Operation CHARM: Car repair manuals for everyone.

Initial Inspection and Diagnostic Overview

Intermittent Failures
The term "intermittent failure" means a system may have had a failure, but it checks OK now. If the IMA system indicator on the dash does not come on, check for poor connections or loose terminals at all connectors related to the circuit that you are troubleshooting.

Opens and Shorts
"Open" and "Short" are common electrical terms. An open is a break in a wire or at a connection. A short is an accidental connection of a wire to ground or to another wire. In simple electronics, this usually means something won't work at all. With complex electronics such as the MCM, this can mean something works, but not the way it's supposed to.