I am new to this forum. I bought a 03 Sebring 4D Sedan a month ago. The battery dies overnight so I installed a new battery. Nothing changed. After doing some google search, I tried to pull out fuse #5 and then the car starts the next day. The manual says this 10 Amp fuse controls "Power door lock and door lock arm/disarm switches, vanity, reading, map, rear seating, ignition, and trunk lights, illuminated entry, radio, power antenna, data link connector, body control module, power amplifier." Is there any way to narrow down the issue? Thanks.

 

First, make sure that none of the interior lights, trunk light, glove box lights, etc are on when the car is closed and shut off. The next most likely source of the problem would be a shorted wire in the harness that leads to the driver's door. Every time the door is opened and closed, that harness is flexed a little bit and a wire could have broken and shorted there some time in the last 17 years. A dead short would blow the fuse, but a partial short could result in a current draw sufficient to run down the battery.
If you are still stuck, you're going to have to trace down each circuit and try to find the excess current draw that way. Normal current draw for the clock and remote entry receiver should be less than 0.050 amperes (50 milliamps) for a car just sitting.

The fuse you describe is called the IOD fuse. If you pop it out using the "ears" on it, you disable everything that can draw a current without having the key in the ignition. (IOD stands for "ignition off draw".) The purpose of that fuse is to allow the dealer to disconnect things that draw juice while the car just sits on the lot, waiting to be sold, thus preventing a dead battery when they want to show the car. The "ears" make it easy to pop it out enough to disconnect all that stuff.

 

Thank you for the detailed information. Yes, the interior lights and trunk light are off, and this car doesn't have glove box light. I checked the wire in the harness that leads to the driver's door. I didn't see anything yet but will look at them more after the snow. It seems like the rubber hose protecting the harness was glued to the car? Should it be waterproof? By the way, I also pulled out the radio today.

You also mentioned tracing down each circuit and find the excess current draw. Could you describe briefly how to do that? Thanks.

 

First, get a digital volt-ohm meter with current measuring capability. Then measure the current being drawn from the battery with the car shut down as it would be for the night. It should be what I stated above, but probably will show considerably more since it's draining the battery.
Disconnect each item in the circuit, one at a time, (like removing the radio, unplug the power seats) to see if that affects the situation.
If none of the components on the circuit are drawing current then the problem will be somewhere in the wiring leading to a component. It will take patience, perseverance and a methodical, logical and common sense approach to find the problem. This is not rocket science, you can either do it yourself or pay the dealership $100 an hour to do pretty much the same thing.

If you can get your hands on a factory shop manual, it will contain the wiring diagrams for the car, but be warned that they take up a couple hundred pages. A Chilton's or Haynes manual will have some pages devoted to wiring diagrams but they are not complete. Know that wires are color coded, so a blue wire with a white stripe should be the same wire, electrically speaking, even though you find it at different parts of the car.

 

Thank you for the explanation. I got a multi-meter a few days ago and will measure the drawing current when there is good weather. I will update after getting results. Thanks again!