Questioni have a 96'chrysler sebring. when i was leaving home my car died as soon as i started down the road and when i went to restart it..i had nothing. it wouldnt turn over but all the dash lights and other lights were still working. have any suggestions as to what it could be?
AnswerHi Tammy,
If by "not turn over" you mean that the starter motor will not crank the engine then I would try slightly moving the shift lever while it is in either park or neutral off of the center position, just in case the safety switch is slightly off center in its closed position. And if that doesn't do it I would open the hood and find the rectangular box next to the battery with a removable lid. Inside of that is the starter motor relay. Recruit a helper to try and start the engine while you listen for a quiet click to occur at that relay (its location should be shown on the lid). (If you hear a loud click from behind the engine that is the sound of the starter motor solenoid, and that would indicated that the relay too is working so don't bother trying to listen for it). If you hear that click it means the ignition switch and the safety switch are o.k. If not, then one or the other or possibly the relay is bad, and a little test with a 12V glow light will tell which. If you get the only the soft click, then the problem is with the starter solenoid at the starter motor, the starter motor itself, or the battery is too weak to cause the motor to turn (needs to be charged) or the wire from the battery to the motor is loose or has a poor connection at the battery or the motor. If you check either battery/motor connection always remove the -post clamp first, and replace it last so as to avoid a short circuit and potential burn.
If the starter motor cranks but the engine won't catch and run, then we have a different set of possibilities. Fortunately there is an onboard diagnostic capability you can access:
Try using the ignition key: turn it "on-off-on-off-on" and leave it "on" (doing this quickly, no longer than 5 seconds). By "on" I mean just the normal position when the engine is running, not the cranking position. The 'check engine'light will remain on when you leave the key in the "on" position with the engine still not running. But then watch the 'check engine' light to begin flashing, then pause, flashing, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause and keep track of the numbers. Repeat the readout and verify the counts are correct. Then group them in pairs in the order that they came out, thus forming two digit numbers. You may notice that the pause is shorter between the digits of a given number, and longer between the numbers themselves. Then send me a 'follow-up' question telling me the results of your readout. By the way, 55 will be the last number (two groups of 5 flashes each) and that is the code for "end of readout".
I have the troubleshooting manual for several engines and we can look up the possibilities of what is wrong based upon what fault codes you show. When you write back tell me what engine is used in Chrysler you are driving (see underhood sticker).
There is also an essay on fault codes at the site:
http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html
which gives the meaning of the code numbers. But then you need to get specific info for what exactly might be the diagnostic tests or parts to replace to complete the repair.
So let me know what is going on and whether you make any progress on diagnosing this or getting it running.
Roland
