Chrysler 300M

sdmike2

Easyrider, I believe that is a Honda Civic. I'm not sure of the benefits of exhasting about 4 inches of header exhaust through a 12 inch pipe on a 4 cylinder engine, but at least it looks cool, right! (snicker)

sdmike2

Joey,
I'm sitting here looking at the DC accessory catalog. Here are some of the items you're looking at:

Hood Cover: $49
Front-End Cover with Bug Screen (full bra minus hood cover): $126
Car Cover (double stiched, elastic bottom, mirror pockets, license plate cutout, and logo): $215
Molded Splash Guards (no logo): $26/pair
300M Flat Splash Guards: $10.50/pair

Also, I got my chrome 300M license plate frames on Saturday. They look great. I'll take pictures of them once they're on the car (unless someone wants one sooner). The link to the supplier is at the www.300mclub.org web site.

Mike

sdmike2

Joey,
Not sure what front end bra you were looking at, but www.chrylser-parts.com has the front end bra with bug screen for $102 compared to $126 at the dealer. Here is the LINK

sdmike2

Just scrolled back. Sorry Joey, I thought you said the bra was $210, not the car cover.

Mike

rstilp

Last Sat. while on a drive, I tangled with a new Impala. We got up to 100 and quit, with me ahead. Got home, parked y2k in garage. Next morning I have a 6" diameter oil spot on the floor. Spot is right of center. I clean spot, check oil level and it is full. No oil leaks since then. Anybody got any ideas what happened. No lights blinking on dash. Car is fine. Where could the oil come from?

funroads

Any opinions out there on whether the $2K incentive is really going to end on 4/30?

(Been holding off waiting for NASDAQ to come back a bit)

illini4

Need more info. Is it definitely motor oil, or could it be transmission fluid (red)? If you examine the engine compartment above the oil puddle (preferably from the underside) I would think you should be able to see oil on the engine, or a on suspension component, and trace it to the source. Oil filler is on the right side - check to see if the cap is tight.

pjyoung

This may sound like a dumb question, but have you had the oil changed by one of those "quick lube" places recently? When they have changed it on mine, there is some oil that drips onto the frame and then onto the garage floor. The Chrysler dealer where I usually take it wipes that excess oil off.

sdmike2

Those interested in custom pain work and pinstriping might want to give this guy a call...

sleepymw

well, guys... i finally did the first CPR on this car after our brutal winter. and clayed Mary. she was a sheet of water when i was DONE.

while i clayed and clayed, i noticed that there were orange pin dots all over the car. the clay was able to get it off. and i don't know if it's a lousy paint job or what got on her, but anyone with silver car has this same problem?

i also noticed that there were alot of tar on the body of the car. i wonder if i'm just so special that i have this problem

Russ, give me some date and times. I'm a woman and like options and still like to let the man "think" he's calling the shots :P

sleepymw

really...... now i gotta look at my kids with these eyes :P

rogor2k

Folks are a little more laid back in Hawaii. We probably lives in his truck.

You moved again. Exactly where is Christmas Island??

intrepidspirit

I installed 2 custom clock faces over the weekend. I did my car first and it took 45 minutes because I had never done one and I was experimenting with makeshift tools. My wife's car took less than 10 minutes. Thank you, Scott -- they look great!! Scott's instructions got me on the right track, but what worked best for me (by the time I got to the second car) was to remove only the portion of the dash housing the clock and a/c vents. I used an old credit card to pry in the corner and I then pushed the card back for leverage. I was then able to get my fingers under the card and pull this portion of the dash out as I continued to bend back the card for leverage(took 10 seconds). From there, I was home free! One word of advice -- put masking tape on the plastic trim area above and around the a/c unit. The clock innards dangle while you are installing the clock face and the plastic scratches easily.

My wife is thinking about a spoiler and I know several of you have installed them. What's the best type and are they easy to install?

Put 3 coats of Zaino on my wife's M over the weekend and it looks great! Now she's only 1 coat behind me...

sdmike2

Location: Southeastern Asia, island in the Indian Ocean, south of Indonesia near Australia

Geographic coordinates: 10 30 S, 105 40 E

Area—comparative: about 0.7 times the size of Washington, DC

Population: 889

300Ms: 1

scotian

Take some pics!

