Expert: Roland Finston - 12/28/2011

Question
Hi Roland. We just hooked up 98 Sebring convertible seats in a 96 2.5L Coupe.  We were fine till we hooked up the seatbelt circuit. Then the battery drained out. We used the seatbelt module from the 98 also. What could be causing the drain? There are 4 more wires in the 98. What is the difference? Thanks

Answer
Hi Loraine,
Although these veicles are called Sebring, they are entirely different in design and manufacture. The coupe is actually a Japanese Mitsubishi-design while the convertible is U.S. Chrysler-design made in Mexico.
The seat belt systems are different too. Because of the belts being a part of the seat in the convert but not in Mitsubishi, you have to use the module which you say that you did. It needs the module to activate the unlock of the belt electrically because it doesn't have a mechanical type of gravity lock-up that is used in the coupe (and most other cars), thus the belts are locked in position unless powered by the module.  So the module needs some information from the body control unit to operate properly and it may not be getting that info from the body control unit of the coupe. Thus the seat belt unlock function, which draws current, may be running all the time instead of being cancelled after 30 minutes.
May I inquire how you wired up the module to the coupe's wiring system? Maybe I can figure out what is missing or went wrong with the installation.  
Did you have any specific instructions as to how to re-install the seats in the coupe or did you just follow your intuition? If you can give me the wiring color re-connections to the module and which 4 wires that went to the module plug in the convert set-up that aren't being used in the coupe set-up then I may be able to tell you what is needed to be done.
I suspect that you aren't the first to try this, so maybe an on-line Sebring car club (such as a Sebring auto Group at Yahoo.com) might have a member that has done this successfully and can tell you what needs to be done to correct things.
Roland
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