QuestionI have a 99 Sebring LXi with an automatic trans., 2.5L engine, and yes, it has the anti-theft option. (Seems to make a difference looking at diagrams.) It was intermittent at first, but now every morning, the battery is dead and needs jumped. Let it charge (or drive) for a little while and you're good to start and stop all day; it just dies overnight, like the lights were left on. Battery is good, only a few months old. On the advice of a friend, I pulled the negative battery cable, clamped a test light on to the cable and stuck the neg. battery terminal. Key off/out, doors closed, it still lights. He tells me this is evidence of a draw on the system that shouldn't be there. I unhooked the wires on the back of the alternator, it was still lit. I pulled all of the fuses one at a time from inside the car, it was still lit. I pulled fuses one at a time under the hood, it remained lit. There are two bolt-in fuses, a 60A and a 120A; when I unscrewed the nut and pulled back the connection on the 60A one, the light goes out. We traced it to the white wires that bolt onto the positive battery cable - there are two sets with two white wires each. One of them it doesn't matter if you remove it, the other makes the test light go out when you remove it (60A fuse hooked back up). Next thing I did was separate the two, but they can independently cause the test light to come on! We thought it might be the ignition switch, but we unplugged it and the test light stays on. Where do we go from here? What do those wires power, and how do I check it out? Thank you!
AnswerHi Kathy,
While you are looking for a meter, let me describe the 4 white wires at the battery clamp. Two of them run in parallel to the 120A fusible link which goes to the alternator. The other two go to the 60A fusible link, though the fatter one has a branch to dedicated fuse 8 which powers the radiator fans. At the downstream side of the 60A fusible, a fat red/black wire goes to dedicated fuse 7 and a white/black goes to dedicated fuse 10 AND to multipurpose fuses 1,5,6,10,11. The dedicated fuses are in the engine compartment, the multipurpose are under the dash.
Now the same two white wires that give power to the 60A fusible link also give power to the other fusible links:3,4,5,6,7,8. So you have to begin by separating those 4 wires at the clamp and/or start pulling all the fusible links one at a time to see which circuit is drawing too much current.
Each pair of whites at the clamp are a #5 and #8 wire, so it isn't obvious which goes where unless you disaggregate the four and check to see which go to the 60 (and all the other fusibles) and which to the 120.
Roland
Hi Kathy,
Thanks for the rating, nomination, and explanatory response. I think that my '95 coupe manual is what we need, now that I know you have a coupe.
I am thinking that the glow light is not a good enough tool to get to the bottom of this, perhaps because it is not quantitative of the amount of current that is being drawn through the battery. There are some low current draw items even with the ignition off and the fuses pulled, and those might well light the light without being a significant battery draw unless you left the car sitting unused for a month or more. So can you get an ammeter or an ohmmeter so that we can either measure current draw, or just look at the resistance between a down stream power wire and the the - post of the battery with the battery out of the circuit (e.g. the + cable removed)? It may well be that one of the fused circuits is drawing too much but you might not notice the difference if the light glows in both configurations.
Also, please explain to me when you disconnect the 60A fusible link, are you removing both ends of the link, and then "looking" with the neon having one end on the battery + and the other at the + clamp still? I need to understand all those permutations of the measurement: there are two white wires going to the 60A and two wires that it "feeds". Are you disconnecting the white wires at the battery clamp or at the fusible link and with what result please. Even better would be an amp reading(s) or an ohm reading(s). Also, have you disconnected all the 8 fusible links, one at a time?
But I think we need a meter in any case rather than the glow light to get anywhere with this. At least I know I have the wiring diagram already.
Roland
Hi Kathy,
Fortunately I just bought a '98 Chrysler factory manual for the Sebring Convertible on eBay which I assume is the body style that you have*. It was sent to me yesterday and so it should be here in a day or so. As soon as it arrives I'll look at the wiring diagrams and get right back to you. You are handling this just the way I would have recommended so as soon as we get the diagrams we should be able to solve this one.
Roland
*On the Sebring Coupe ('95 manual I have already) the 60A fusible link supplies power to: dedicated fuses 7 and 10 (relay box in the engine compartment), and multipurpose fuses 1, 5, 6, 10 and 11 under the dash. If this is the same as in your car, then you ought to get the light to go out if you pull those fuses one at a time. If not, then there is a short in the harness connecting the fusible link to those fuses. Once you identify which fuse is involved, I can tell you what it powers. But I'll see if it identical to the convert wiring diagrams.
