I periodically experience an issue of the car randomly turning on and running. This is the third time that this has happened in the four years of owning the car. Nothing has changed on the car except for the conductor plate, needs wings RCM, and changing the oil. I have two keys but they are both in hand. I am not sure how many times this has happened when I am not home or when I am asleep or for how long the car will run. I have only experienced this the last two times the first was when my girlfriend drive it to work. As soon as I lightly touch the brake pedal with my hand the car shut off. It just happened at 1:00 am on the dot upon investigating I noticed the headlights, drl, and the cluster off and the tail lights on. It has been almost a year since the second time and roughly 3 years since the first time it has done this. Has anyone else experienced this or something similar? I recorded both times this has happened because it was too bizarre plus I thought someone was trying to steal my car. I post the most recent video to the c32 and srt6 Facebook page I tried posting here but the format or video type isn't supported. I might upload it to my YouTube channel and then drop a link so someone can please tell me my car is not haunted this has getting too weird for me.
The car is a 2005 crossfire srt6 and has no other issues besides this weird periodically starting.

 

 

Cars cant be haunted - but they can be sabotaged, and yours is - you have an aftermarket remote start kit installed and it is falsing for what ever reason.
If you grab the "sticky key" PDF and use it to take the bottom of the dash apart, you can inspect the wiring at the ignition switch, and it will be obvious.

Remove the abortion and restore the car to factory and your problems will be over.

(I suppose the kit may be installed in the ECU/RCM box but it would be more likely to be under/in the dash.)

 

The car is all original, and has no aftermarket remote or start kit. I will double check it though.

 

After eleven years on this forum, I can say this for sure:

If you didn't buy it new from a dealer, you can't say that. MANY have been surprised by what other owners did.
Your car would NOT NOT NOT be the first one Iv'e read about on THIS forum with a remote start kit the owner didn't know was there!

 

After getting off work, and thinking about it again, I just logged in to suggest this, but you beat me to it. It fits the pattern as the remote starter would turn on the lights to show it started the car. Touching the brake pedal would turn the car off unless the ignition was turned on with the key. A spare key must be hidden somewhere in a box that is reading the security chip and passing it to the ignition ring. The electronics could be going bad or a stray signal is triggering it.

 

Is there anywhere else to check? I checked under the driver side dash and around the ignition and I looked in the box that houses the rcm. I can't find anything out of the ordinary no random boxes or lose connections.

 

Well, the controller needs access to wires that serve several functions: Battery B+, Ground, Switched Ignition source, start contacts (from the ignition switch), a brake light/switch sense wire and at least one lead going to the ICM to enable the lights. (I"m probably forgetting at least one or two connections). All but the last two are available at the back of the ignition switch.

Did you DROP the underdash and look over the connections at the back of the ignition switch (or the wiring harness that leads away from the switch)? This is the most likely attachment point for all but the lights.
As Toolman says, you describe the functions of a remote start kit to a "Tee" in your opening post.

 

Just as an aside - I get in a lot of trouble on Facebook for telling people they are an ASSHAT if they put any remote start or keyless kit on the car and DO NOT either:

1) Remove it when selling the car.
or
2) At least tell the buyer that you have modded the car.

I make no apologies, here we see how an owner is now living with a headache he should never go thru.

 

+1

 

At least we know one thing.....the RFID chip from the FOB must be near the ring at the ignition switch or it wouldn't start.

 

Exactly. Once you learn a bit about these cars, this one is obvious.
I DO wonder where they put it - since he can't find it and it should be kinda easy to spot.

 

There’s room behind the cluster and the head unit

 

After I got my blue roadster and got it home I saw a wire hanging down by the drivers kick panel. After some digging around I removed about two miles of wiring that was all part of an alarm system.

 

I installed an aftermarket remote starter in my 01 Ford Escape. The Escape key also had a security chip. I put the spare key in a special provided plastic box that had a pick up winding similar to what would be around the ignition lock for the SKREEM, and hid it under the dash. I then wrapped another wire from the remote starter control box around the ignition lock pick up coil. The factory key chip information is electronically trasfered to the car ignition SKREEM pick up using the coil windings on each end.

The Escape sits idle for long stretches of time until needed. It developed a parasitic battery drain. Remote starters are known to cause that kind of problem. Last year I disconnected the remote starter control unit from the car while troubshooting the problem, and have not put it back in.

 

I dropped the lower part if the dash an checked around the back of the ignition switch for anything out of the ordinary loose connections exposed wires and looked for anything that might be teed into the wiring off the ignition switch and found nothing no random boxes or nothing spliced into the ignition switch from as far as I could see. I will pull the cluster and radio to see of I can find anything it still has the factory radio so it should be easy to spot anything out of the ordinary. Does anyone know the reach of the skreem ring? I would assume it had to be pretty close right?

 

Any clue why the issues is speractic and does happen regularly? I also noticed after the issue I was going back inside and went to hit the lock button on the fob and nothing happened also hit the unlock button and still nothing so I locked the car with the interior lock button. Could both issues be due to a failing skreem module? The fob worked fine before the issue.

 

When you dropped the lower part of the dash you exposed half of it right there around the ignition key hole. The wire goes from there to up center left steering wheel. I think you can see the SKREEM behind the fuse panel a ways in.

 

Yeah when I dropped it I just looked at a small section of the wire, some of the wire ran to the left and the back so couldn't fully inspect all of ot. I will re-look at and see if I can find something.

 

NO. How old is the car battery? These cars do goofy things with low voltage and aftermarket accy's.