Usually, when you get in the car, the interior lights come on as well as the EVIC, tach and speedometer lights. The information center says press brake to start car. I know this is normal and if you just sit there and do nothing, all the lights eventually go off.
Recently and this is intermittent; after you shut the car off and after all of the lights have shut off, the EVIC, tach and speedometer ( no interior or outside) lights will come back on as if someone had opened a door. Sometimes the message about depressing the brake panel to start car is there, sometimes it's blank and sometimes it's in French. They will stay on for the proper amount of time then shut off. After about a second, they come back on and repeat the cycle and will keep on repeating until you start the car.
Car starts and drives fine with no issues so far. We recently replaced the battery but this started before then.
We stopped by the my dealer (who is AWESOME!!) and they put a code scanner on but there were no codes and of course it wouldn't do it in the service bay.
It acts like it thinks someone keeps getting in the car. Doesn't seem to be related to a specific location or a particular key fob and will do it whether or not someone is sitting in the Driver's seat.
I'm disabled on a fixed income with lots of Dr's appointments, therapy, etc. This is our only car.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Next time we catch it doing this, I'll try and post some video if allowed. Thanks in advance.

 

Try this.
Disconnect the battery "ground" cable. Ground the positive terminal to chassis ground for about 3 seconds. This resets all your electronic stuff to optimal. Read and understand the preceeding before you move.
Often in battery failure/replacement situations the electronics looses its mind and starts doing goofy stuff.

 

Hi oldhippie,

I'm sorry to hear about all this! If you decide to revisit your Chrysler dealership, you are more than welcome to send us a message to let us know. We're happy to follow up!

Kori
Chrysler Social Care Specialist

 

Thanks tarhealcracker,
It sounds like you mean unhook the negative battery cable at the battery and then ground the positive terminal. Do you ground the positive terminal of the battery with the positive cable hooked up or or just disconnect the positive cable as well and just ground the cable?
Thanks.

 

When you disconnect the neg terminal at the battery the battery is effectively out of the circuit. No need to disconnect the pos terminal. By then grounding the positive terminal for 3 seconds you are only grounding the car's electronic system, allowing it to reset when the battery ground is reconnected. If this makes you nervous, go ahead and disconnect the pos terminal too and ground the cable for 3 seconds.
Do let us know how it works out for you.

 

I'll try that this weekend Tarhealcracker. Can I assume that data such as the main odometer, etc. reading won't be effected?
Thanks.

 

Yes you may assume.

 

Oldhippie,

Don't forget to let us know how it sorted out. Operators are standing by.

 

Hi tarhealcracker,
Just an update. The car has not done this for almost a week now. I did not try your recommendation yet as the issue appeared to stop right after I opened this thread. If it crops back up again, I will try it immediately.
Thanks again for the interest. I'll keep this open for the time being as I spent a career in technology and I'm a real skeptic when it comes to anything run by a computer.

 

Going to add another update. Car has been fine for months but last week, the blinking VIC lights in French started up again. Went to dealer and they checked for codes which there were none. A couple of days later, the new battery was dead when we tried to start the car.
Fortunately, we got it to the dealer after a recharge and they saw what the VIC was doing.
We left the car with them and later that day, they called and said the new battery was indeed fine so they are chasing the issue.
I'm fortunate to have a GREAT dealer and service center 10 minutes from home.
I'll definitely report what the solution turns out to be.