My friend has a 2004 srt4 and he was driving down the road and all of a sudden his car shuts off...He tries to start it and it keeps blowing the starter fuse....we got it running by luck and he drove it for two more days just fine...i just got a call saying its doing the same thing...i have no clue i tried to check and see if any wires were touching metal or each other and i couldnt find anything...my guess his starter might be going out but i have never seen this happen before like this..do u guys have any suggestions on what it might be??? i was told to post here cuz you guys will help me if possible thanx in advance

 

exsessive mechanical resitance in the starter which caused current to spike hense the blown fuse or a short somewhere in the starter circuit but both those still dont explain why it shut off while driving

 

yea that whats odd he was driving both times and it shutoff out of no where....do you think he should just replace the starter?

 

he might be crossing a wire or a fuse,

what else is connected to the starter fuse?

 

im pretty sure its on a fuse by itself but im not a 100% sure....i banged around on his starter last time cuz i thought maybe it locked up or a bad spot in it and then it started up and ran fine....i dont know if this even helped at all when i did it i gave it a shot

 

get a multimeter and a wiring diagram power flow it and then check it u should know where u gonna have power and each voltdrops electrical is a bitch u could also just take the starter out and do a bench test it

 

if it shut off when it was running. check the spark plugs and alternator. and even the connection to the battery.

 

Tell him to sell it quick! I'll give him a grand for it.

 

ok we took the starter off and installed a new one and it keeps blown the starter fuse...anybody have any idea what it might be?

 

it could be wired wrong somewhere, thats the only thing i can think of

 

its grounding out from what think. check wires. possibly melted a wire and grounding out brotha

 

thats what i was thinking i traced all of the wires goin from the starter to the fuse box and they all looked fine...so now im stumped i dont know what to do....could the fuse box itself have a problem?

 

hhhmmmm...i guess it could be, but why is it targeting one specific function though...You may need to just buy a whole new unit and everything from a junked car or something

 

yea i guess so that would suck for him...im out of ideas so that might be the last try

 

has he done any recent modding to the car

 

honestly i wouldnt replace the start until you do a voltage drop test on the DMM( digital multi meter)
id check the schematics and see what could be causeing an open in the circuit
the starter is on a parallel circuit and not a series circuit so id see if theres an open in the main circuit (part before it splits in to multiple little circuits)

 

no he hasnt modded anything and im not sure i no how to do the voltage test is it pretty simple

 

seriously, just check all the wires in the engine bay. you might b crossing a grounded wire

 

ok i will do that for sure but we didnt mess with any wires, could crossing the wires still happen then?

 

a wire could o touched something and melted.

never know

 

Just caught the thread. In the back of my mind I seem to recall a couple people having issues with the power wire to the starter wearing through on something and shorting out. If you don't already have a copy, the srtforums or google should be able to point you to a copy of the factory service manual in .PDF format. This will have all the wiring diagrams you'll need for the car. Trace the wiring circuit from the battery to the starter and triple-check to make sure nothing has worn through and is shorting.

There are some known issues with the steering column wiring/multi-function switch, but I doubt that would be your problem. When you said the car shut off, did everything die all at once to include gauges, lights, stereo, etc., or did the car just stop running and dash lights go on?

 

everything shut off at once just out of no where....it kept blown fuses then after a while (maybe we hit a wire) it started back up and then died again a couple of days later

 

If everything died then the high current positive/red lead coming off the battery that goes directly to the starter motor might be shorted out, but that circuit does not have a fuse and doesn't run through the power distribution center (PDC). The other wire that comes off the positive terminal of the battery feeds the entire positive side of the PDC box. Looking at the schematics, he's probably blowing the 30A fuse #9 which powers the starter solenoid through the relay #24 in the PDC.

I would bet that wire coming from relay #24 and going to the starter solenoid is sporadically shorting out on something as the powertrain twists on accel/decel and/or goes over bumps in the road. To make it easy to check everything you'll probably want to pull the air box and possibly the intake manifold to have better access to the starter (new gaskets are under $5 from the dealer and if you're taking it off don't forget there's a support bracket on the underside near the throttle body area besides the bolts going into the cylinder head). Also before you start poking around make sure that the negative side of the battery is disconnected. There's enough current in those circuits to kill you or arc weld something.

 

thanx man so let me make sure were on the same page the main (only) power wire running to the starter i should check that one? If so what an easy way to check it? Should he go buy a new wire to run to it or could jumper cables or something like this be able to work as a test for it?

 

You should check the main wire to the starter motor as well as the slightly smaller fused wire going to the solenoid on the starter (which is probably the one causing the fuse to blow). If you use a multi-meter you could do a continuity test, check resistance for a short, but the easiest way to start is a close visual inspection of the entire wire for insulation wear/damage, burning, etc. Start with that before you start throwing parts at the car.