I am having an issue with my Stratus blowing a particular fuse, I drive a 98 Stratus ES, 2.4, the fuse that keeps blowing is the PCM.ASD fuse. What is the PCM.ASD?
It first happened at highway speed. I discovered the above mentioned fuse blown. I replaced and took the vehicle out to test. The first part of the ride was uneventful, the on the return ride home I noticed when I was accel. up a hill the gauges on the dash started to slowly return to the shut off position. I remove my foot off the accel. the gauges would return to normal position (showing RPM and speed). But if I attempted to accel. the gauges would again head towards the "0" home position. I was able to coax the vehicle home but when I parked the vehicle I intentionally accelerated the engine and then the fuse blew and the engine quit. It sounds like a short somewhere, has anyone else had this problem? Is this a DIY repair?

 

the asd is the automatic shutdown relay ,the pcm is control module, the asd relay is located under the hood in the power distribution center(fuse box). could be the relay is bad you might be able to swap one thats not essential for car to run to test it out.when you pull it out check for corrosion at the terminals clean if needed,also another problem area i've heard about is corrosion where battery cable enters box, some years you can unhook cable at pdc box and clean if theres corrosion not sure about yours. heres a basic description of asd circuit

The relay is located in the Power Distribution Center (PDC). For the location of the relay within the PDC, refer to the PDC cover for location. Check electrical terminals for corrosion and repair as necessary

The ASD sense circuit (SBEC vehicles) or the engine switched battery (NGC vehicles) informs the PCM when the ASD relay energizes. A 12 volt signal at this input indicates to the PCM that the ASD has been activated. This input is also used to power certain drivers on NGC vehicles.

When energized, the ASD relay on SBEC vehicles supplies battery voltage to the fuel injectors, ignition coils and the heating element in each oxygen sensor.

When energized, the ASD relay on NGC vehicles provides power to operate the injectors, ignition coil, generator field, 02 sensor heaters (both upstream and downstream), evaporative purge solenoid, EGR solenoid (if equipped) wastegate solenoid (if equipped), and NVLD solenoid (if equipped).

For both SBEC and NGC vehicles, the ASD relay also provides a sense circuit to the PCM for diagnostic purposes. If the PCM does not receive 12 volts from this input after grounding the control side of the ASD relay, it sets a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC). The PCM energizes the ASD any time there is an engine speed that exceeds a predetermined value (typically about 50 rpm). The ASD relay can also be energized after the engine has been turned off to perform an 02 sensor heater test, if vehicle is equipped with OBD II diagnostics.

As mentioned earlier, the PCM energizes the ASD relay during an 02 sensor heater test. This test is performed only after the engine has been shut off for SBEC vehicles. On NGC vehicles it checks the 02 heater upon vehicle start. The PCM still operates internally to perform several checks, including monitoring the 02 sensor heaters.