I am having some squad car issues and would like some help...My traction control light and electrical light comes on (flashing) during moments of intense driving....IE cornering at high speeds and generally intense driving...

When this happens, I loose power and the car almost shuts down to below 20 mph and starts idling rough. If I turn the car off, it will restart and drive just fine. This really sucks if you are going after someone...

any thoughts?

The car is a 2008 Dodge Charger with the 5.7 Hemi and roughly 75,000 miles.

Im not a tech. Im thinking however that the loss of power is part of the traction control system. From what I know or "think I know" on my pickup the first part of traction control is the locking rear dif, if that doesnt work the auto trans will actualy start limiting power to the rear wheels till traction is regained. Try turning the traction control off and see what happens.

matt

Yeah, sounds like the traction control is doing it's job. It cuts off cylinders and applies anti-locks to slow down vehicle to keep it straight/no-skid. Turn off the trac control.

Hey Mike have someone check the electrical system for proper charge and voltage sounds like your system is not maintaining a 12 volt status which is causing your vehicle to shut down due to improper voltage,yall have so many systems on those vehicles it is very easy for it to drop voltage with lights going and siren and all,i would test it with all accessory's on to see what your overall voltage is dropping to.We used to have the same problems with the chevys and fords,a real good battery is required to maintain them,and the altenator output was always bumped up to max output possible.

Are you sure the lamp coming on is the charge lamp and not the reduced power lamp??? We replace quite a few throttle bodys on Dodge vehicles for similar problems.

The light is a lightning bolt with () around it. I was told electrical?

I am a believer in having a full 12 volts for sure. The battery was replaced about 6 months ago.

But if it's the traction control, if it's working properly, wouldn't it go back to working normally after the possible loss of traction is over? I should not have to turn the motor off should I?

Yeah if you have to restart its not traction conttrol.

Mike once again i would say have the charging system tested under a load,i would even have them accelerate the engine to make sure the belt is not slipping and are the altenator quits output at high rpm.it sounds like you are loosing your voltage to the system,all of these cars and trucks will do some wierd stuff when the voltage drops down low because the conmputers start to go into shutdown mode.

It's just real irratating going after someone. I may do a load test on the battery and see what the issue is?

I go on vacation next week. Sounds like my car will be going to Dodge I hope. If there is one automotive opinion I trust on here its Stan's.

Thanks

Thanks and good luck,have fun on vacation also

If you don't have a contract with your Dodge dealership, there is a shop in North Richland Hills called Bevil Automotice www.bevilautomotive.com

Craig specalizes in the Dodge LX platform.

its a limp mode. or abuse mod. think about it. your driving hard, the car sees it as abuse. it then cuts power and all that. you shut it off, and restart and its back to normal. ied be willing to bet its a limp mode. traction control would only work during times of wheel spin slip. it might also have a yaw(sp) control as well, but again that would be the abs kicking in and a slight reduction of power. but you would have to be working hard to get that far in to stability management; power slides. if you press and hold the traction control button till the tcm light flashes (thats now bmws and gm vehicles work) then you have sucessfuly shut almost all the drivers aides off. with the new vehicles, they have an abuse mode or a limp mode to save the motor or trans from damage when driving hard. i have personaly experienced this in gmt800 and gmt900 trucks and E46 bmws. i would look in to this. a simple internet search might net you the answer.

if it is the limp/abuse mode, you would have to get the PCM and/or TCM tunned to get rid of these files.

Well the car is fixed finally....The check engine light came on and stayed on. It finally showing a code...

It was the Multi Displacement Solenoid which is mounted under the intake manifold...And there is 4 of them. This is a re-occurring problem with the Chargers...