual) trying to figure this out. His machine said pretty much same as before. No communication with PCM. We did some looking at the info on his machine. Which as you know led us to the replacing the PCM(ECM). After sitting up at his shop last week and most of this week, I got an appointment for 11am this morning (Oct. 3rd). Got it all secured and up on the trailer and to the dealership. The head service man said the PCM could be flashed....til we talked to the young mechanic. He said he had never done it and it could wreck other modules. With some lies and BS....I got....it's in the wiring and we can fix it. Your PCM is ok. No thanks! I won't get into the treatment right here and now. I did say thank you and put it on the trailer and brought it back home. Back to where I was almost 2 weeks ago! I never, ever doubted you Brad. I always pushed to get causation before I replaced parts. I was frazzled and hoping this used PCM and flash would solve it. Hoped it was a fluke and the "fix" would take care of it. Car is going in the garage, driver front fender is coming off and the "tooth combing" will commence. Gotta go through those wires because it will not communicate with the PCM. Question is....do I stick in that fender, front end area where it had been damaged? Or do I need to look from the ignition up to the PCM? It only makes sense to me that it is in the area where the damaged occurred. I just don't know how far back the issue was/is.
 
#83 ·
I'd be looking inside the fender. The fact that the replacement isn't a Dodge fender tells me the body shop (or weekend mechanic) didn't bother checking for harness damage.
 
#85 ·
I took off front driver panel. Brown wire with white tracer coming out of the relay box in front fender. I noticed a faint "green" pinhole. Corrosion. Gave wire slight tug and it broke. Repaired wire. All codes cleared accept P0113 which guessing is cause I had to take headlight out. It didn't start but am doing TIPM reset.
 
#87 ·
P0113 is the air intake temperature sensor circuit high. Could be the wire came loose while playing with the PCM.
 
#89 · (Edited)
I worked on it til wee hours of the morning. Still just the brown wire with white tracer coming out of the main relay was broke. I'm trying the Start Enable Circuit again in the PCM C1 connector. Step 5 in the Engine Electrical Diagnosis, 9 - 926 is throwing me for a loop. Not sure if there is still wire issue I haven't found yet. Have the Transmission Range Sensor out and looking. This pink with dark blue tracer is the Start Enable wire.
 
#90 · (Edited)
With the repaired brown and light gray (white, they say LG) wire, there was still no key. Used jumper wire hot to solenoid and it kicked over...solenoid acted up but then it started and ran!!!! Had it running with the key and though all was good....now nothing again and lights all over dash display. Hmmmm.......

Just did the...remove negative cable. Person in the drivers seat. The 1,2,3 GO. Connect negative and crank key at same time.....The thing started like a charm! CONFUSED....lol!
 
#91 ·
Sorry, was in conceal/carry class all morning. Just got caught up to your "black hole" mess. Your expertise with the starting system has surpassed my knowledge. All I can add is that some signal is obviously missing that enables the starter. The fact that it ran means the signals needed for the engine to run are there. I would concentrate on the starter circuit and see what the starter motor is missing. From the service manual:

"The PCM controls a double start over-ride safety that does not allow the starter to be engaged if the engine is already running."

I wonder if something is telling the PCM that the engine is already running?
 
#92 · (Edited)
I'd rather been taking the class! Well....it ran 5-6 times after above procedures. Find out there is a bad spot in a wire in the C8 connector of the TIPM. Was putting the TIPM back while car was running and chime came on in car and gauges lit up like mad. The tach dropped and lost temp. gauge. Fan kicks in while everything is haywire.....wiggle wire....fan goes out and everything comes back. It is the light blue and orange (#17 in C8). Rear defog. Working on getting that resolved! One other thing. Over three weeks of this and ABS light decides to come on today?

And thanks man! Definitely a learning experience! Crazy thing is....I retain a lot of this. I keep telling my wife...at this rate...I will forget how to tie my shoes one of these days! Starter seems to be fine now. If I could get this connection fixed and hopefully all the lights off in the dash!
 
#96 ·
You gotta wonder what they were thinking of to put an un-armored harness in a [basically] vulnerable area like that. I can't believe they couldn't run it in the engine bay where it has more protection.
 
#97 ·
In the coming days I will be changing the title of this thread to "No Start Issue Resolve", and make it a Sticky thread.
 
#99 ·
I hope it can be beneficial in the future!!
Apollo...I still have my quarter panel off...so if there are any areas you want to know right now....I can go look. We can always use the manual if needed but I do still have mine off. Last thing to put on and done! I did have the steering column all apart too!
 
#98 ·
Yeah definitely a very interesting story, been reading and scrolling on the phone. Im having issues with my caliber as well, ive been telling the dealer it seems electrical but will find out and post my experience as well. I hope i wont be doing what you did but i will as cash is always tight. Thanks to you 2, i got a lot of.good info to use today.
 
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