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Comments
I remember talking to one of the shop guys who said it was a good idea to change it, but it sounded like he would have said replacing the air filter solenoid inverter was a good idea at 30K as well, if I had asked.
Thanks again,
Hans
I will make my last payment on my M in January 2004, just in time to start anew.
How's this differ from the Prowler Pro gears? Less expensive? Not as much performance?
When I installed a high stall converter on my GTO, I got an immediate 1/2 sec increase in 1/4 mile times. You can really feel it in your seat dyno.
Has anyone here had both systems installed on their car at some time? If so, which do you prefer? (If you've only installed one, then of course that one is better than the other!)
Are the MagnaFlow 12258 and Rhino 921 the mufflers of choice for the Hugo system? Looking at the chart (http://pub88.ezboard.com/f300menthusiastsclubfrm5.showMessage?topicID=7.topic), it seems that there are other options. Has anyone tried any of these?
The Edelbrock looks interesting -- Is there a large difference between 74db and 88db?
How does the Aluminized Steel of the Hugo MagnaFlow 12258 muffler compare to the stock muffler and the Borla T-304 Stainless Steel muffler in terms of longevity? What type of metal is the Rhino 921 muffler made of?
I know the local sales guy is a tad perturbed with me right now because he thought he had an easy commision but it's my money. I don't spend over $30K very often and when I do, I want what I want. Has anyone here bought one yet or even test driven one?
I like the idea of the Dual Exhaust (It must sound NICE), the larger tires, the ground effects, a tad more power and better brakes. I'm somewhat hesitant about using only Premium Grade Gas but the Mercedes and BMW both recommend Premium Gas too..
So... Has anyone driven one or bought one on this site?
As far as injector cleaning, that in my opinion is a snow job. I would only have them cleaned if car was idling very rough or overall running poorly indicated by a big drop in MPG.
Try to get them to do a pan drop with filter replacement and then a full tranny flush where ALL the fluid is replace. It may run a little over $100 for the above but its worth it. I would also consider the differential fluid replacement just because the manual recommends it However , I have never done that before in my many years of driving and have had a few cars with over 100K before I sold them. I would consider replacing the coolant at about 50K even though they say you can go 100K. Another case of cheap insurance. Be sure they use the proper ATF4 for the tranny and the proper diff fluid as well. Otherwise you could have premature problems. Do the oil change if its been about 3K since your last one. Nothing else should be necessary unless you are having symptoms of problems. I have never ever replaced the brake fluid although I would consider it at about 60K or so. Also I have never replaced power steering fluid in any of my cars and have not had problems with that area.
They may try to sell you other services, but just refuse.
If he tries to sell you a air filter solenoid inverter, just tell him you already changed it. As I told Doc, the inverter is located under the engine next to the tie rod ends just above the constant velocity rubber boots. You have to pull the whole engine to get to it. Knowledge is king! ;-)
Easyrider300M
a 2001 Inferno red 300M. I've put about 1000m on it and get to love it better every day.I do seem however to frequent the gas station more often than I used to but what the heck, my company pays for the gas:). For you guys that have daughters with cars you (your turn will be coming up SDMike) will understand this. She has(had) a 1997 Grand Prix GTP. Gets me up at1:00 am in the morning one night and tells me(with tears) that her window won't close. I go out in the pouring rain and duct tape plastic over the window for the night. The next day it cost me $280.00 to have the window motor replaced. Last week she came in (again with tears) telling me that the water pump had gone. That cost me another $326.00. So last night we went down to the local D.C. dealer and got her into a brand new 2002 Sebring and although not a 300m it is a nice ride.(Now I'm in tears because I had to spring for the downpayment) Now for all you young guys out there with no daughters yet or those that have young ones, your turn is coming. I gotta figure that one tear is a least $50.00 out of your wallet. Gotta love them though.
THE SAID THERE WAS A TSB REGARDING THIS AND THEY REMOVED MOST OF THE FRONT FENDER AND WHEEL AREA AND RESEALED IT...$600.00 PLUS.. THEY SAID THEY WATER TESTED IT AND IT SHOULD BE FINE ...LOW AND BEHOLD OUR FIRST RAIN SINCE IT WAS FIXED AND THE SAME PROBLEM... ANY BODY ELSE HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE WITH THIS ...ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED.. ALSO INTERESTED IN ANY SAN DIEGO AREA RUNS OR MEETS OR SHOWS
uxca - spoiling the child, huh? ;-D My daughter is getting her license in Jan. - the last thing I plan on doing is taking up another car payment. She's getting my mothers old 91 celica. 50k mi
makoman - might want to try to turn off the caps lock - tough to read. I've heard of the problem - don't know the fix.
Although it is less convenient, I've been using the dealer exclusively since then. It takes them an hour or an hour and a half for their "express" service, but they are about $10 cheaper than Jiffy Lube.
Igor
Thanks
99_300m_ric_va -sounds good Rob ,cant wait to see these 04 cars.Better yet drive a HEMI
arby500 - man if you can do the Special DO IT !! You have not seen any because we have not shipped any out to owners yet.As of yesterday we have 1800 Specials on order. My thought is you can do the mods yourself on the basic M and hope all is ok or you can have DC do them when we build the car and have a warranty on the whole car. Lets say you wanted to lower the basic M then you start to have problems with the half-shafts wearing out ,well guess what you voided your warranty by the after market lowering. I think if you sat down and added up what it would cost to put all the different things on the Special ,it would cost way more than the Special package. HID lights at least 1000$, 18 rubber and rims 1000$, lowered suspension ,ground effects dual exhaust, the list goes on .
