QuestionQUESTION: I've read your posts on failure to get a Chrysler Sebring to turn over when starting the engine. I'm a fairly good shade-tree mechanic and wanted to start with checking the Starter Motor (SM) Relay but cannot locate it on my 97 Sebring LXI Coupe with a 2.5 liter V6 motor. There is no SM Relay marked in the Power Distibution Center (PDC) however there are a series of 3 Relays mounted on the firewall close to the battery. I have identified the middle relay as the Auto Shut Down (ASD) Relay and the third or the relay closet to the fender as the EATX Relay which seems to click when I try to start the engine. The first relay or the one closet to the engine I cannot identify. If you could direct me to the SM Relay I could start to touble shoot the problem. I haven't tried to jump the terminals on the starter yet as I am having trouble with my car while on the road. I have AAA to tow to a shop but if it's a relay I could easily replace it first without the tow to a shop. Your help is geatly appreciated.
ANSWER: Hi Morgan,
The three firewall relays from outboard to inboard are: ETAX, ASD, fuel pump. The starter relay is actually in the cabin in the low shelf area of the center console, on the right hand side of that shelf. The power door lock relay is just to its left.
Roland
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thanks Roland,
Could you be more specific on location? Do I need to tearout the center console or the center instrument panel section or both? I own a Chrysler service manual and it has zero reference to the relays in question. You would think that there would be some reference to the Starter Relay in these manuals. Good grief!
Morgan
ANSWER: Hi Morgan,
It appears to me that the relays I mentionned are below the radio chassis, so try removing that and see what you see. Pull the upper part of the floor console toward you to then allow for the removal of a 'radio bracket' which appears to run across the top edge of the radio chassis. Then try to remove the radio, and then there may by a housing that surrounds the radio that you have to remove in order to access the starter relay. Have you tried listening for the click of the relay, or done any electrical measurement of the wires that operate in the relay circuit? It may be that the relay is fine so you might want to see if you can show that the relay is the issue.
The manual only shows the location but no mention of how to get to it. This is basically a Mitsubishi manual, not a Chrysler effort as such.
Roland
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Roland,
I am on a business trip and not close to my tools/garage. Was hoping to bypass the ignition switch with jumpers on the Starter relay to get it started so I can drive it home and work on it there. Can't get to the starter/solenoid without floor jack and jack stands/ramps which I have at home. Now it sounds rather involved to even get to the starter relay. Would it have been too much to ask that the engineers put it in the same firewall lineup of relays. One last question is what Mitsubishi manual are you referencing for this information?
Thanks for your help and quick response,
Morgan
AnswerHi Morgan,
The manuals I have, a '95 and a '00 are published by Chrysler (81-270-5117/8/9 for the '95 and 81-270-0118 for the '00. But if you inspect the inside front page you find a copywrite to be Mitsubishi.
If you are looking to get the starter to turnover you could follow the fat + cable that run from the battery to the starter motor, and you will find a black/yellow wire that enters that enters the corrugated tubing that covers that fat wire, fairly near the battery. That black/yellow wire is the output from the starter relay, so if you probed into that black/yellow wire with a pin you could then jump 12v from the battery to the starter solenoid switch that way, thus by-passing the relay.
Roland
