Entering Pain Now now let's just see how deep this Rabbit Hole goes here. 13 volts uh 550 cold cranking amps. Come on there we go. This bad battery.

not a good start. Yeah, see that. Not that. not that, not that we have another.

PT Cruiser Uh, this Cruiser has a history of being dead. Um, somebody worked on it once upon a time. They put a lot of parts in it and they couldn't get it running and they took it apart and I still couldn't get it running and it's still apart. So now I'm gonna try to get it running I don't know what the year is I don't know what the mileage is I'm gonna put it together a little bit and I'll try to crank it first and see what happens I just don't know.

This is a found dead type of a project here. Dude, that's not good. Positive, Negative: Good enough for now. Okay let's see.

Keys Keys which I have two here. two Cruisers words and two sets of keys. So I don't know which one is which 127 399 miles on this PT Cruiser of uh I think it's an O4. Let's check that.

it's just so we know 2 000 and manufacturer didn't win every. I don't know. 2002 that's an O2 All right 2002 PT Cruiser non-turbine let us attempt to starting. the engine.

doesn't crank. Okay, why doesn't it crank? Okay So we've got a fuse panel that's opened up right here. Uh, nothing here says anything about the starter or cranking. Let's check under the hood.

I Found the cover under this fuse box removed. We've got a there's a relay hanging out right here. that's what I found and starter relay. That is that one.

Where's our starter at? Okay, it's got a newish looking starter. someone's replaced this before. Um, let's probe that. Let me let me get a wire lead on that.

We'll see if we're getting power down to the starter earliest to the solenoid from the key. So so far we have a no crank condition. Um, don't know why. So what I'm gonna do here is we're gonna fetch a wire lead.

That guy will do it. We're going to connect this to the terminal where the Exciter wire is for the solenoid. So the power that's sent to the starter from the key to close the solenoid to crank the starter. we're going to probe that wire.

We're gonna see if it's getting power. I Probably should have got a meter or a test light while I was back there, but I didn't man. I'm terrible today I Even forgot to say hello everybody. Good day to you! Welcome back way down yonder, there is a starter.

Uh I Don't know if you guys can see it, but there's a little green wire sticking off of that starter solenoid. That wire is the one that should be supplying power to that solenoid in order to crank this. Beast wait wait wait wait wait never mind. That's not it.

that uh, that green wire supplies power from the cable that supplies power to the starter. That's just a an additional circuit. but what I'm looking for is just below it with a connector. So I'm gonna go in there with this alligator clip and get that connected and then we can check for at least a signal power going to the starter motor.

All right. Listen, so lighting is terrible and I uh well. I don't have any space to work with here so just bear with me while I get this hooked up. Let's see here.

I Can only see it. like with one eye through this little crack right here so you guys can see about as much as what I can see. I'm just trying to get this lead connected and I missed one more shot here. Come on.

Lead, get on there. we need you. Nope, it came off. Third time's a charm.

Yeah, Oh nope. Dragon all right. All right got her. that's connected.

Okay, so the green lead is now connected to the Exciter wire on the starter. So for fun, let's see if it's gonna crank. It's just there's our our positive. Ah, it is capable of cranking.

See that. let's see if it'll start. So the problem is, it doesn't crank. Not with the key.

anyway. Okay, so key on with us starting the engine. Got it. So it doesn't start, Doesn't crank, doesn't start.

Yeah, it's dead. Okay, Okay, here's what we're gonna do. Uh, skew this off so it doesn't kill that junk battery and we are going to consult the service data: Okie Dokes We got her pulled up 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser They call it a truck that's funny 2.4 liter and we're looking for some diagrams. and I want electrical diagrams and I want the diagram of the cranking circuit.

That's what I want first because if I can't crank it with the key, then we can't get it to start. So let's see here we're looking for. Let's try power and ground distribution. That might work.

Okay, so we have our starter motor assembly right here. Now It's it. gets its ground from the engine block, so there should be no ground on this. That's the ground right there.

There It is the big red wire that is our power supply wire from the battery. There's our battery right there. and from that wire, the other wire runs over here to Fuse one at the power distribution center. I'm assuming that that works, but we should check it anyway when we go back.

But I Do believe fuse Number One is functioning because there is stuff inside the car like the ignition switch that is also functioning. now. from Fuse one, there's another leg that feeds the starter motor relay. so we've got power coming in and that gives power to the relay that is responsible for cranking the starter.

So what we're looking for. We're assuming we have all that, but we do need to check this fuse. Let's go check our fuses first and then we'll check this relay and we can go from there. All right.

We've got a starting and charging diagram printed out here. Let's go see what we can come up with. There are, uh, there's a couple fuses. We've got fuse number one, that's a primary fuse I'm assuming that that works, but you know what they say about assumptions.

So let's check fuse number one. Now these are not numbered, but ignition start 30 amp. Uh, that should be this one right here. and it does look like it's okay.

Uh, I can see the film inside or the element inside and it does not appear to be broken. Uh, let's check that uh bus right there for power. Anyway, Yeah, so here I'll ground the meter. Bring that guy in.

we're gonna set you up for uh. voltage? DC Yes and our lead. Okay, we have voltage on the bus That's good. same thing with the other bus.