Thanks for the installation advice -- I've updated my instructions.

intrepidspirit

Thanks again for the clock faces. I would never have tried to install them without your help! And your instructions were great, I just found it easier to use a card (maybe being lefthanded?).

About the pics...we never take pictures! My wife is a former fashion model and never felt she took a good picture...so we don't take pictures! However, I'll see if I can rustle up a camera and post some.

BTW, my boss was leaving for lunch today just as I was coming back. He said "I really like that car of yours...you really keep it clean!" Of course, it had just had its weekly bath on Sunday and was blinding after applying the gloss enhancer. I told him about Zaino and that he might want to try it on his Mercedes roadster. As he was looking my car over, I showed him the clock face...was he impressed! He asked if that was going to be a problem for resale and I told him I installed it myself and that I can remove it in less than 5 minutes...and it was free on the internet (for 300M owners)! Now he's really impressed...it wouldn't surprise me if he showed up at work with an M next week!

sibe

I just bought a 2001 300M for the wife but only got a 1k rebate. Wassssup with that??????? Where did the 2k come from?

rklass

George...you need to update your profile!

rklass

John, that's the FRONT end of the Concorde, although I can see why you didn't notice!

easyrider300m

the "Go to Message" feature does not work correctly--it doesnt take you to the message entered--can you check into this? thanks

sleepymw

intrepidspirit: i ordered both factory and after market style and when the guy put each of them on to let me see what they look like, i picked the after market because the factory model was too thin and not proportioned, to me. now, the guy next door to me has an intrepid ES and he has the factory spoiler on.. again, i think it wasn't well proportioned.

after i had that installed, the true test came (which at the time of installation the light hasn't dawned yet) was when i went to wash the car and i could put my hand flat between the spoiler and the trunk! and being a typical M'er (we're a bit an*l about our cars and getting zaino and anything that might shine the car onto every inch of the car) i was glad that i got this particular spoiler every time i wash and wax my car.

lastly, after the proportion, the ease of getting between cracks, came wanting to know where my rear end is (and not the one i'm sitting on, thankyouverymuch). since i'm only 5'3", i don't want to put myself on the highest crane setting of my seat to see my behind... i might get a nose bleed

take a good look at your car and if you love the way it looks now, then you may change your mind. if you're like alot of us on here, who are tinker-bells, you might want to get one. i'm sure the looks and functionality will be your individual choice, whichever one you choose.

here's a pix of my spoiler http://www.sleepy.net/300m

and there are others on here who posted their pix, they may put their url up too, so that you can see their behind

Sleepy

PS: Russ, you still haven't put up .... date and time that is. :P

robr2

Do you park next to a brick building by any chance?

I found that my silver Accord gets orange/rust colored dots on the paint when I park next to the brick building I work in. Clay removes them.

Good Luck.

sleepymw

to the members of the 300m club: how many of you actually put the sticker onto your car and where did you stick it?

now, this is NOT a solicitation for wise cracks guys....

gawd... there's alot of puns in my posts tonight. i need to regroup.. LOL

sleepymw

nope, parked nowhere near a brick building... had thoughts about throwing a few bricks onto cars that might of send the shot gun pellets onto the hood tho.....

i got it out with the clay, but my worry is that it might be defective paint.. thus, asking other silver M owners if they have similiar situation happening with it.

i wonder if it's possible rust bleeding through..

denverm

At first I put mine in the upper left corner of the rear window, but then I got to thinking that maybe extra insulation over the defroster wires is not a good thing (?). Others had said that they put theirs high on the side rear window, where it wouldn't roll down into the door, but the side window seemed a little intrusive to me for passengers inside. I ended up putting it on the lower right corner of the windshield. Unobtrusive from the inside, visible from the outside.

http://www.300mclub.org/windowdecal.jpg

racefan009

it won't hurt to put the sticker on the rear window. window tint covers all the defroster wires.

easyrider300m

sorry for the mistatement: I meant to say thats "a nice rear end ON the Concorde OR "the Concorde has a nice rear end on it" ;-)

easyrider300m

I dont know if its legal to put that sticker on the front window--I dont think it would cause a problem with the defrost wires. I plan on putting mine in the lower left corner of the rear window---nice job Doc

easyrider300m

the spoiler looks great on your silver M--now all you need is the dual exhaust--I have your twin --her name is Lolita---a Y2K silver with all the toys except PHP.

