QuestionHello, i just recently bought a 2000 chrysler sebring 6 cylinder and the problem i have is that the car keeps dieing on me. The battery fully loses its charge if its parked with the engine off for more then two hours. The battery is brand new and i also just put on a brand new alternator thinking one of those things was the problem, but the car keeps losing its power. so if you could make any sort of suggestions it would be great thank you.
AnswerHi Saul,
There is clearly a short circuit, but no so bad as to blow a fuse. I have the manual for the '98 Sebring which I suspect applies very closely to your 2000 model. Normally when the battery runs down overnight or so we think about a light bulb(s) being on all the time. But when you lose the battery in a couple of hours that is less likely the cause. The best approach is to use an ohmmeter to measure the resistance that each of the fuses is supplying current to, or it you have meter that measures current, in amperes, that too could be applied to all the fuses in the power distribution center under the hood.
If you can get a hold of a volt-ohmmeter with a digital readout you could differentiate a too low but finite resistance from moderate acceptable resistance. A low resistance of a circuit means that it is going to draw current execessively from the battery. One of 19 mains fuses is supplying power to a circuit with a too low resistance and that is why the battery is running down. Begin with the fuses under the hood in the power distribution center located on the driver side just behind the radiator, sandwiched between two computer modules that that multipin plugs. One pin socket of each fuse is the hot side which has 12V on it from the battery, so don't touch that one with the meter in the ohmmeter position, just use the voltmeter to find the "cold" pin (shows no voltage compared to any metal surface nearby) after removing each fuse. The 'cold' pin is the one to measure for resistance(i.e. all the lamps and devices are attached to that one). If you set the meter to read ohms (200 ohm full scale) and touch the - lead of the meter to any shiny metal body surface and the + lead to the cold pin of the fuse socket it should read more than 50 ohm, the more the better. Make sure all the doors are closed when you are doing the measurements.
Then the question is how to find which of the many items on a given fuse that is suspect is causing such a low reading.
So first go thru the power distribution box under the hood to find a fuse whose cold side reads less that 50 ohm, and let me know which one(s) it is (its label by number and/or purpose). That fuse will supply several fuses in the fuse box under the dash, so we will do the same testing on those fuses once we identity the 'master' fuse which is carrying too much current.
Then we can go on from there to isolate what component on that secondary fuse is drawing the current and check it out.
If your meter measures current in amperes (which is probably the kind of short that you are dealing with) you can pull each fuse in the box and put the leads directly across the fuse socket terminals. If you don't have a hight current capable meter, then don't use it for this measurement or you may damage it.
Roland
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