OK, so this one has been frustrating. Roxy dies at work. New battery nothing. Some wiring work. Nothing. Tow truck guy comes to haul her home. He fiddles with the battery cables a bit and boom, she fires up. I kick myself, thank him, and then kick myself some more. Driver her around. Then driver her to the bank. Then driver her home. No problems.
Later that night I go out to move her and nothing. All the same symptoms. Geez! Anyway I figure the battery clamps have really had it so I replace them with bright shiny new ones. Now she has a new battery and new and improved connectivity to that batter. Would you like to guess what I get for that? Nothing.
Well, that is not quite true. I got some smoke! That’s right, a nice little puff of smoke coming up from somewhere in engine compartment. Seeing that I promptly turned everything off of course, but I didn’t see any problems and couldn’t find any burnt wires. So, being the good male that I am, I hit the switch again. This time I was watching closely to spot the area the smoke came from. Sure enough it did it again, I killed the ignition, leapt out, and started searching. Success was a wire that was warm to the touch – definitely something you shouldn’t find in a car that hasn’t run in two days.
That wire, the warm one, was one of a group coming from the starter solenoid. It either has a break somewhere in it or is actually grounding out because the ground to the engine isn’t strong enough. This wire is one of a group that runs very close to some ground wires and also some brackets on the side of the engine. Through vibration and voltage I can definitely see it have some problems.
I proved my point to my self by moving the wires around a bit, isolating things, and then trying again. She fired right up. So now that I know where the problem really lies, I will take some time when the weather warms up to replace a few wires and also clean the grounds and all connectors. That should take care of things – for a while. In the meantime I will just drive the Chrysler Sebring around. The weather is cool so it is behaving at the moment.
Since I was not able to get a key cut for the existing trunk lock in Roxy, I had to start the eBay hunt. Ended up being not that bad at all. i found one for less that $30 including shipping. It should be here in a few days and then I will finally have a secure, lockable location in Roxy so she can begin to do more regular service. I still haven’t been able to get the door locks working, but I am far less concerned with that now that I will be able to lock the trunk.
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