I have been a member for some time and have got a lot of great information from this site but this is my first time posting. Thanks to all of you help out. I have a 98 Dakota SLT 4x4, 3.9 engine and automatic transmission. I do have the keyless entry, power locks and windows.
My problem started with just the heater blower starting and stopping as if there were a loose wire being jiggled. When the blower is not running (with the switch on) I have noticed that the panel lamps for the hvac controls are on even though the light switch is off. If I turn the headlights on, the rest of the dash lights come on as they should, but the hvac panel lights go out. Lately when I go to start the truck in the morning I can see that the hvac panel lights are on, even though they were off when I shut the truck off. The blower does not work at all until I start driving, then it will be intermittent. I can leave the truck run during breakfast and when I come out, the blower is running and the hvac lamps are out, but don't always stay so after I start driving.
Lately there have been some other symptoms that occur at the same time as the blower not working; dome light does not work, door locks do not work (I can hear a clicking under the dash when I hit the door locks but the locks do not engage) and the lighter and 12v power port do not work. Today a new symptom showed up: When I shut off the truck, I can hear a relay(??) clicking on and off very rapidly under the dash and the display on the radio is flashing at the same speed as the relay. I opened the hood and the intermittent wiper relay was also clicking. Pulling this relay caused the interior gremlins to quit. Then when I opened the driver's door, the alarm went off.
After reading a bunch of posts on this site, I am thinking that the CTM is going bad, but I would like some direction from those who are more knowledgeable. It's kind of cold up here in North Dakota (-30 a few days ago), so a working heater fan would be nice.

Thanks in advance for any information.

 

i was thinkin ctm as well, really dont have anything to back it up except for i thought mine was bad a while back and did a lot of reading on it. hopefully someone else will come across this and be able to help more

 

You prob already know that the ctm controls they locks,window,radio,cruise,keyless entry,dome lights. Normally when these things start to mess up or come and go that 90% of the time means the ctm is bad. Its a pretty common thing on the daks.

 

Sounds like classic typical CTM problems. You can have the Dodge dealer check the truck with the DRB scan tool, that is the only way to tell for sure if the CTM is bad. Maybe the dealer will include the diagnostic charge into the price to replace the CTM for you if you have them replace it. Or you can buy a new CTM and replace it yourself. If you have keyless entry you will need to program your existing remote controls to the new CTM, because the keyless entry brain is an internal part of the CTM. You can save some money if you are able to program it yourself. Here is a post from one of the mods here on how to do the programming yourself:

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...e-program.html

If it works then all you need to do is give the dealer your VIN so they can be sure to get the right CTM for you. There are 2 different CTM part numbers, one for trucks with all the power options like power windows, power locks and keyless entry, etc and one for trucks without the options. You can install the CTM yourself and everything should work fine, then program your own keyless remotes to save even more money. Be sure to program both remote controls. No sense paying the dealer for something you can do for yourself. The only down side is I am not sure if the DIY programming works. No one here that I know of has done it and posted back, whether it worked or not. It's still worth a try before paying the dealer though.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Jimmy

 

I'm thinking bad ground for a start, then maybe the CTM.

The CTM has nothing to do with the blower motor, the power outlet, or the lighter.

If you saw the lights on the dash coming on that tells me power was looking for a ground through the dash lights. Both power outlets share a ground with the blower motor. It is G202, located on the RH side of the instrument panel. It'll have some fairly heavy (10 gauge) wires going to it. G203, which does the radio and the CTM, is also RH side of the instrument panel. I can't tell if they're in the same spot or not.

There was another guy a few weeks ago that had a bad ground and it was tripping his wipers when he signaled a right turn. All sorts of things can happen.

I'd also check all the ground straps under the hood, make sure they're clean and tight.

Replacing the CTM would be the last thing I did.

 

If you do have to get a ctm dont let the dealer install it they will charge you like 100-200 just to take 2 screws out and connect the harness it takes about 5 min to install.

 

yea that was me, it sounds like the ctm but like you said with it having to do with the blower motor it could be a ground, does the blower motor run off of a fuse of something that goes through the ctm?

 

Thanks to all who responded; very good information. I think I'll look for the ground first; 00DakDan, could you please be a little more specific as to where I look for the ground wire?
Are there a number of wires that connect to the body somewhere that are all held down by the same nut? Any further info would be appreciated as my age and bifocals are not very conducive to searching under a dash. Thanks again.

 

Not that I see from the FSM.

 

I just got the bifocals the other day so know what you mean.

All I can tell from the FSM is that it is on the RH side of the dash, probably above the power amp. It should have a fairly thick, black, 10 gauge wire, going to it. There should be several wires to the same ground.

I tend to think that the most likely reason is a corroded body ground strap under the hood versus this location. It is protected so unless it gets wet and corrodes it should be in good shape. Still, check them all.

If you do find the ground I suppose you could always run a jumper to the negative post on the battery just to see if the problems go away.