Questions and Answers

Sebring Taking On Water

Q. I own a 1996 Sebring Convertible (in lavender) - with 55,000 miles It says in the owners manual the top stowage area of the Sebring is "designed to hold a small amount of water" I assume in case of rain or car washing etc. I had heard it sloshing around in the back before and thought nothing of it.

But we had rain on Thursday and Friday here in the Northeast - and since my car doesn't get driven during the week -I noticed on Friday evening that my passenger seat rugs were floating.

Saturday AM, we hooked up the wet/dry vac and took out 10 gallons of water from the passenger side foot well, front & back. We even unscrewed some of the parts that hold the rug down to vacuum underneath it. The seats were not wet and the only roof leak I have is on the drivers-side (small drip in driving storms)

My thought is the top stowage area, which is designed to hold some water, overflowed somehow. Either because the drainage holes clogged or for some other reason. Is there any way to check this and prevent it from happening again?

Thank you!
Rebecca

A. Actually, this was only a problem with lavender colored cars. All the other color cars had no problems at all. If you have a lavender car, all you can do is learn how to swim.

I'm only kidding... Actually "designed to hold a small amount of water" translates to "We couldn't resolve this engineering problem so we decided to call it a feature." I don't have a body manual for that car, but there should be some sort of drain hose to drain out the water. Even though you are just barely out of warranty, I would suggest taking it to a Chrysler dealer and let them look at it. If it is a known problem they should take care of it at no charge to you. If they insist on charging you, call the Chrysler Customer Service number in your owners manual and file a complaint with them. Then you will get it resolved.