I have an 06 Sebring convertible touring with 120K miles. It’s been running fine until Wednesday morning. I drove it home and parked it Tuesday night, no problems. I came out Wednesday morning and when I started the car…nothing. I have power, lights, ac runs, power locks/windows work and the top comes down. The radio doesn’t work and the car makes no noise when I start it. No click or anything…It’s just silence but all the other things mentioned work except for the radiator. I called the dealer and they said it could me electrical or the anti theft overriding something causing it not to start. I had it towed to the dealer and they diagnosed it as the starter was bad and it caused the fuses to short. So they said I needed a new starter but they had none in and had to have one brought to them this week. I had the car towed to Firestone as I get a discount and they had a starter and I’d have my car on Friday. Firestone got the car Friday and put a new starter on, car did the same thing. Won’t start and the same issue with having power to most of the car. Firestone said the starter wasn’t the issue and the dealer misdiagnosed. The Firestone mechanics said they have no idea what the issue is but said my alternator, starter, fuses all are fine. They put the computer on it yesterday and said it came up with nothing wrong. They are checking the wiring harness and wires now but they still have no idea what is causing my car not to start. I’m so frustrated. Any thoughts/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
“except for the radiator” ?? what does this mean?
Is it a factory anti-theft system or an aftermarket ? If factory, the dealer should have been able to give you a better diagnostic than "could be"s.
I’d suggest towing it to a different dealer.
My apologies…that was supposed to be except the radio. The anti theft would be factory as I have no aftermarket security system at all. The dealership didn’t mention the anti theft system at all. The next Chrysler dealer is about 20 miles away and I can’t imagine what the tow bill would be.
Courtesy Chrysler charged $115 for the diagnostic and it’s wrong. I hate to take it back to them.
Sounds like the ignition switch is bad or tipm “totolly integrated power module”.
I wonder if the mechanic at the Firestone shop was unable to find the blown fuse. The guy at the dealer may have left the blown fuse out. Check cavity #8 in the power distribution center (under hood fuse box), it may be empty. If not take it back to the dealer and have them diagnose it, you already paid for a diagnosis.
It would be unusual for a starter motor to go on the fritz in a way that it would draw so much current it would blow the fuses. Usually what happens in a bad starter motor is not enough current flows. But I suppose anything is possible.
Since it wasn’t in fact the starter motor, I think what they are doing is correct, check the wiring harness that powers the starter motor and anything else in the circuit for which the fuse blew for shorts.
I can’t speak to the anti-theft issue. No experience with that. But it seems like it would be a possibility, and would be easy for a dealer shop to say whether that was the problem or not.
I’ll add that if I had this problem, I wouldn’t take my car to a chain shop. I’d ask friends, relatives, co-workers etc who they use as their inde mechanic, compare a few of them, choose one, and go there.
It would be unusual for a starter motor to go on the fritz in a way that it would draw so much current it would blow the fuses.
Correct. It is the starter solenoid that blows the fuse on Sebring/Stratus vehicles.