1996 Chrysler Sebring Convertible problems
NHTSA has received 99 complaints about the 1996 Chrysler Sebring Convertible, and 15% of them involve electrical system. Next are cruise control (11%) and body & structure (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 99 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Electrical system 15% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 13 and 4
- Injuries and deaths
- 11 and 1
- Typical mileage
- 80,000 miles 38 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 1 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 8 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 1 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 7 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 10 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 7 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 3 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 38 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 80,000 miles. For electrical system specifically, the median reported mileage is about 80,000 miles (10 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 13 complaints mention a crash; 4 complaints mention a fire; 11 injuries reported; 1 death reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 89% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1996 ranks 9th most-complained-about out of 10 model years of the Chrysler Sebring Convertible with enough data (24 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
An accident occurred in peru, indiana, resulting in a collision. The air bag on the driver's side failed to deploy but the passenger's frontal airbag did. Driver was killed.
Dt:consumer started vehicle while in carport. He put the car reverse moved about 1 foot and the dash blew up. Consumer said it was so loud that neighbors heard it from inside their houses and came running out. Both air bags deployed and the consumer said that smoke bellowed out of the steering column. Parts of the car were blown all over the interior. Consumer says incident was like a bomb going off. Consumer thought that he had been car bombed.
Vehicle is totally unmodified! While sitting at a light, I heard a pop (like a balloon popping) and smoke and flame burst from under the hood. Fire department observed fire began in the area of the fuel line and spread into the dashboard. Possible cause was electrical failure causing arc which compromised the rubber fuel hose.
While driving 30 MPH manual transmission went out of shift, and the ignition locked. Dealer stated they had done repairs under the recall, however the problem still exists.
Dt*: the consumer stated both tie rod ends fractured on two separate occasions. The first time, while backing out of the driveway, the front tires went in opposite directions and the vehicle would not move forward or backward. The tie rod end was replaced. The same failure occurred on the other side and the contact repaired the vehicle. Upon inspection, it was determined the sealed pivot joints were not lubricated and resulted in these failures.