You definitely have good taste ;-)

Easyrider300M

sdmike2

i just used a basic "img src=" HTML image command. Here is the format. Replace the ( and ) with normal tags.

(img src=http://path)

300mlover

Sorry to take up so much room everyone

scotian

I meant pictures of your clock face install...

scotian

I could make a clock face out of that...

tom_

I have been getting gold pin dots on my m (silver)& other cars for many years now. They easily come off though if kept zainoed.

There was an article on our local news saying pin dots come from pollution, specifically a Ford plant & GM plant near my house.

sleepymw

scotian, is there anything you can't make a clock face out of? LOL

as for the gold/orange dots... we have a GM plant near by, or may be ford, dunno which now.. but, i don't LIVE that close to it. might be just polution, but i had to clay it to get it off. drives me nuts, if you know what i mean. nothing like getting zits and blackheads on the car... and have to dermatize your car.

easy: thanx for the compliment

oh, about the logo sticker.. is it the cling on or is it an actual STICKY sticker?

intrepidspirit

I know! I meant that because my wife doesn't like to have her picture taken, we seldom use cameras...

To be more specific, I'll try to get a camera and take pictures of the installed clock faces and our Zainoed M's!!

dustinnewton

I put mine in the lower left hand side (driver's side) of my rear window. Not the side windows, but the rear one itself.

sdmike2

Nice M!

denverm

The sticker is a vinyl cling sticker, so if you put it somewhere and change your mind, just move it. I put mine in the lower right corner of the windshield; there's an emissions sticker in the lower left windshield that is about the same size, so I doubt there's any legal issue. If a cop ever suggests there's a problem with it on the windshield, I'll move it, but it really doesn't obscure the driver's vision at all. Everyone is probably right that it wouldn't be a problem if it were placed over the defroster wires in the rear window, but it also looks better without the wires crossing the logo.

intrepidspirit

Often dealers don't offer all the rebates and incentives out there..you need to ask (or better yet demand)!

The Chrysler website shows only $1,000 to 4/30/01. but carsdirect.com shows a rebate of $2,000 in their pricing. When I leased my car last year, I had to show my 5* dealer the special lease rate that Chrysler was offering because the claimed they weren't aware of it!

There are even at least 2 Dodge dealers in my area that have a "dealer mark-up" of around $2,000 added to the MRSP on the sticker! I'm sure they would be willing to sell you a car at that price if you offered.

Bottom line, you need to do your homework and make sure the dealer gives you a good deal. If they are aggressively trying to sell cars (which they should be at this time), you will get a good deal (including all rebates and incentives) if you are prepared.

sdmike2

Some rebates are regional, so it's possible that the $1,000 was what was offered by Chrysler and there wasn't an additional $1,000 regional rebate like some of us got. Like intrepidspirit said, though, it's highly possible that they pocketed 1/2 of your rebate as pure profit on the car.

Look at your sales document. If the line item detail shows them crediting you $1,000 for the rebate you may want to contact other dealers in the area and/or Chrysler directly to see if the rebate was $1,000 or $2,000. If it's really $2,000 and they credited you $1,000, you might have grounds to get the additional $1,000 directly from Chrysler (since the rebates are factory to consumer, not dealer to consumer). If the dealer was sneaky and showed a $2,000 rebate with an increased selling price, you can file a complaint with Chrysler (especially if they are a 5* dealer) or the BBB. Again, make sure you do some more research on the rebate in your area before you start complaining.

sdmike2

For anyone interested in an M but haven't bought yet, the "good deals" people seem to be getting on the 01 M are about $4,500 - $5,500 (someone caught an advertised loss leader) off MSRP. I personally paid $29,700 for my $34,600 MSRP loaded 01 M. If you're going shopping, please post your questions in here about what has worked for the rest of us. We'll be glad to give you a hand on where to look for information and negotiate your best deal.

denver - I like where your sticker is and will probably put mine in the same place when I get it. Many states have inspection stickers in that position in one of the front corners, so I suspect that the "authorities" don't consider that position dangerous.

