1999 Chrysler Sebring Tach sometimes works and radio shows

Is this a factory radio? Sounds like you have some kind of silly security issue with an aftermarket radio in which case you'll have to ask the seller for a code number to enter. The radio would become locked by disconnecting the battery.

If this is a Chrysler original radio, there is one model built by Alpine that has a security system built in but it's very rare. There are a few other models that have a 100 percent failure rate that can be hurried up by disconnecting the battery, but I think they are newer than what's in your car. Those radios have a faceplate with rounded corners and first appeared in 1998, but not in the Sebring. I think your radio faceplate has square corners. If you pull it out far enough to read the model number on top, I might be able to give you some suggestions.

Consider yourself lucky you don't have a Volkswagen or GM product. You'd be looking at many hundreds of dollars in repairs after simply disconnecting the battery. That's part of the reason they can't sell their cars here anymore.

Caradiodoc

I've read about loose connector pins on the back of instrument clusters in newer Caravans. Soldering them to the copper circuits solves many intermittent problems.

Older Caravans, like mine, have a circuit board plugged into the right side of the instrument cluster, in the back, but they give very little trouble. Unplugging these kinds of modules and plugging them back in will often solve intermittent problems by scratching through a film of corrosion. The permanent fix is to clean the slide-in contacts.

Some older front-wheel-drive cars from the late 1980s to mid '90s could develop sticking and jumping tachometers from the plastic laminate shifting position after the glue softens on hot days. The pointer base rubs on the laminate making the pointer stick. Careful trimming with a hobby knife is easier than trying to shift the laminate back to its proper position.

Don't know if any of those ideas pertain to your car. Also, due to its age, you should have an easy time finding an instrument cluster in the junkyards. The odometer would be wrong, but it would be an easy test to see if the problem is in the cluster or somewhere else. On newer cars, there are not separate wires going to the cluster for speedometer, fuel gauge, tach, signal lights, etc. All information is sent on a pair of "data buss" wires and interpreted in the cluster to be displayed on the gauges and lights. That means that just one item can't be dead due to a wiring problem. It must be on the cluster. Older cars use individual wires for every function. They are much more reliable due to the lack of all the delicate computer circuitry, but it is possible for just one thing to have a connection or wiring problem. I'm not sure which system is used in your car, so swapping the cluster as a test is a fast way to narrow down the problem.

Holler back if you would like to try a different cluster but can't find one. I'm heading to a huge salvage yard within the next month or two.

Caradiodoc
caradiodoc@verizon. Net