2010 Dodge Challenger: key fob or push-button start problems

Filed Oct 5, 2015 · Electrical, Engine · 94,517 miles · MD

Mystery shutdown. Intermittent electrical problems-shuts off while driving & lose steering & brakes. Terrifying. I'm afraid it's going to kill me & my passengers. It's happened 7-9times, 3x w 5 passengers. Ave 1/10k miles. No common factor (slow, fast, rapid downshift, cornering, straight, side streets, country rds, highways, parking lots). Foot may have been on brake during all. Dealership found nothing wrong/no error codes. Cleaned throttle body & they sent away. Next time throttle body verified clean. July 2012 dealership said no flash to fix. I told them how dangerous it is. They gave me a chrysler care number to file a complaint/get a case started on it. They wanted srt specialists in the loop. Other electrical bugs- not recognizing the fobs. Fob has been locked in the car twice. Signal drops out while driving & error 'key fob not detected' flashes under the speedometer (pic taken at 70mph on 6/8/15). Summer/fall 2014, after ~4 shutdowns at low speeds, started happening at speeds greater than 45. Dangerous! It died going straight through a busy highway intersection at 45 MPH at rush hour-nearly rear-ended. Then it shutoff while making a sharp fast turn at a blind corner; this time I almost slammed into the embankment. I knew I had to get it addressed before it kills me. 1st chrysler claim 23728724 addressed 9/2014 by replacing PCM. Lost communication w PCM codes found. 2015 spring, shut-down starts again. Took to dealership in merritt island, fl ~9/8/15. Please check for codes, the car was shutting down again. Denied. Told to return to dealership that worked it 1st time. 3rd time 9/25/15, 3 senior engineer passengers when it died during rapid downshift turning event. During re-initialization, car abruptly jerked- passengers scared; inches from serious accident -slamming into a work truck & nearly rear-ended. 2nd claim 27895859 in work unknown

Filed May 16, 2013 · Engine · 66,000 miles · GA

I was driving on the interstate at approximately 65mph when a small pop was heard from the engine bay. The engine immediately stopped functioning and I lost all power to the vehicle. I was able to safely stop the vehicle on the shoulder of the interstate without incident. I tried restarting the engine, which just caused the starter to run for 5+ seconds before turning off the start sequence (push button start). The dealership said the cause has been determined to be a snapped timing chain and broken plastic chain guide. This is a 2010 5.7l mds auto transmission challenger. Dodge's response is to replace the chain and guide and see if that enables the engine to run. This is an interference fit engine which will mean several valves will have struck the piston heads as a result of the timing chain breaking. In addition, the valve heads and piston heads may have sustain additional damage. The dealership had recommended to dodge a complete engine replacement. While, I find dodge's solution to be whole inappropriate, the failure of the chain is of more concern. Approximately 40 occurrences of this have been documented at http://www.challengertalk.com/forums/f188/timing-chain-failure-dodge-challenger-69216/ with no solution being presented by dodge to stop the guides from breaking and thus the chains snapping. Dodge's inability to adequately and preemptively address this situation will result in more instances of challengers being disabled while traveling at a high rate of speed on a crowded interstate, such as I-75/85 through atlanta. I am lucky my incident did not occur during heavy rush hour traffic which may have resulted in an accident, injury, or worse.

Filed Sep 28, 2012 · Electrical, Engine · 12,000 miles · CA

While driving in stop and go traffic the check engine oil and esp light came on followed by four chimes and then car completely shut off and the steering locked. After several attempts, the car started up again and the codes turned off. Approx 1 month later the same thing occurred. I was making a turn on a roundabout when the same thing occurred during heavy traffic and almost caused an accident. I took the car into the dealership and they said there was nothing captured on the computer. They replaced the key fob and said that this should fix the problem. 4-5 months later, I was in reno, nv. I was driving 20-35 MPH and again check engine oil light, esp and four chimes and the car shut off again, the steering locked, and I coasted until I came to a complete stop and placed it in park, started car and oil and codes turned off. 24 hours later when driving home on the freeway in heavy traffic, the same thing occurred!!! I put on my hazard lights and let the car roll, came to a complete stop, placed car in park and after several attempts, the car started and codes turned off. The following day I took the car back to the dealership and again they said they could not find a problem with it, as nothing was recorded in the internal computer. I asked for the car to be kept until the problem was resolved. They were not able to duplicate it in that one week. I asked for a co pilot computer to be placed in the vehicle in hopes of capturing the problem when it occurred, as the codes turn off after car is started. Dodge sent out a rep to inspect vehicle. After inspection they stated nothing is wrong with the vehicle, they cannot duplicate the problem, and there are no codes stored on the computer. I am now faced with driving an unsafe vehicle that shuts off on me in the city and most dangerously on the freeway with no set pattern and the manufacturer has done nothing to fix it!!

Filed Sep 7, 2011 · Electrical, Engine · 17,344 miles · CA

This is the second time in less than 30 days that the challenger r/t has shut off while making a turn at speeds of 25 MPH or less. Reference odi id # 10421234 / incident date of 08/19/2011. Wife was making a left hand turn off of a busy street (40 MPH speed limit, into my home neighborhood) when the car suddenly dies, steering & brakes go hard, oil pressure light illuminates, and she had to coast to a stop, put the car in park, press the start button (even though dash message said "key fob not found"), car re-starts, and she continued 1/2 mile to our home. I'm not comfortable letting my wife or kids drive this car when the probability of it dying is very possible. I just drove the car up the narrow mountain passes to big bear, ca (8,000 ft elevation) & back 3 days ago, and this could have caused a major accident if it had died and I had lost control on a windy mountain road. How many people have to be injured or die before someone forces dodge / chrysler to identify & correct this problem. Car is going to the dealership tomorrow morning, where I expect to get alot of nothing, but atleast my complaints will be interred into the service system.

Filed Jul 11, 2011 · Engine · 1,800 miles · TX

2010 dodge challenger srt8....vehicle stalls out when slowing down. This has happened now three times. Once it happened while making a right turn into a parking spot and the other 2 times it has occurred on the road when slowing down to stop at a red light. Oil light came on in one of the instances but I am unsure if it came on the other two. With complete loss of power this makes the car difficult to steer. On all three occasions, the car did start back up with the push button start, however it did crank over very slowly. Car is going into the dealership tomorrow to evaluate this, however it appears that with other people who have have this happen, the dealer was unable to duplicate the problem. This is extremely dangerous and hopefully this can be remedied before anyone is seriously injured or worse.

Filed Aug 22, 2010 · Engine · 1,600 miles · CA

2 incidents in 2010 srt challenger of vehicle shutting off for no apparent reason. 1st incident was after stopping at stoplight; oil light flashed briefly then engine shut off. 2nd incident was during a right turn into a shopping center; engine shut off just as pulled off the main road; did not notice any indicator lights as was concerned about vehicles behind me. Both times car was able to be started (keyless pushbutton start) within one or two presses of start button. I have 1760 miles on the car and it has happened twice now. Incidents separated by about 2 months (car purchased 2/2010). Have read on forums about this happening to many other challengers. Report to the federal safety agency was recommended to another owner by dealer.