You wanna know something? The salesman called me this morning to tell me he expects 2 within the next 2 weeks. One is the Silver one like I want. I'm gonna let him sweat a little because my son's friend works in the finance office of the largest Chysler dealer in NJ. I know the guy. Hopefully he get's me a good price too. I LOVE buying a new car.
By the way, what part of No. County?
My daughter is only 8 months old and just figuring out how to crawl. I'm sure in what seems like months she'll be asking for the car keys. I do understand the tear thing though. When my sons cry it's "what happened pal? Shake it off buddy"...when my daughter cries I want to give her everything I own.
Just thought I get some feedback, it's not a big deal obviously, but I'd like to get rid of it if it is not normal. I know the M is criticized for cabin noise, so I have just attributed it to that til now that it seems to have gotten worse.
OTOH - At the end of my lease, I will more than likely look for a slightly used M (<1yr/10k mi) since it'll have a nice chuck cut off the price, as well as being almost new.
cbwongus - is the hissing speed or engine related? I had a hissing sound in my concorde - turned out it was a small crack in the tire. When I drove over it, air escaped, but when it wasn't at the bottom of the wheel it would hold air. Sounded weird. But it wouldn't have lasted several weeks
Edmunds has a comparison tests which gives high marks to the 300M,except for the brakes which failed badly. It" could have been a contender" against the BMW and Audi but the brakes pulled it down to the # 4 slot out of 8.
Did Chrysler ever redesign and or improve the brakes for 00,01 to make them equal to the 300's performance.???
Have any of you " techies" out there come up with a feasable and affordable modification of the brake system to improve them and bring them up to scratch.???
I'd like to hear your comments and suggestions.(May be someone at Chrysler reads this and will do something for future models.)
Thanks!!!
And the rear door that wouldn't open....checked again last night. Still wouldn't budge. So what happens when I show it to the Service Manager? It opens. Figures! He had no idea what would have caused it.
NetCruiser....wasn't that Edmunds review the one where they couldn't get a car from Chrysler and ended up getting one from a car rental agency? I agree...my brakes dont feel as hard as even my SUV, but it certainly stops way quicker than any car I have ever driven (and I don't even have the PHP). I don't think "luxury" cars are supposed to jerk you to a stop. All other reviews I have read have rated the M brakes pretty high (especially skid pad tests).
I had an inside leak in my 99 300M. I was vacuuming the back passenger side floor and noticed that the mat was wet on the TOP! When I picked up the mat, it was also wet underneath. Immediately, bells went off. I had quite a few problems with that car, so I was a daily reader/responder here and checked the NHTSA site at least once a week.
I immediately remembered reading about water in the spare tire wheel well. I opened the trunk and noticed that the trunk mat was soaked, as well as the spare tire area.
It did turn out to be a body seam "crack" in the rear wheel area. The 5-Star DODGE dealer had the car for 2 days to fix it. They had to send it out to be done. It never leaked again.
I'll look for the TSB at NHTSA. If I find it, I'll post the link here.
fastdriver
Here's the "summary" about the leak- the SERVICE BULLETIN NUMBER is the key here that any Chrysler dealer can print out for you from their computer if they know how to use them since many don't seem to bother with TSB's. Guess they feel it's beneath them to check these out. Too bad, because they certainly could learn a lot.
Make: CHRYSLER
Model: 300 M
Year: 1999
Service Bulletin Number:
232898
Bulletin Sequence Number:
235
Date of Bulletin: 07/98
NHTSA Item Number: SB602334
Component: STRUCTURE:BODY
Summary:
WATER AND / OR DUST COLLECTION IN THE SPARE TIRE WELL OR AT THE TRUNK FLOOR TO QUARTER PANEL SEAM. *YC
Hope this helps.
fastdriver
"chrysler doesn't have a long track record of building a 10+ year car. Acrua, Volvo, and similar come to mind."
I'd say Chrysler's track record of building 10+ year cars is longer than Acura's. My '67 Imperial was a great car in 1977, except I couldn't afford the gas. Every now and then I see a 60's era Chrysler, but I don't think I've ever seen a 60's Acura.
I could be wrong, but it's my opinion that a car will last as long as you want it to last. If you want it to last a long time, take care of it. Otherwise just drive it until it falls apart.
BTW, every car I've owned has lasted >10 years. I figure my 300M will do just as well.
Igor
Help
Anywho, 30,500 great miles. The SA claims they ran a diagnostic on the BCM, no problem. I've gotten a couple of "light shows" but not in a few weeks. 5500 miles of warranty left, we'll see.
Wife wants a Lexus RX300, what woman doesn't? Unfortunately (for me), my wife is undefeated: whatever she wants, she gets!
29 months later, still diggin' my Platinum 300M!
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
I'm new to this group & thinking about buying a 99 300m from a co-worker. I plan on making the typical performance mods. A few questions are: will Mother Mopar do anything about the paint chips on the hood, or power window motors after the car is out of warranty (I can dream can't I?). How big of a factor do the factory TSB's play in this?
Do the 99 & newer 3.5's still suffer the water pump failure that trashs your crank pulley, etc. as the earlier 3.5's did?
As for Mopar not building a 10+ year car, I'd beg to differ with you. My '90 Dakota has 169k on the clock, it's very reliable & tuff as nails & slow ( v-6, :-( Still nicer looking now than most trucks with half the mileage or age. Best vehicle I've ever owned.
As for the brakes you have to remember that the M is a lot bigger car then the BMW and Audi's. and the 126 foot stopping distance is a lot better then most in it's class.
Jon