First disapointmnet with DC on my Magnum RT

I believe there is a tsb on it. Perhaps you should tell them. Nah, wait till they hit the lemon law limit in your state. Check your manual.... the law should be there. Meanwhile drive the hell out of the car.

The tsb covers cars before my build date!

The Service Manager for that dealership finally confessed after I threatened them with calling the TV, He has the same car as mine, and same problem. Chrysler is making a replacement part for the problem.

Typical chrysler...great styling...terrible build quality...50% resale value in

2 years...Take it from someone who has been driving Chryslers for 25 + years. I have learned my lesson....

Bunch of crap. Honda had to replace auto transmissions on their minivans and Acura's because they were failing all over the place. Sh?t happens.

Wish it didn't happen with my car! less than 2 weeks into ownership!

Even if they admit the problem, it doesn't follow that the problem will be fixed (for whatever reason - incompetence or lack of integrity).

The laws of physics being what they are (i.e., constant), you could have a plan B which would involve taking the matters into your own hands and finding out what the alignment parameters are compared to the specs and limits (including the bilateral tolerances - sometimes those are overlooked, yet are often important in a pulling situation) - this may have to be done on your nickel thru a cooperative independent shop (one that does print outs and will talk to you like an adult, i.e., will go over the information at hand so that the root cause can be identified and fixed).

Otherwise you're at the mercy of someone who either may not understand how to analyze the situation or not have the initiative or incentive to get to the bottom of it. Not saying you shouldn't pursue any number of options, including the lemon law if it comes to that, but if you wanted to keep that vehicle and fix it yourself so that you have a vehicle that is enjoyable to drive (after all that is the goal), then you may want to consider plan B.

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

You make a lot of sense. At this point though, my pennies on that car will go to mods, and Chrysler will fix the pulling rather quickly or give me a new car soon.

.........must not be very smart if it has taken 25 years to learn a lesson!!!!!

Had the exact same experience when I bought my Intrepid (although a different problem). The day I drove off the lot I noticed a loud oscillating noise from the front passenger side. I brought it back and they looked it over and found nothing wrong.

I brought it back the next day and took the service manager for a ride. He called it "an aggressive tire design".

I brought it back the third day and I got the hardball "what will it take to make you happy" treatment from the sales manager.

So I took the car to a different dealership and left 45 minutes later with a new wheel bearing, and the car has been quiet as a kitten ever since.

A few weeks later I really enjoyed filling out a maintenance satisfaction survey regarding the original dealership.

BTW: I agree with Mikeygmoed in this thread. I bought the Intrepid mostly for the price and styling. I don't think these will factor in as highly next time. Problems with my Intrepid to date:

- Rack and pinion failed + related problems caused by it.

- Bad wheel bearings (both front bearings replaced now).

- Cam sensor failed.

- drivers side seat retaining bolts failed. I actually fixed this myself after the first failure. It lasted until a dealership "fixed" it again without consulting me on a recall. Those failed too.

- Power steering pump blew out.

- Rear power window acuator failed.

- Front and rear rotors lasted all of one brake pad lifetime.

- Air conditioning compressor is failing and makes screaming loud noise.

- Front spoiler came loose under wind load.

- interior trim hiding side mirror access snapped off, both sides, from opening and closing doors.

- Steering wheel veneer has in large part rubbed off.

- Trunk lock cylinder failed. Driver's side door lock cylinder occasionally jams up.

And the kicker is, after thousands in repairs, I still live in fear of the "big one" for this unsellable car: the sludge problem with it's 2.7 litre engine. Although, I seem to be immune, perhaps for the same reasons another poster in this group mentioned: 3000 mile oil changes, always with a filter, and the fact that the bulk of wear on this car is through a 70 km each way daily commute. The engine has 115,000 miles on it with no apparent sludge problem. I have decided to use synthetic oil from now on since recently learning about this problem.

BTW: If you suspect I'm hard on my vehicles, my car before that was a Pontiac Sunfire that I sold at 200,000 kms and never repaired a single thing. The car before that was a Ford Taurus that I sold at over

200,000 kms and never repaired a thing.

You were lucky on your Taurus. I had 2 91's and were it not for the extended warranties I bought they would have just about bankrupt me.

I think mine was a '91 or '92. But I only offered it as support that my Intrepid troubles are not end user related.

All of the other problems in your list are some of the more common failures on the 2nd gen LH's - probably unusual that all would be experienced on one sample vehicle, but that was apparently the luck of your draw. I do find it unusual that the rear rotors failed - they generally last *quite* a long time (not so the fronts - that seems to vary) - probably the life of three or more front rotors to one rear. Perhaps the rears were replaced unnecessarily. But the rest of your list is certainly credible.

