All,

I recently purchased a 2001 T&C with the 3.8L V6. There has been an odd constellation of electrical gremlins, and I wonder if anyone can help me sort it out.

This morning, I went to get the newspaper, and saw that the windshield wipers were stuck half-way through a cycle. Looking at the windshield, it looked like they had been running for a while, as there were bird droppings smeared on the windshield that were not there before.

Also, the windshield wiper relay was ticking. I pulled it and replaced it, and the ticking stopped. The battery was completely dead - it wouldn't even try to crank, and the radio display was dark. I have not yet tried to jump-start it.

It almost looks like the wipers started running on their own until the battery was drained to the point that the relay was just ticking. But the windshield wiper switch was off, and the keys were not in the ignition. Could there be some kind of short in the electrical system that causes this?

Here are some other symptoms, in the event they mean something to anyone:

1) Two days ago, I came out and the battery was dead. I jump-started it, and things seemed fine. Unlike today, I didn't hear any ticking and the windshield wipers were in their place.

2) I am able to remove the key from the ignition while in the "on" position and the engine is running.

3) I am able to remove the key from the ignition when it is in the "off" position, but the gear selecter is still in drive.

4) At some times, door chime rings continuiously when the driver's door is opened, even when there is no obvious reason for it to do so - the car is in park, the lights are off, the ignition is switched off and the keys have been removed. At other times, it only chimes once. I haven't been able to discern any pattern to this.

5) The lock functions on the key fob remote work intermittently. Some times I an lock and unlock with the fob, others I can't. The same goes for the rear hatch button on the fob - sometimes they work, sometimes not. The buttons for the sliding passenger doors have never worked.

6) Yesterday afternoon, I had trouble getting the car to start. All of the iditot lights came on and the engine cranked for a couple seconds, but it would not catch. After two or three tries, the engine finally started. When it did, though, the speedometer went haywire for a couple of seconds. The needle was jumping around all over the place before it returned to zero. Note that it was not "sweeping" but seemed to "click" from place to place.

7) When the engine is running, the tachometer needle doesn't sweep but it also clicks from place to place, as though it is giving a reading every half-second or so, as opposed to constantly moving along with engine speed.



Sorry for the long message, but there are a lot of symptoms here. I did a couple of forum serarches but didn't find any similar messages from the past. Before I drop more money at the shop, I wanted to see if someone may know of a common cause for these symptoms.

Thanks to everyone for any insights you might have.