I recently got a 02 sebring convertible in a trade, love the car but... it has its problems, car starts fine, then after a few seconds car runs very bad down to 500 rpms acts as if its going to stall then catches itself and aurges to about 1500 rpms, also the temp gauge only works whith the key on engine off, as soon its started the temp gauge slowly goes down (fan will not kick on because of this), dont know if this is related to the main problem, i have replaced so far, fuel pump, cam and crank sensor, iac valve, thermostat and a few vacuum hoses. But heres the thing, if you reset the cel the car runs amazingly, the codes say its the 02 sensors but i find it hard to believe they would ause it to act this way, any help is appreciated, im just tired of throwing parts at this thing, also the pcm was remanned back in 2016 so says the sticker on it.

 

If you are getting an O2 sensor error code why didn't you replace them first before anything else. They are usually the most common parts to go bad. A bad O2 sensor can certainly cause fluctuations in idle, especially when it gets hot and starts to break down. You need to replace them in pairs since there are upstream and downstream sensors. As for the temp gauge it may be as simple as a bad sensor.

John

 

I hooked it up to my shops scan tool, the o2 sensors are all reading 1.275 volts but one which reads from .5 to .8 then 1.25 when i accelerate, also the scan tool reads the engine temp and when its running it will read about 40 degreese less than what it reads with the key on engine off, im probably going to replace all 4 o2 sensors and the twmp sensor and see if it helps, but it doesnt make sense that the twmp only reads right when the car is off.

 

It's certainly possible that the pcm is flaky. I would change out the least expensive things first and if that doesn't fix it or get rid of the error codes then look at the pcm.

John

 

When i clear the codes the car runs fine for a few minutes, then the check engine light.comes on and soon after the car runs bad, im thinking its a sensor or the pcm,