2005 Sebring Convertible (Touring, AT)

Parking brake sensor is wonky (technical term). I never use the bake, but the sensor started sounding the alarm ocassionally and now dings almost constantly. I took off the plastic center console and found the sensor contacts. They were a little gunked up, so I cleaned them but it didn't help. I loosened the brake cable, but that didn't help. I tightened the brake back up and tested it and it works fine, stopping the car and then releasing completely when disengaged.

So, what is the solution: How do I fix the problem or bypass the sensor completely?

Thanks.

 

The way that switch works is that when it closes, it connects the wire that comes in to it to ground. From your description of the problem, I would guess that the wire has found its way to ground by itself. See if you can follow the wire and look for a spot where it has rubbed against metal and shorted to ground. If you can find such a spot, you should be able to fix it with tape.

If that's not the problem, then it could be an internal problem with the body computer. It seems that they just couldn't restrain themselves when designing this car from running everything through the body computer whether it was necessary or not.