4th Jun 2010, 19:55

My 99 Sebring Covertible just died on me today at work. I was thinking the battery may be dead, but after a jump, no luck. I just bought the car in March and so far have had a couple of problems. The chimes a previous poster mentioned have been going on occasion, sometimes constant, sometimes when I hit a bump. My alarm started blaring as I was leaving a store one day, and it would not shut off. We unplugged fuses just to drive it home, no lights. Had a door switch replaced, but it didn't resolve the issue.

25th Jun 2010, 18:15

Thanks for all the great posts above... Here's where mine is at...

1997 JXi, ~127k, 3rd owner, previous 2 in Pennsylvania, drove it down to my new home in Florida.

The chimes are occasional, but the will go on at various intervals, for various lengths of time. Even without hitting a bump they may start, or stop. I've pulled, over, restarted the engine, adjusted the windows, and sometimes they sometimes seem to help, but overall, it feels generally random. But it does have a consistency sometimes that is only fixed by blaring loud music. With it, the locks go crazy, and the interior light blinks. At night, I have to drive with the interior light on, just to keep the blinking from driving me nuts.

Some evenings, when it's damp out, the alarm will go off even though no one is around. Usual driver's side lock gets it off. I tend to leave it unlocked afterwards just to keep the alarm from setting.

Stalling seems to happen to my wife. It is always at a red light or in stopped highway traffic. It has always started right back up after stalling.

The other day, for the first time, it wouldn't start. I called a tow truck, waited 40 minutes, then when he got there, it started right back up with no issues. Hasn't happened since *knock on wood*. This is what actually got me reading this AMAZING forum, BTW.

The passenger door window opens and closes at 50% speed, and is even slower when operating other windows simultaneously.

No flooding issues at all found, but the trunk smells a bit musty, especially in the wheel-well. It does leak sometimes during heavy Florida rains, but playing with the roof controls and the windows generally fixes it.

Top is a bit nicked up, but does its job.

The tach is not digital, and when the digital odometer does not light up, the tach no longer leaves zero, and the speedometer gets the "shakes" and twitches. This problem is completely random seeming. But once in a while, flashing my interior light levels seems to kick it back on.

Fresh fluids, seems to run great otherwise, I snapped the support for the back wheel's axle, the bracket rusted right through, just need to get that fixed now... Ooph.

Any help with any the above issues, feel free to shoot me a message at Michael (at) 1kDF (dot) com.

Great posts everyone prior! :) ~Michael A.

19th Jul 2010, 21:30

My wife has a 1999 JXI Convertible Limited Edition that she bought used a few months back. It is a good car, we had the front brakes replaced, and a battery, other than that just an oil change.

The other day, the car came out of park and rolled in a parking lot, not good! Then today she said, come look at the car. It was stuck in park, I was thinking because she was on a slight downhill incline. I was able to get it out of park, yet not back into park. I went to Auto Zone but they only had one that would check the check engine light, so was unable to read any codes.

I have been looking since 8 PM for a similar entry on Sebring forums. I did see one that said of some kind of relay which was a thought I had. If anyone has any info please mail me at mfprind@gmail.com

I plan on calling the place we got it, I am hoping it is something simple, any info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Marcus.

28th Jul 2010, 15:20

THE PROBLEM: The chimes are occasional, but the will go on at various intervals, for various lengths of time. Even without hitting a bump they may start, or stop. I've pulled, over, restarted the engine, adjusted the windows, and sometimes they sometimes seem to help, but overall, it feels generally random.

THE ANSWER: A door switch (probably driver's side) mounted on the car body has a plastic covering that breaks off. This eventually makes the plunger shorter so the door doesn't quite activate the switch when closed. When driving the sensors think the door is open thus the chimes. Also will set off the alarm if the switch changes states while the car is parked (say on a windy day). If you look at your display you may see the message door open flash off and on when the chiming starts. Took me a year to figure this out.

THE FIX: Glue a thin piece of plastic (say 1/32") to the door edge where it contacts the switch, and it will be enough to keep the switch activated with the door closed.

Good luck, DenniG.

11th Sep 2010, 21:03

Well I just bought a 99 Sebring Convertible, and I am learning a lot about this car by reading this forum.

I love the car for cruising during the summer, but I do have some of the same problems as other owners. It had 219,000 miles on the odometer, and I have added about 5,000 more in the last two months. The car is A1 mechanically, it runs great, it's smooth and accelerates well, never stalls.

I run it on 5W30 synthetic and added a K and N air filter. The water sloshing around is there, and the drivers side floor has a permanent wet spot. Water drips inside the passenger side during a heavy rain, and the passenger side window operates at 50% speed compared to the other three. The odometer and tach operate fine, but only light up at night half the time.

My big issue right now is the CD changer which I just had replaced is not working and the mode button on the radio only goes from AM to FM, but no CD. Insert a cassette and that works fine.

If anyone has a suggestion please let me know, enjoy all of your posts. Russ.

27th Sep 2010, 11:58

The water sloshing around and leaking into the cabin can result in serious problems with the audio system. The water that enters where the top meets the back deck drains down through the fenders and into the rocker panels below the doors. There are four (4) small drains on each side of the car right where the rocker panel is welded together. Several of the drains are where the normal jack positions are for the car, so they become crimped closed. The other ones just get plugged. After my 1999 flooded and fried the power amp under the passenger seat, I found out that the drains need to be cleaned regularly with thin blade and/or a stiff wire. This is a simple fix and a lot easier than trying to find a cheap replacement on eBay. I bought and returned several before I found a refurbished amp for $300 on eBay.