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Chrysler starting problem...

siciliancasanova

17 years ago

I have a '99 Chrysler Sebring and it was impounded for a month. I live in Nebraska so it's been cold and rainy the past month. The car wouldn't start when I first got there, so we had someone come and we jumped it. Everything worked fine, radio and what not.

We drove it 10 blocks away and out of habit I shut it off instead of letting it run. Well needless to say it wouldn't start again. This time when we jumped it though, the radio wouldn't turn on and within a minute after leaving the jumper cables on for 10 minutes, the car died again. We jumped it a couple more times and still nothing. I have subwoofers in the vehicle and an amp that goes directly to the battery, even while the jumper cables were on, when looking at the amp the power light wouldn't turn on for the amp.

I'm curious if the battery is completely dead or is it an alternator problem, or what's going on. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Comments (3)

semper_fi
17 years ago
Your battery is DOA. A new battery will fix it.

The bigger question is if your hoopty sound system (or any another electrical device) is draining the system. Once you replace the bad battery, you will know within a day or two if there are any parasitic drains causing the new battery to go dead again.
duanejack
17 years ago
Make sure you clean the battery terminals also, it is possible that you have a large voltage drop at the battery terminals and/or wires, this is also known as corrosion. Put some of the red and green felt looking battery terminal anti corrosion rings that are hanging on the shelf next to the new batteries. If the battery cables arent too difficult to change then change them also. You may also opt for an extra (redundant) ground connection from the battery negative to the body somewhere.

As mentioned its most likely just a dead battery from sitting so long but get your alternator checked also, you can just check the output while running with a volt meter. In case you are wondering as it looks like you were, jumping it and getting it running made it run off of the alternator, the battery was so dead that it would not accept a recharge immediately after 10 blocks it started to accept a charge, then you turned of the engine. On the next jump, the battery was sucking up the extra juice and then some from the alternator so there wasnt enough outputleft to keep the entire car running, ignition, injection, accessories, input & output sensors and the rest of the stuff.

Change the battery, add a few new tidbit items and as mentioned if it sits for a few days and you have starting probs, then you have a parasitic draw draining the battery, then you can troubleshoot for that, amp, radio, sticking relay, improperly wired something, security system???
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