Three strange things all started at once

[KWhale]

We have a 2005 300C with about 45k kms on it now. A couple of weeks ago some odd things started happening. First we noticed the passanger side air bag warning light on the dash (a red light that looks like a pregnant woman sitting in a chair, go figure?!) would come on when no one was sitting in the passanger seat. It would come on, chime, then go off again for 5 mins or so, then repeat over and over. There was nothing on the front seat either, so it's not like something was being detected then not sort of thing. The last few days, it's doing it now when someone IS sitting in the passanger seat as well.

Then a few days later we noticed every time the car is started, the air conditioner would come on (the little orange snowflake on the center console is lit). If you shut it off, it may come on again if you change the setting from vent to feet to defrost sort of thing, bu no set combination causes it to come back on. For sure though, if you shut the car off and turn it on again, the snowflake light comes on again.

The last thing I noticed just a couple of days ago is the cigar lighter no longer works either. We tested it when we bought the car last year, but do not use it, so I have no idea how long it's been not working.

Is it possible all 3 of these strange things are somehow related? The car goes in to the dealership on Friday morning, so if you have any suggestions for me that I could pass along, it would be a great help. Thanks

[MR Bulk]

Are the fuses for these things shared?

[DUBSTER]

That is really weird.

[steven1m]

Like Mr Bulk said check to see if the fuses are the same fuse and if there is something wrong with the fuse. They may all be related if it is an electrical issue. I would make an appointment with the dealer. The fuse for my ciggarette lighter is blown but I have not noticed any other issues you have.

[srt8danno]

I’ve also read about members who have discovered many loose fuses so you may want to see if they’re in properly.

[Rambit]

There's been lost of reports on the passenger side airbag light coming on. One involved the wiring harness contacts for the early 2005 models weren't gold plated and were subsequently changed for the 2006's. I did a search specifically for the airbag problem and the results are here http://www.300cforums.com/forums/sea...earchid=512349

You can see this is not an isolated problem at all. The rest of your problems I can't help you with, but I'd suspect they're all related to the wiring harness.

Rambit

[jaydee]

You sure there is no ghost or a gremlin or two in there?
Jaydee

[AKawd]

thats weird..possible shared curcits? idk lol

[KWhale]

Just an update on this. I finally had some time to run into town and picked up a 5 pack of the 20a fuses that the cigar lighter runs on. The fuse was blown. I popped in a new one, turned the key to on, hit the lighter, and it blew. I put in another one and started the car this time. I drove it for a bit and the A/C was still screwed up as origianlly described, and the passenger side air bag warning was still acting up, the same as before.

Feeling lucky, I tried the cigar lighter one more time and it blew. So it looks like I definately have some sort of short circut in there. Man, I hate it when the problems are electrical. They always seem to haunt you for months and months and countless trips back to the dealership to get them fixed.

As suggested in this post (thanks to everyone who chimed in with suggestions by the way!) I checked both fuse boxes, and had about an 80% average of fuses that were lose and needed to be pushed down!

I have an appointment set up for July 4th, hopefully they won't have it for too many days. I am also going to be asking for my rims to be fixed, they have serious pitting. Thanks to this forum I was able to find out this was a known problem, and the dealership should be fixing. When I called to make the appointment, they said if the rims are warranty, they will send them out to be resurfaced. I was hoping for replacements, but I'll wait and see what the resurfacing looks like.

Thanks again for the suggestions so far, and I'll post back after the appointment IF they figure these gremlins out.

[KWhale]

Well, I took the car in for it's service today. Two of the three main problems I had with the A/C oddity and the blown fuse as supposed to be fixed by replacing the "clock spring" what ever that is. Part will be in tomorrow to replace that. The recalibrated the passenger side air bag sensor, and say they fixed that. So far so good there, all three odd things should be fixed by tomorrow.

Now for the BS part! When I brought the car in, I pointed to the horrible pitting on all 4 rims. The tech right away went and got the service manager. He looked at them for like 6 seconds, and said they are bad, and since the car has more than 20,000 kilomiters on it, I was SOL. After about a 5 minute discussion (mostly me talking to a blank stare), he was done with me and went back to his office. As I continued to calmly tell the tech that those rims were defective, and would either be replaced or repaired, she told me she totally agreed and went and got the service manager again. He hands me the 1-800 help desk number written on a card and says unless I can find someone there to tell him it's covered for repair, he's not doing anything, and retreats to his office again.
I left, and said fix everything else, and that I'd be back to deal with the rims as a separate issue. Since I bought 2 vehicles from this same dealership in the last 9 months I was pissed. I went back in the afternoon to talk to the sales people who sold me my vehicles. Up to now they have been a True 5 star dealership. They went and looked at my rims, and then talked to the serice manager again. They got the same answer! They even came back with the 1-800 number written on a card. I said let's go to your office and you call that #$(#*&(& number, and lets see what sort of service you get. Well 30 minutes later with either busy signals or no answers they slammed the phone down in disgust. Since I refuse to play the helpless desk game (I work for a large blue compter company that hides behind it's own help desk, so I know that route will not work), they promised to get the name of a human being at Chrylsers to talk to me about this. They will get back to me by noon tomorrw. I don't think I will be holding my breath though.
If I don't hear from them right away, there are 6 other dealerships in Edmonton, I will start making the rounds, and which ever one helps me out, will get my business from now on. I can't beleive the BS from the LONDONDERRY CHRYLSER service manager
How can a car be under warranty, but Chrysler can decide that defective parts are not covered because that's what they feel like doing? If my roof was pitted and rusting from poor workmanship, they would fix it up right away, but because these are rims, they are not covered? Can someone explain to me how they can just exclude a warranty covered item when ever they feel like it??? Man I'm pissed now. Sorry for the length of this post, but if anyone has anything that can help me out, please let me know asap, keeping in mind, I'm in Canada!