[cmm47172]

My 2009 Dodge Nitro seems to be haunted!
I started the car yesterday and the headlights and wipers came on and won’t turn off.
Turn signals and high beam doesn’t work either.
Is my car haunted with gremlins left over from Halloween?
Any ideas as to the fix?
I see no recalls on the 2009 4x4 R/T.

 

[Routs]

Did you try unplugging the negative cable on the battery for 10 minutes?

 

[cmm47172]

Thanks for your help!
The battery cable trick worked!
I hope this issue does not come back.
Before I disconnected the battery cable, I did the key dance and noticed P code P0128.
What is that?
I read somewhere that P0128 is a stuck open thermostat.
Any truth to that?
My antifreeze level is normal.
Also, as a bonus this morning, I noticed that I have a flat tire with a big screw stuck in the tire. Awesome.

 

[Ch3no2freak]

Yeah that was definitely a bad ground. your temp gauge on your dash; is the needle moving to the middle or is it staying on the cold side? Does it seem like it takes little long for it to warm up?

 

[cmm47172]

Temp Gauge is running in the normal range at the moment. It also warms up as fast as usual. The code cleared after the --neg cable had been off and then back on. From here on out I will have to monitor for a new occurrence of the same P0128 code and then maybe swap out the thermostat. I guess it's possible the code was a bogus result stemming from what ever triggered all of this to start with. I knew what got the computer all jacked up to start with.Thanks for your help.

 

[Ch3no2freak]

I'm going to say that bad ground at the battery caused the sensor to read incorrectly and threw the code. Of it does come back then your thermostat is probably stuck open but if that was the case then it should be staying cold.

 

[Scar0]

P0128 = Coolant thermostat - coolant temperature below thermostat regulating temperature Mechanical fault

The Neg battery disconnect reset the computers. It will also clear temporary codes.
For now just keep an eye on it. It very well could have been a result of the computer glitch.
Also, if you have a lot of static in your rig, spritz the seats with fabric softener, or rub a bounce sheet on the seats. ESD can cause all kinds of problems.

 

[cmm47172]

FIXED!!!
About a week later, the battery went dead. I popped off the battery caps and could see that the acid was practically all gone. I could see the plates inside looking corroded. The battery was the original from the factory, so I got about six years out of it. I'm going to refer to this no wiper/headlight shut off phenomena as a Nitro unadvertised early warning system like the check engine light to indicate impeding battery failure