Uh, while I'm here I'll just check all these fuses good. So far, the fuses that I'm looking at that have power. Uh, do not. Uh, they're all.

they're not open so that's not the issue. We've also got a starter relay which is this unit right here and we have the infamous Chrysler ASD relay. That's that one right there. Let's play the relay swapping game real quick and just see if uh, if anything comes back to life, we'll swap the ASD that one Powers all kinds of stuff.

We'll swap that one with the uh, the radiator fan relay which is the one I got my mitts on right now. We'll just flip-flop those from one spot to another, get in there and we'll try to crank it. If that ASD relay is dead, then the PCM is dead and we're not doing anything. NADA Okay, so now what I want to do is we're going to pull the starter relay out.

Swap that one more time. We'll do the horn relay and this is still connected to the solenoid so let's just see if it still works. Yeah, so it's capable of working, but the key is not exciting it. Nada.

Now it does not. Escape me that um, all the steering column stuff has been removed at one point I'm not sure what that's about, but that might bring us uh, closer to our problem trying to see if this thing does anything When you all right? So the ignition switch is doing something because it there was a change of state when I keyed it. Okay, we have power in here. No power there.

power there. No power at the door locks. That could be a clue. Okay, okay now what I want to do is go back to the starter relay which is that unit right there.

We're gonna disconnect that and we're gonna test. Is there a pin four? Position four? We're going to test for that intermittent power when I crank the key. So what I'll do is we know we have hot coming in, so we're going to check for 12 volts or one of these pins. there's our 12.

nothing there, nothing there, and nothing on the third one. But we do have 12 volts right here. So let's switch this over to continuity to ground and we'll see which one of these is grounded. Not that one, that one, not that one.

So it should be this one or this one that is supposed to energize when given the uh the signal to crank. So let's see which one of these is actually the pin that runs down to that solenoid. What I'm going to do next is I will connect the negative lead to that lead that's going down to the solenoid. It's hard to do one-handed and we'll check continuity again between those two pins.

Not that one. Oh, not that one either. There's no continuity. It's weird.

Okay, okay, real easy. What I'm gonna do is I'll just set this probe up on that pin right there and then I will crank it if we get voltage at that. PIN and we know that the key is operating as designed or the ignition switch is operating as design. Okay, I've got a lead on the pin I've got our meter set to voltage.

I'm going to crank it and we should see voltage off that pin when cranking. Get that in there. wiper blades see that? So it was trying to. What are we doing here? Okay, so it was trying to close the relay from the key when, uh, when it was commanded to crank.

So let's put that relay back where it goes. Are you guys listening to that? really? Tell me if that thing clicks over? Okay, Do you hear it? No clicking? Okay, so the relay is not closing. That's our issue. So we've got power going to it at this pin from the ignition key.

So when you go to turn the key, it energizes that circuit. And then we should have a power supplied circuit coming from fuse number one. So we do have a power supply right here. We'll verify that is fused by just pulling the fuse and then checking it.

Then we have that wire should be running down to the solenoid. So let's recheck that again. Back to continuity. It's either this one or this one.

Nope, that's that one. So theoretically, if I were to energize this wire right here, it should cause this. uh, this engine to crank. So let's try it.

I've got another lead here. Put this one, put the clip side on battery positive and we'll just test it out real quick. This goes straight down to the solenoid. the green one nose crank when that one is energized.

Now that one, That green one should be connected to this pin right here. So let's energize this one and it cranks. Okay, so what we don't have is something going on with this pin right here. Because we've got power, we've got signal, and we've got our circuit to the solenoid.

We don't have a ground to complete the circuit and that's why this relay is not being allowed to close circuit to the starter solenoid circuit. signal from the key power supply and that's a grounding wire of some sort. and our ground is supposed to go. Look at that powertrain control module.

That's our circuit. From our key, that's our powered circuit. From the fuse, that's our circuit to the starter solenoid circuit. B2 Tan wire going down to relay control.

that's PCM Powertrain control module on the firewall behind power distribution center. That's where the ground is uh, is supposed to be coming from. Interesting. Very interesting.

Okay, we're gonna cheat really bad to prove this out. So this is supposed to be our ground pin. Okay, I'm gonna put this alligator clip on that ground pin and I'm going to reconnect it over here to battery ground. so I've removed it from the solenoid.

I'm going to plug this in and to prove out my theory. this thing shouldn't crank when I hit it with the key. let's go see what it does. I'm not supposed to be doing that, but since I know I have a ground problem, let's see what happens.

All right. And now it cranks with the key. but all we did was artificially Supply that ground and it still isn't starting and we don't have any crank signals. See that I wonder if we have a PCM problem? Well, maybe we do.

Maybe we don't. Um, someone's already put a PCM in this. Thing Once Upon a Time Maybe we just have a PCM ground problem. Oh man.

Okay, okay here's what I'm gonna do. So we've got. uh, we do have this wire right here. um I want to make sure that this wire is in good shape between the relay which is uh, you can't see between the relay and between the connector the PCM So all you really need to do is run a continuity test between that ground pin right here and its matching pin over here in one of these two PCM connectors.

