Conclusion: Exhaust leak '00 300M (cause, and remedy)

Over the past few months my 2000 300m developed an exhaust bark that sounded like it was coming from the front or center of the car, not the rear.

A visual inspection on a hoist (Midas) indicated that the first muffler/resonator in the exhaust chain was the problem - it's single seam running down it's side was starting to open up.

Turns out that wasn't the problem.

The problem was in one of the couplers situated mid-way between the driver's side cat-convertor and the aformentioned muffler. Something had given way or failed inside the coupler, resulting in a sloppy internal fit and lots of play (and a resulting exhaust leak).

Even though the muffler's seam was opening up, there is a second liner right under it that was still intact.

I took the car to a custom exhaust shop in my city (a place where I took my '73 Satellite about 10 or 12 years ago to have a stainless-steel exhaust put in - by the same guy). With the engine running, he identified the coupler as the culprit. This left-side coupler is a bitch to work on (the right side is much easier) but he says it's the left-side that always seem to go on the Chrysler cars.

I had the muffler replaced as well (Magnaflow #12258). The coupler was replaced with a generic woven/braided stainless-steel component. The exhaust guy said that that was my only option - short of buying a new cat-converter from Chrysler (that's the only way to get a new coupler). And the cat is (according to him) in the neighborhood of $1000. Regardless if he was right about the price, there was no way I was going to get a new cat-convertor from Chrysler just to replace the coupler.

Anyways, the generic coupler, the Magnaflow muffler, and labor totalled about $375. I think with the new Magnaflow that the car is now a little quieter than original. The Magnaflow was installed "backwards" but I don't think it matters.

Also...

Back in Feb 2004 the rear driver's side power door lock/latch failed. I had it replaced by the dealer. It cost (in US dollars) $105 with $92 labor. I actually paid $140 CDN for the part.

Within the past few weeks, the rear passenger door lock/latch also failed. The dealer wanted about $100 for the part (being that the Canadian and US dollars are at parity, the price is cheaper now vs 4 years ago). I would imagine that the price at a US dealer is more like $65 or $75.

Instead of buying a new one, I picked one up from an auto wrecker for $35 (it came from an intrepid, but was an exact match). It's a bit of a bitch to replace.

So that makes both rear door latch units have failed on me. Since very very very few things on this car have failed in 8.25 years, I would venture to guess that the door latch units on the LH cars must have a high failure rate...

Reply to
MoPar Man
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I will be replacing at least one of my cats on one of my two Concordes - different engine (2.7L) in that one but same exhaust setup. The exhaust valve seals go bad in that engine around 125k miles (I'm one oil change shy of 200k on it now) and the continual diet of oil thru the exhaust destroys the cat (I always get an "inefficient cat" code for the last 2 years or so).

I don't recall ever seeing such a failure (that coupler) reported on any of the three LH car forums I frequent, but perhaps it is one of the types of things that people have fixed and don't write about on the forums, or possibly didn't nail it down to the exact problem, though your exhaust man seems to have seen it before on some Chryslers.

Something like that, though prices on a lot of Chrysler parts have gone up since the Cerebus transfer. The explanation I got was that a lot of parts suppliers took the opportunity of the changeover to not renew (or back out of?) contracts, so some parts became in very short supply while new sources were obtained, so prices went up for a couple of reasons, some parts a lot worse than others - some by a factor of between 2 and

3, or were plain not available for a while. I haven't had to buy anything lately so don't know what the situation is today.

Yes - (judging from the forums) those latches and everything involved with the windows (regulator motor and the glass-to-regulator-attaching clips, which are shared with a lot of other Chrysler platforms) break a lot - it's like there was one very poor designer who was put in charge of "windows and doors" on the LH's. I have been fairly lucky in that because on my two LH's, I've only had to replace one latch (also one window motor, and two glass-to-regulator clips).

Other common failure points that come to mind are the engine cooling fans - the fan motors do wear out (typically at around 100k). Also, the positive battery post/terminal area is subject to heavy acid/corrosion and is a source of a lot of weird hard-to-diagnose electrical symptoms when the connection starts going intermittent/high resistance. But some of us on the forums have learned to recognize the symptoms when new posters post them. Positive jump post clamping sometimes gets loose (no corrosion) and creates similar problems.

Good parts are needed for the brakes, and an occasional front wheel bearing replacement is needed.

And the usual Nippon-Denso starter solenoid contact click-click-start failure.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Oh - and replacing a headlight bulb is almost an ordeal compared to many other cars. Also the headlights get cloudy - apparently inferior materials and/or coatings used compared to some other cars.

And a unique variation of the 9005/9006 headlight bulb design (straight base rather than the standard angle design) was used - and unnecessarily so. The headlight housing design could arbitrarily have been different to accommodate the regular bulbs (identical element/performance).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

I love a low-cost alternative solution that works. :-)

By the way, I'm surprised to hear that a Magnaflow is "quieter" than OEM, but then my experience is with the Magnaflow performance line. I have a pair of their welded-case mufflers on my '69 R/T, and while I love them they're not exactly "quiet." I take that back, they ARE quiet at idle and cruise, but when you stand on it they let out a pretty good bark. A few weeks ago I was out driving in the country with the top down, not really getting on it or anything. I pulled up to a stop sign, and the pickup truck that had been cruising behind me pulled alongside, and the driver said "man, it warms my heart to hear that big-block sing!" Then he turned right and I got to hear his 24v Cummins sing a bit....

Reply to
Steve

Is he maybe meaning it's quieter than the original setup with the bad coupler?

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

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