Question1998 Chry. Sebing jxi Engine dies while driving or stopped any speed. Dies and sometimes will restart, sometimes will not even turn over. Sometime will restart immediately, sometimes you turn the key and get dead silence. Wait anywhere from a minute to 4 hours before it will turn over. When it does turn over it will start and run perfect. It is like you have zero power to the start relay. Start relay has been replaced, no help. Could the crank position sensor cause no turn over and also the car to die intermittently. Also have replaced the ignition switch and no help.
AnswerHi Jerry,
Well my hypothesis was unproven. It did have the virtue of explaining how both the engine would not run and the starter motor not actuate in a very elegant manner.
So back to basics. I would first try to get the fault codes if any stored in the engine controller. Just take your ignition key and go from 'off-on-off-on-off-on' within a period of 5 seconds or less and then observe the check engine light to be "on" but then it will begin to flash, pause, flash, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause, make a note of the numbers in order, repeat the readout for verification. Then group the numbers in pair to form two digit numbers which are the fault codes. The last two sets of flashes will always be 5 each, i.e. the number 55, which is the code for "end of readout". Then write back with the other codes that you got for interpretation of the causes and/or go to www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html where there is also a list. Maybe that will help us determine why the engine is dying (but not probably why the start function is unreliable).
When it dies and the starter motor won't function is the rest of the electrical system also dead? If so then I would suspect the battery is flakey or the cables are corroded or loose at the clamps. or the ground (- post) wire is not grounded properly to the chassis and the engine block, or there is something loose in the power line from the battery to the power distribution center.
If the balance of the electrical system is o.k. when it dies and won't crank then you go back to listening for the click of the starter relay (in the power distribution center) when you actuate the starter with you key, and if you hear that then you know that it has to be either the relay has bad contacts internally, the brown wire from the relay to the solenoid is loose or open at one end or the other (which is the starter solenoid), the starter solenoid is flakey, or the starter motor is flakey. You can always carefully jumper from the battery lead at the starter motor (thick red wire) to the solenoid contact where the brown wire from the relay is attached and check the starter solenoid and motor that way at the time when it won't start. If it responded properly and the relay clicked, then it has to be either the relay internal contacts or the brown wire is somehow "open". A volt-ohmmeter would sort that out.
So maybe there are two separate reasons for what your car is doing. I don't know what the term SKIS means. If you mean the engine controller, I don't believe that it plays a role in the starter motor functioning, but as I said before I don't have the Sebring diagrams. But all the cars of that time frame for which I have the diagrams (Cirrus, Stratus, LH series, etc.) show a non-computer impacted starter system, save for the common fuse that was my original proposal. Because the car seems to start reliably when it is cold, there has to be some reason why it later dies spontaneously and then won't restart. I still think it is battery supply issue. Have you brought along a voltmeter and a jumper to determine why the starter motor isn't working when it breaks down on the road?
Well, do get back to me if anything with the fault codes other than a 55 comes out.
Roland
Hi Jerry,
The fact that the engine dies and then you can't get the starter motor to work is an important observation. While I don't have the wiring diagrams for the Sebring, the approach that Chrysler takes in companion cars of the time is to power both the section of the ignition switch that must be "on" to keep the engine electronics going and also power the starter motor relay with that same fuse. So if that one fuse is flakey it will fail and shut you down as you described it. I suspect that that fuse has a crack in its conductor which opens (due to heat) when the fuse is in use (when you are driving the car) and then it cools down and reconnects itself when you are shutdown. So take a look in the power distribution center under the hood where the large fuses such as the one I described are located. Remove and examine each one for a subtle crack in the internal wire. If you can't find one that looks cracked, then you could get a wiring diagram to find which one does what I described or just replace all the fuses that are in the range of 20 to 40 amps.
Let me know how you make out with this approach.
Roland
