2001 Chrysler Sebring Takes a while to start

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

Hello,

The current issue with my car is that it takes a long time to start, around 5 seconds or so when just earlier this week it was nearly instantaneous.

A little background, my issues started one day about two weeks ago my car wouldn’t start. A year previous during an oil change the guy told me that our battery was low, so I went and got a new battery and the car was as good as new again. A few days later though it didn’t want to start again. I tried again, and a third time and then it did start. It was fine for several more days after that, but then one day I was running errands, got an oil change and on my last stop the car wouldn’t start. After a bit of panicking and some advice, I got it to start and drove it to the nearest repair shop. They told me that it was an issue with the crank sensor and that sometimes after putting in a new battery it can mess with the computer in the car and so he reset the computer and sent me on my way. He said if I continue to have issues then they would have to go in and fix the crank sensor itself.

So back to the current issue, it takes ages to start. I don’t know if it’s still the crank sensor or if maybe it has something to do with the oil change? They were out of the regular high mileage kind and upgraded to one that is supposed to last 10,000 miles. Or if it’s something else entirely and it’s a coincidence that it’s all happening at once. I did some googling and am going to try to put in a fuel injector cleaner, but any other advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

2

I could be wrong but I think your starter is failing. Remember that this part was responsible to start your engine 38,000 times in 17 years. Most time,the copper contacts inside the solonoid wear out and cause intermittent starting.Also, If the starter is in the vicinity of the oil filter,some oil could have found its way inside during an oil change and produce these intermittent starts.

3

You were almost right! A day or so after I posted this the car died again. I was able to find a family friend that was a mechanic and it turns out that in Chrysler and Dodge cars with the V6 engine the bearings inside of the starter are notorious for freezing up. No amount of smacking it would have done any good. After installing a new starter the car is as good as new! No more crankshaft codes or anything. Thanks for your suggestion.

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