I'm probably that other poster that you refer to. BTW - I changed out my oil pan this past weekend (due to stripped out drain plug threads), and as promised, took some digi-pics of the bottom end of the engine and pickup screen and inside of the old pan (after 120k miles). Will try to get them hosted and linked sometime in the next week.

Re: switching over to synthetic - with the mileage and tendencies of the

2.7L, I would advise gradually transitioning over to full synthetic rather than a sudden switch. Something like 1 qt. synth. to 4 qts. mineral for the first change, change it (oil & filter) after 1000 miles with 2 qts. synth to 3 qts. mineral, change it (oil & filter) after 2000 miles with 3-to-2, than 3000 miles 4 to 1, then full synth at the schedule that you decide on. This is in case there is some sludge (there will always be some, 2.7 or otherwise), and you want it to be released and discarded in a controlled manner. Some people go with quick flushes before the switchover, but that seems to me to be asking for trouble if there is more sludge than you think that happens to not have become problematic yet.

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

That may be. I wasn't in the mood to argue at the time. They looked pretty bad to me, but maybe they could have been turned.

Yeah, it's my understanding that most of these things are fairly common.

You are, but you may not remember the last time I crossed paths with you. Either that, or you're a bigger man than me. ;^) Either way, I appreciate the response.

Funny: that's another thing that has happened three times now: a stripped drain plug (not the pan threads, the drain plug). The most recent time, I had to weld a box wrench to the bolt head to get it out. I chalked it up to idiotic quick-lube places, maybe there's something more to it?

So, the synthetic oil will flush out any existing sludge? Interesting and thanks for the advice. I may look to an alternatvie additive like yourself in the meantime.

Thanks again.

P.S., Out of interest, as stated, I bought the Interpid for price and styling (as well as size - I need a decent sized car). There were no other full size cars even close to the same price. However, if the motor goes on this car, I will be approaching 50% of the original purchase price in repairs. This certainly makes me rethink whether I could have afforded that Acura 3.2TL.

I think if you were happy in the Intrepid you would have been less happy in the Acura no matter what the price. My neighbor bought one and although he initially loved it the auto door relocking after you get out drove him crazy. That and other reasons led him to buy American next time around. I've found one way to almost guarantee minimum problems with a Chrysler is to buy the extended warranty. Somehow the car seems to know who will be footing the bill. LOL.

I agree with Bill. I don't see the fun owning a car if you can't understand what is happening to it. The alignment geometry is not complicated. You need to be more curious about it, for the sake of your own enjoyment. Unless you enjoy even more getting all prissy with the Chrysler dealer, calling the customer service folks, picketing the dealership, and threatening to sue them and all that stuff. If it was me, I'd enjoy knowing which of my tires got cambered wrong, and why. But that's just me. I don't think it's too nice to expect a guy with a high school education to fix a machine that was built by 500 engineers, and then holler and threaten and complain and file reports with the BBB if he can't. I realize my point of view isn't popular. I guess I'm not a "consumerist".

You weld under your car, but don't change your own oil? I think I missed something there.

When threads come off, it's always the user's fault, isn't it? I mean, you can't really come to any other conclusion. The temptation to tighten too much is oooooh so great. Threads are so simple to cut, you can't really blame the object. If it's soft like aluminum, for example, it won't take much abuse, but even then the user is supposed to know that too.

Sometimes, sometimes not. Maybe you're not as busy as me. As in, job, child, wife, house. Maybe you are. I just spent 3 days of a precious long weekend rebuilding my front porch. Did you change your oil? I didn't. But, apparently, I do have one of the few 2.7l engines over

100,000 miles that haven't completely failed. You tell me.

Yes. Did I come across as implying otherwise?

Well, my greater source of anger is the lack of washer installed by the last place that changed my oil.

Not sure what your point is. Of *course* it's a user related problem. If you're objecting to my mentioning it in a thread of complaints about the quality of my car, you might want to notice I was asking, not claiming.

You may be right! But for now I just want to bitch uncontrollably!

Yeah - something didn't sound right about that. I took it to mean that the hex of the plug had rounded off, but maybe he did mean the threads of the plug. Whichever of the two sounds weird being that its steel and the pan is (soft) aluminum. Anything that would have otherwise rounded off the head or stripped the plug threads would have stripped out the pan threads first. Maybe he'll come back with a clarification.

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