Ok, this is a long list of problems and I dont know if they are all related or all seperate. I have a '99 Chrysler Town and Country, it has about 150k miles on it. It was running fine until one day I turned it on and all the lights started flashing inside, then when I put the heat on the heat only came out of the drivers side vent and cold air came out the passengers. Then about 2 days later the blinkers stopped working but not all the time, just when they felt like it. Every once in awhile they will work and then they will just stop. All the gages on the dash work but my a/c light blinks all the time and my defrost light blinks all the time. Then a little while after that I was getting on an exit ramp that was uphill and all the sudden the rpms jump way up and the van wont shift into the next gear and the check engine light comes on. this starts happening all the time. whenever i go to accelerate to fast or when i am suddenly going up a hill, etc. the van will not shift and it will get stuck in gear. if i turn the van off it resets itself and will then shift ok until i again accelerate too fast or whenever i pist it off somehow this does not occur everytime i accelerate but more often then not it does. now on top of all that the van has decided to only start when it feels like it. if i get in the car and turn it on it will act like its going to start and then die and then if i try it again i get nothing, it doesnt even attempt to start. just dead silence. sometimes the lights inside will come on other times nothing will come on and it will be just as dead as a doornail. we had the battery checked, the starter checked, the alternator checked and the battery cables checked. weird thing is that sometimes if i come back and hour later and try to get it to start it will start right up with no problems. however i dont want to drive it anywhere because i am afraid it wont start again. anyone have any suggestions? i am afraid this is going to cost me a freaking fortune trying to figure out what is wrong with it only to find out it is going to cost me a fortune to get it fixed.
To start with, there is definately a problem with either the accessory power buss, chassis ground, or power buss to the fuse panel in the dash that is causing the lights to flash. The flashing lights in the HV/AC system is something different though. There are codes you can retreve to find out problems with that. I would first find out what is causing the power problems since that may cure some others things going on here. If you are going to try and work on this yourself I suggest you get a factory service manual to help you track down things. If you don’t want to fix it yourself then find a good electrical repair shop to take it to.
Most if not all of these problems may be caused by a flaky BCM (body control module).