I don't know which one it is. so I'm just going to take them both off, disconnect the battery again while I do this because of ring. No seriously, that you can. you can break stuff.

not doing that. Come off of there please. It's a tight squeeze and I might just unbolt this whole unit. Yeah, we're gonna do that instead.

Let me get this guy to come out. It's it's unclipped. it just won't let go I need some Leverage Let's do uh encourages connector to become unconnected. Why won't it go break It first.

That's it. Come on dude. serious ly bend the pins. Okay, all right.

one more, let's get this guy off. Please thank you. Okay now I just need to figure out which one of these wires is the uh, the other end of this line right here. So what I'm going to do is just reconnect my meter back to uh to that pin.

and I'm just going to probe all the pins until I find the right one. So we connect yellow to Black and we'll plug that in right here. We'll test our meter. Continuity is good.

We just go through and pin all these real fast. Problem s Okay, maybe I wasn't getting a good connection. so let's just flip these leads around. I'll try one more time.

Let's go through. No, no, no Booyah Okay, so we now know that the wire from the PCM going to the starting cranking relay is in good condition. So that leaves us the um. Well that leads me to almost conclude that the the PCM is faulty because we know that the the starter has power going to it.

We know that the key is sending power to the relay. We know the relay has power and we know the relay has connection down to the solenoid. What it doesn't have is ground to or from the PCM. If we artificially Supply a ground it will then work.

But that doesn't mean that the PCM. and that ground circuit does not uh share another function like allowing this thing to run. So um, actually, you know what what I want to do? Let's uh, let's see if it shares that ground with a Uh with the ASD relay because the ASD relay I believe controls many, many functions on this vehicle. So we'll pull.

uh, we'll pull that fan relay back out because it's in the way. We'll fetch the ASD relay because it's right there Now that ground should be the same ground as this one Right here. that is, if those uh, those two circuits actually share a ground and then that's the faulty circuit within the ECM. That makes sense.

So what I'll do will recheck it. We'll recheck our continuity here. And okay, we have ground again. We're at that at the same wire between the ECM and the fuse panel.

Let's check the ASD for uh. ground connection. All right, that's negative. ASD does not share a ground with uh, the with that circuit.

Okay, so this is where it's going to get good. You see, we noticed that the starter relay doesn't work. The ASD relay didn't click over I didn't hear the fuel pump relay come on when we tried to key it on. Now we know the key is operating what we uh.

printer gravity. We're already suspecting that PCM is faulty. So what I'm going to do is we're going to go through all these printouts where we have a power or ground to this PCM and we're gonna go check those at the connectors and uh and make sure that PCM has everything that it needs to function. If the PCM has power and ground everywhere that it should with key on and we're not getting the outputs from the from the PCM then we can conclude that that unit is faulty and will need to be replaced.

Okie Dokes. So uh, I went back outside and I checked for uh, all the powers and grounds going to that PCM and it has everything it's supposed to have. I'm very much suspecting that that unit's faulty. Um, considering that this is a train wreck of a diag because I have no idea what's been done to it, my plan of action here is going to be to just go outside to steal one off another one of those cars and we'll plug it in and if it works then we know for sure.

if it doesn't work then, um, well, I'll drag this thing inside and actually start diagging it. I've got one donor Cruiser over there, there's another one over here somewhere, maybe over there. Uh, that one's turbo so I don't think I can use the PCM in that one and survey says the blue one does not have the same unit. Okay here, let's check the other silver one.

I will coverage parts from everything and that one's different too. Okay, dead in the water? Need to order a PCM That's the problem. I Was hoping I could prove it with a swap or a part swap, but that's not gonna work. Let me check the red one.

Hang on. Just let me check it. I Think there's a issue with the year? It's not the key, Is it? No, it's not. I don't have keys to the red one? Okay, never mind.

Yeah. So basically where we're at, the ECM has all of its powers. It has all of its grounds. However, it is not actuating any of the relay circuits uh, that control the systems in the car.

So this is our issue. This is where we stop. Um I Swear he told me somebody had put one of these in there. at one point this thing's been disconnected, but it also does not look like it's been, uh, been replaced.

So I don't you never really know? Then you know the guy could have told him he'd put one in it and then never actually did it all right. Well anyway, that's gonna. that's gonna call it quit for me for the day. Uh, sorry for the break and uh, what was happening.

my battery died but anyway, yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and close this one outfits I don't know what that was but I probably need it. uh I do know what that was and I don't need it right now. Uh yeah. yeah.

So anyway I'm gonna go and close this one out. Um, it's always like to thank you guys for watching this video. Hope you enjoyed this video! I Know It was kind of short but uh, it is a junkyard Diagnostics today so uh, we figured out we need another computer at the very least and then maybe once we can make this thing crank on its own without adding wires to the system. Uh, the rest of the units will come back online and then this thing should start run and operate as designed so we'll see if we're gonna replace this or not and then we will go from there.

So again, as always, thank you for watching and most importantly, don't forget to have yourselves a great day into! PT Cruiser.