Chrysler Crossfire
Replacement of battery

This is one information page of my collection of what I have repaired on my Crossfire.

Note:
You should not do any repair on your car if you don't have enough experience and knowledge! You use this information at your own risk! Don't blame me if something goes wrong.

Content:

• Main Content Chrysler Crossfire DIY
  1. Replacement of battery
  2. Measure current drain
  3. Alarm siren control
  4. Radio standby current
  5. To be continued

If you have a Mercedes SLK R170 with a 320 engine and not AMG version it's almost exact the same.

Note:
You have to work with the electric parts. Disconnect the battery, the negative terminal ! When disconnecting the battery the alarm and radio will be reset, be sure to have any codes that's needed!

2, Measure current drain:

Two years after I replaced the battery I get this problem to start the car when it has been standby a couples of weeks. In winter just a few days and the battery hasn't power enough to start the car, battery is out of power. These years it's a common problem and maybe it can't be solved. But at least I want to know what equipment it is that take this current that empty the battery.

I started to measure the battery voltage, it measure 12 Volt. It's okay and it's two days since I drove the car.

I do this measure without the alarm enabled, but still I hold down the alarm sensor for the hood.

Just put some heavy thing over it to hold it down. I must have the hood open when doing these measurements.

I need an ampere meter in serie with the battery. My multi meter has the maximum range of 20 Ampere, don't turn on the ignition key or anything else, it could blow your multi meter. When connecting the multi meter I can hear a relay click the first time, not the second time I connect the cables. Note that I have this connected on the minus pole. Don't do this if you are not a professional, it can make the car burn up !

Immediately after I have connected the instrument it measure 0.68 Ampere.

After about 30 seconds it drops down somewhere from 0.12 to 0.18 Ampere. Earlier when I did this measurement I got about 0.3 Ampere. I can't see that I do it different this time, strange maybe I didn't wait long enough earlier. The battery has the capacity of 74 Ampere hours, ideally it will last 74/0.18 = 411 hours or 17 days. But you can only use about half of that, otherwise you destroy the battery, no deep cycle. During the winter, much less. My own experience: during summer max 3 weeks, during winter max 3 days.

I start with the fuse department at the drivers side in the engine room.

I test to pull out the fuses, note: only one each time and watch the Ampere meter. One by one but not the ones that belong to the airbag system. The arrows point to fuses that are only spare fuses. Nothing wrong here, the lowest current drop was to 0.1 Ampere, not much difference.

Table over the fuses. The fuses 2 and 3 (airbag) I didn't remove. On the backside it's in French.

Next fuses, you find them where the battery is placed. Push the lock sliders towards the front of the car to open the lid.

There are 6 fuses here. No one of these fuses causes the rest current I have. This was a disappointment, I had hope there was only one fuse that cause this problem. Then I could easily pull it out when the car is parked for a longer time.

What's left is the fuses behind the door hinge and at the rear in the trunk. I can't open the doors enough when I have the car in the garage, I do it later.

Later I got a tips that the alarm siren could take more power when its batteries ages. It's placed below the cover panel under the wipers for the wind shield screen. I need to buy some tools to do this, come back later.