Would I hear a noticeable difference in sound quality if I got these speakers/deck installed?

'94 concorde: instrument cluster dead

• QUESTION: Hi, I have a 1994 Chrysler Concorde 3.5L with 138K miles. About a year ago, I had a problem with sudden overheating. After a shop made two tries at repair, two weeks in the shop, $2200 of new radiator, new PCM, new radiator fan assembly (PCM and fan assembly replaced without consulting me), and it still overheated again after nine days, I took control of my car's repairs. The problem was the ground wiring to the radiator fans was failing, and the new fan assembly was plugged into the burned out original wiring harness connector, so it burned up (and melted the fan RFI module) within days. I eventually figured this out and directly soldered the wires together, and it is now stable. In addition, if it fails again, I can quickly debug it. Lately, the car had two other repairs. One, the blower motor was almost failing, so I paid a private individual to remove the lower knee bolster and replace the blower motor with my part. He was very impressive managing the dozens of fasteners and was done in 2.5 hours as I closely monitored the progress. I liked his work, and shortly after the car developed a massive oil leak around some front seals, so I bought all the seals, timing belt kit, water pump, etc. for crankshaft seal, timing belt cover seals, cam shaft seals, valve cover seals, and oil pan seal. I wasn't watching that repair, but he did a fine job as far as I can tell, and I drove it home without problems. Except while he was removing the radiator fan assembly, the bending of my soldered wires showed my solder job was shoddy, so I had to resolder the radiator fan wires again. While I was doing that, I think I might have made the big mistake, as I tested the radiator fans individually just to verify they were working and the problem was in the wiring. When I did that, I didn't read the test procedure again ("I've done this before!") and tested with a fused jumper cable to the motors, but without disconnecting the negative battery cable. When I was done with resoldering the wires, I could not start the car. I disconnected the negative cable overnight, and then I could start the car, but the instrument cluster is dead except for the air bag light, the ATC is dead except for the LED for the temperature setting, and the wipers do not work except for a single jerk as the car starts. Other than that, I think everything else works - door locks, power seats, courtesy lights, head lights, turn signals (including the indicators on the cluster). The ignition key dance seems to have no effect at the moment - no check engine light blinks at all. While the car is running, if I open the door, the courtesy lights start blinking. I pulled the fuse for the blower motor and I can still hear a quiet cycling sound near the ATC, in sync with the blinking courtesy lights, maybe the aspirator motor, or a vent adjustment cycling? The car drives ok, and I took it for a ride around the block without incident. A more technical friend suspects some wire is pinched from the dash/blower motor work a week before, but there aren't many wires around the lower knee bolster. I'm blaming myself for putting all the radiator fan motor transients directly on the computers. I read about ignition switch failures, and I wiggled the switch while the car is running, but it had no effect. Do you think I blew the Body Control Module? Maybe there is a fusible link I don't see on the wiring diagrams. Thanks! ANSWER: Hi Lester, Thanks for all the history, but the cluster would not seem to be involved in any of that. The power for the cluster comes from fuse 17 in the box behind the left end cap of the dash so verify that you have a good fuse and that there is power showing on both sides of it when the key is in the 'run' position. At the cluster that input is on pin 6 of the black plug red/white wire. The ground at the cluster is on pin 3, a black wire that goes to a common ground under the dash for many other units. Fuse 17 also powers the body computer so it might also be taken out if there is no power from that fuse. Please 'rate' my answer (see below). Thanks, Roland ---------- FOLLOW-UP ---------- QUESTION: Thanks for the quick reply! I'm a bit confused about fuse 17 powering the instrument cluster. For fuse 17, my owner's manual reads "Auto Trans Controller, Body Controller, Gear Selector Indicator", and the inscription on the plastic fuse block cover reads "GAUGES, PRNDL". The instrument panel is mentioned on fuse 13, "Body Controller, Door Lock Switches, Instrument Panel Connector, Radio Memory, Rear Reading, Glove Box, Key-In, Vanity, Mirror, Underhood, Trunk, Door Courtesy, Front Courtesy/Map Lights, Power Mirrors, Trunk Release, Remote Keyless Entry, Message Center, ATC Aspirator Motor" (owner's manual) and "INTERIOR LAMPS" (plastic cover inscription). I guess 17 is the one you mean, but the notations are not the most helpful. For this problem, I have had no fuses blow. I just took my DVM and measured the voltage from the top and bottom of each fuse access point (with all fuses installed and ignition on run) and I got the following: Voltage was the same on all fuses measured at top and at bottom. All