Mike

malyel

Hey Mike, do you think any of these might be the same exhaust tips that are on your car? I know you mentioned the model number being lx2145 but the 2154 on this page seem similar but are not oval like yours. http://www.wooddash.com/category/CHROME_Rolled_Edge_Exhaust_Tips

I am looking into duplicating your setup.

Thanks

intrepidspirit

Further to sdmike's post on pricing, I would suggest potential buyers check the pricing on carsdirec.com first. The current price for a base 300M on this site for my zip code is $26,631 net of all rebates ($2,000). This is a discount of $3,664 of MRSP and represents a good starting point in shopping for the best price!

scotian

Monday I bring my car in for new weatherstripping (all but the driver's door is bad), remove the corroded lettering on the doors, fix a safety recall, fix the cracked armrest, and see if they can do something about the piece of plastic outside moulding at the edge of my driver's door. Starting at just below the bottom rear corner of the window, going back, this piece of plastic sticks out enough to be annoying when looking through the rear view mirror. The passenger side is fine.

And for a while it sounded like my passenger rear wheel bearing or strut was going bad -- lots of grinding when going over bumps. Then it went away. They'll check on that. And an oil change.

Then I have to repair some paint chips, the Zaino this sucker. And install the side markers. And clean the inside (I got rid of the road salt on my floor already -- I hate that stuff!).

Then I'll think about a mild window tint, and *gulp* maybe dual exhaust...

sdmike2

They look similar, and it's interesting that they say those tips are for Lexus cars. However, given the fact they're round and the model number is different I don't think they are the same. I'm going to call Ed again and see if he'll spill his guts.

Big Red's Exhaust

Roger - I sent you a shirt today as a sample of what I get produced here locally. You should have it in a couple of days.

-Mike

sdmike2

Given the mods you've done already, having a good shop install your dual exhaust is easy as pie.

-M

silverbullet4

Summer is coming real soon where I live. I have done everything I can think of to protect the outside from the sun--five coats of Zaino Z2 plus Gloss Enhancer after washes. Also did the leather and vinyl with Zaino leather stuff. Next I need to add a tint to the windows cause I have the dark leather (slate?). Anybody know what brand of film performs the best? I know there is some good stuff and some mediocre products. Any web sites? My M is a 2K Bright Silver and the existing tint looks green. I have no idea what color might be most attractive. Metallized is out because of the antenna in the glass.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Silver

rogor2k

may be the norm in SoCal, but not so everywhere else. When I was looking for a shop to install my system here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I went into one alleged custom muffler shop with my drawings and specs. I think Muffler Bubba was offended that anyone would come into his shop with an actual idea what they wanted.

He glanced hurriedly at my drawings, and told me that my design would actually result in less HP than stock. He "guaranteed" me it would have less HP on the dyno after the mod.

He WAS nice enough to tell me, however, that MY SYSTEM WOULD BE LOUDER AND I WOULD THINK I WAS GOING FASTER!! I SWEAR, he actually said that to me. And to top it off, this gentleman showed no outward evidence of obvious generations of inbreeding. He didn't even have a banjo!

Thanks for sending the shirt. I'll check it out, and we hope to be able to make a decision and poll the membership about Club logo shirts pretty soon,

Roger

sdmike2

I talked to Ed Hanson about my exhaust system again and he's willing to sell those oval tips (model LX214-5) for $15 each plus shipping and handling. The system needs 4 of these tips. I also got some more information on the configuration that should be helpful. The pipes from the muffler are 2 1/2 inches back to the cut-out. Ed made custom Y pipes for each side that split the 2 1/2 in. exhaust into two 2" pipes that the tips mount to. These Y pipes also provide the stagger (offset) that you see in the pictures. Ed says he'll do the custom Y pipes plus tips for for $100 each side plus shipping/tax. So, if you don't have a local shop that can do the custom Y pipes you can have Ed do them for you.

Mike