Oil Light Flicker - 2001 Intrepid 2.7 L

Your information is correct. The "wiring harness modification" is nothing electrical. It is merely warding off future light flickering problems should the new oil pressure switch start leaking internally. IOW, the immediate fix is replacing the leaking switch, with the harness mod strictly to avoid the problem in the future when/if the new switch ever starts leaking.

That harness modification simply is installing a wire and terminal in the second (unused - presently sealed) terminal hole in the connector cavity that plugs into the switch. The distal end of the wire is not connected to anything. What, you may ask, does that possibly accomplish? Answer: Absolutely othing electrical. What it does is vent or relieve any build up of pressure in the otherwise sealed mated connector cavity. Without the vent, if the oil pressure switch starts leaking oil, the connector cavity becomes pressurized, and therefore throws the trip point of the switch off. That is because the system pressure works on one side of a diaphragm to actuate the switch (turn the light off). Pressure on the opposite (conector cavity) side of the diaphragm cancels that amount of system pressure from the actuation (opening) of the switch, so the switch "thinks" the system pressure is a few psi lower than it actually is. Hence the light will light at the worst case conditions (warm, low rpm, i.e., at idle and in gear) when the system pressure is actually well within spec. (as you found out).

Now you understand why my responses to people on this is to replace the switch and possibly have the pressures verified for peace of mind. In the past, I generally haven't mentioned the addition of the wire terminal/vent (which is what the TSB calls it) because the dealers charge $20 to $25 just for the part that should be no more than $2 (it is literally a normal $0.05 piece of small-gage stranded harness wire with a normal $0.05 terminal crimped onto it. Nice that the customer has to pay such an inflated price to fix a design problem.

In the future, when people post with the flickering oil pressure liight problem, I will try to at least mention it - the person should be able to make the decision. But the vent wire does nothing if the new switch doesn't leak.

**Oh - by the way - if the $60 the dealer charged you for parts is just the oil pressure switch and the vent wire, they gouged you big time. Full dealer list on the two parts is $13.50 and $24.26 = $37.76.**

Glad to see you getting good service out of your 2.7. Mine now has

155+k miles on it, and is running great.

I guess we both have to decide whether to replace our timing chains and water pumps any time soon, eh?

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

You're right about getting gouged Bill. Bear in mind that these are Canadian prices. The sensor was $23.15 and the wiring harness was

***$35.00***. This is one of the few times that I didn't mind paying because the relief of finding out that the alarm was false (and a $6000+ engine replacement was not on the horizon) far outweighed the cost.

But let me tell you, I did considerable dickering with them over the proposed labor charge. First, their computer said 0.5 hours for replacement of sensor. All in all, I could accept that. Then the technician said 0.75 hours for the wiring harness to which I replied out loud : "no frickin' way it takes that long for that crummy little mod". And then he wanted another 0.5 for the oil pressure check with the gage. Total they wanted 1.75 hours for everything. Again, with a few customer's looking on, I told them they were over charging because the cost removal of the old sensor and installation of the new one was being charged for over again in the other 2 procedures. After a little grumbling the Service Manager said 0.75 hours for everything to which I said 'OK'.

Ahead of time, if I had had my own gage, a fitting and knew what the thread size for the sensor was, I would simply have bought the sensor, replaced it myself and checked the oil pressure at the same time. But when you're worried that the sensor could actually be telling the truth (low oil pressure), there's no time to screw around. Take it in, get it checked/fixed, and pay.

Phil

Quote : Glad to see you getting good service out of your 2.7. Mine now has

155+k miles on it, and is running great.

I guess we both have to decide whether to replace our timing chains and water pumps any time soon, eh? "

************************************************************************************************ Jeez, I've been thinking about that too lately Bill. It's such a game of Russian Roulette with these engines. If I wait for the water pump to actually show signs of needing replacement, I risk the potential of having coolant leak right into the crankcase, or possibly seizing and thereby destroying the timing chain and therefore the majority of the engine. If I catch the pump in time, then I can have it plus the chain and the tensioners replaced all at the same time. But at a cost of $1K +, it's not the sort of thing you really want to do until it is needed. It's a tough call.

Phil

Just one of the reasons I really don't like the timing chain/belt driven water pumps... early pump failure can destroy an engine in very short order!!

Much nicer outside where they are easy to change and just leak on the ground !!

But then the weight would be 3.2341264627773356 pounds heavier and the cost of the vehicle would be $14.0985928758290745908 higher. That would put them at a marketing disavantage.

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

Keith,

I agree - this is a very smooth, comfortable, nice driving car. Even with 220,000 km, the engine idles and runs so smoothly that I'd swear it was just built last week. Truly amazing.

As far as the economics of the car go, I'm looking at it the other way. The resale value is low due age, mileage and reputation of the 2.7 L engine. Mine is probably worth only $3K - $4K I would guess at this point. As you say, it would probably cost a good $15K to get something used but much newer to replace it. So I figure that for a bit under one tenth of that amount, I could have the water pump, timing chain and tensioners replaced, and I still have a nice driving, good looking comfortable car to drive that is now free of worry about those critical parts (for another 200K - 300K kms). Even if the transmission goes and needs rebuilding (say another $2500 ?), I still have a good car and I'm still $11,500 in the good compared to having bought a newer car. This assumes the car is otherwise in good shape and you aren't tired of looking at it and driving it. I've been driving Intrepids for about 13 years now (this is my 5th or 6th one - it's mine - the others were company cars) and I still like 'em.

There's no Chysler bulletin on prediciting a sludgy engine that I've ever heard of. If I bought another one at a good price and I didn't have to drive it right away, I'd pull the valve covers and the oil pan for a thorough inspection and mechanically/chemically desludge it if needed (if it was a 2.7). If it was a 3.5 (which does not have the same sludging problem as the 2.7L) I'd probably just de-sludge it for good measure using Auto-RX without actually pulling any covers for inspeciton.

Phil

I have concluded that the sludgicity of a given sample of the 2.7 is determined by a combination of 3 things: (1) The type of driving (short trip stop and go, or mostly highway) (2) Oil and filter change maintenance (intervals and oil/filter quality) (3) Other precautions sensibly done (preventive - or corrective if bought used) - such as synthetic oil or a sludge-preventing additive.

I can't prove any of the above, and who can say which one or two of the three are the most important, or which one or combination of any two of the three would be needed to guarantee non-harmful levels of sludge.

IOW - if yours has done well up to this point, and nothing changes drastically related to the 3 criteria, there is absolutely no reason to expect it to suddenly start to form sludge.

If the car is 2000 or earlier, there is a fourth thing that you can do - you can replace the PCV valve tubing with a later version that steals a little heat from the cooling system to prevent condensation and solidification of blow-by. That hose without that heat exchanger is very prone to totally clogging, and a rubber elbow actually dissolves. The newer part (used starting in 2001 MY IIRC) is drop-in plug-n-play in place of the original plumbing. I think it's around $45 from the dealer. I put it on mine. Yours is 2001, so it should already have it.

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