fuses gave some measureable voltage from ground. Fuses 2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,13,14,17,18,19,20,21 about 12.24 volts Fuses 1,5,11,12,15,16 about 0.01 volts While key is on run with door open, the courtesy lights blink, and I can watch the battery voltage vary in sync with the lights, I guess from the extra load (or short?). If I leave the 25A blower motor fuse in, I hear it ramping up and down at the frequency of the courtesy lights flashing. When I pull the blower motor fuse, I still hear a quieter wheezing in sync. As I mentioned, the instrument cluster is mainly dark/inactive, and the ATC panel is dark (no indicator lights on the buttons, no response to blower speed, no lights on display other than the temperature setting on the temperature dial). I just noticed that the radio/amp works fine, even activates the antenna motor. In addition, by poking at every button on the ATC, I was able to activate and deactivate the rear window defogger, but I could not activate the front defogger or anything else. I have not yet removed the instrument cluster, so I don't have access to that connector at the moment. Should I remove the instrument cluster to access that connector, even with the ATC dead? Thanks for your help! ANSWER: Hi Lester, Yes, I would check both the ATC for power and the cluster, and also check that the black and black/green ground wires for each are attached cleanly and firmly to their ground point under the dash at the bottom of the center stack on the bracket that holds the airbag module where a large number of such ground wires are fastened. If the power to the cluster and the ATC are checked out, then I would wonder if the body computer is the issue as again both those units rely on digital data from the communiction bus. That body computer mounted on the right side kick panel in front of the passenger door under the dash may have had water intrusion from a leak around the windshield that can drip water down onto the three plugs on the top edge of it. So spray some electrical contact cleaner on the plugs and sockets at the computer after separating them to evaporate any such contamination that may have occured. Please 'rate' my answer. Thanks, Roland ---------- FOLLOW-UP ---------- QUESTION: I took off the ATC head and disconnected the two connectors. I found battery voltage was making it to the connectors, so it seems the ATC head is working but not receiving a useful signal from the body control module. The instrument cluster, ATC and windshield wipers are dead, and from the wiring diagrams, that points me toward a bad body control module. I had my mechanic remove the BCM from my car. Unfortunately, the sticker on the BCM is so old and faded, I cannot make out a single character of writing - it's just a faded smudge. Good news though: the car runs almost identically with and without the BCM installed. The only difference seems to be that the blower runs continuously at high and there is no more wheezing sound of some actuators trying to move. My mechanic suggested that my BCM might not be physically damaged but only need to be reprogrammed. Is that a possibility? Is there some programming specific to my car model or VIN that is needed before I install a replacement BCM? There is one technical service bulletin about reprogramming the remote keyless entry by grounding a pin from the BCM and pressing a button on the fob, but that seems to be only about RKE and not the BCM in general. I also read about the VTSS enabled BCM and PCM being able to infect other computers with the VTSS enabled state. My car is equipped with VTSS, so I guess I don't need to worry about that issue. Any ideas how I might determine what part number I have without the outside label? A friend is going to open the BCM (four Torx screws) and have a look for inside part numbers. Thanks!

• Answer:

  Hi Lester, The blower running on high would be explained by the disabling of the bcm plugs. The cluster, ATC and wipers among other parts are indeed involved with the bcm. I have the '94 body computer diagnostic manual and there is no mention of programming it or reprogramming it. As for part number, that would best be learned at a Chrysler dealer parts department. Their parts catalogs should tell you the number and also what other vehicles used that same computer; however from what I can see it appears only the LH body vehicle used the the 3 plug bcm and I believe that bcm was used in the '93-97 model years. You might want to verify that you have 12v on pins 19 and 22 of the bone color plug when the key is 'on', and that pins 14 and 21 of the same plug show a continuity to ground. If you can avail yourelf of the Chrysler DRB II diagnositic readout box or a similar vintage Snap-On reader you might then be able to get a fault code readout which I can tell you how to troubleshoot for. Tho access would be via the blue data link connector under the dash to the right of the steering column. Again I would suggest that you spray the plugs and sockets with electrical contact cleaner as the problem may simply be dirt/water/corrosion in those three plug/socket interfaces. You would do well to begin by doing those things before looking for a replacement bcm. Please 'rate' my answer. Thanks, Roland