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Kickin' It - 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited January 2016 in Dodge
imageKickin' It - 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 Long-Term Road Test

The battery in our 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 died, so we looked for it under the hood. We didn't find it.

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Comments

  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    I'd have asked someone to jump start the car, then driven to a Wal-Mart to have the battery tested for free. It'd have probably taken the same amount of time, but been cheaper.
  • chase300chase300 Member Posts: 6
    Not a bad price...I think I paid $125 and had to install myself.
    I now keep one of those emergency lithium battery packs for jump starts if needed.
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    I have a comment/question about one of the photos. I notice the "difficult to install trunk" label on the print-out. Granted, a statement like that is subjective. But is it really that difficult to swap the battery out with it mounted in the trunk? Unless you've got the spare tire, jack, a couple of backpacks, a baby stroller, groceries, extra coats, and miscellaneous items that you've chunked in the trunk, I wouldn't think it'd be that difficult to swap out the battery. Undo the two battery terminals, maybe a restraining clamp, and lift it out.

    The most difficult battery I've ever had to swap out was on the (dreaded, hated, despised) PT Cruiser that my wife and I had. The battery was buried down in the front-driver's side area of the engine bay, under the air intake/air filter area. You had to really dig down to get to it. Then the battery had to go in/come out at an angle. It was a pain to put the battery cables on. God, I hated that car.
  • bankerdannybankerdanny Member Posts: 1,021
    Given that the battery came to you, was installed by someone else, and came with a pre-replacement diagnostic, $211 is a very reasonable price.
  • longtimelurkerlongtimelurker Member Posts: 455
    I understand that these posts are not in any chronological order, but...November 9th? This happened almost 3 months ago?
  • schen72schen72 Member Posts: 433
    daryleason said:

    The most difficult battery I've ever had to swap out was on the (dreaded, hated, despised) PT Cruiser that my wife and I had. The battery was buried down in the front-driver's side area of the engine bay, under the air intake/air filter area. You had to really dig down to get to it. Then the battery had to go in/come out at an angle. It was a pain to put the battery cables on. God, I hated that car.

    I'm pretty sure the PT Cruiser in general was a dreaded, hated, and despised car.
  • schen72schen72 Member Posts: 433
    bankerdanny said:

    Given that the battery came to you, was installed by someone else, and came with a pre-replacement diagnostic, $211 is a very reasonable price.

    Even though it's mildly expensive, for the convenience of having a fully functional car immediately and not having to spend time going anywhere else to get this fixed, I'd gladly pay the $211.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    schen72 said:

    I'm pretty sure the PT Cruiser in general was a dreaded, hated, and despised car.

    I've always rather liked them. Bit of retro in a nice wagon package with lots of storage that's low to the ground so you don't break your back loading and unloading stuff. But I like vans and wagons anyway and have little interest in muscle cars.
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    @stever : I liked the appearance of the car. But trust me...it was not a wagon. It was a hatchback that thought it was a wagon. Similar, but not the same. It was horrible to work on, but it did get great fuel economy, at least the 2006 Touring Edition I had with the 2.4 liter engine did. But because everything was so compact in the engine bay, it was a horrible mess to work on. Plus, the build quality was abysmal. Trim rattled constantly a year after I got it. And it's true. RAIN will stain the seats. I found that out a week after buying it. I opened the door to get out, rain blew in, seats had spots that wouldn't come out afterwards. Something with the dye, I think. As for cargo-space, if you laid the seats down in the back, yes, you had a good amount of space. But it wasn't real tall in the back, so you were still limited. Taking the seats out, while simple in design, wasn't practical in execution. They were heavy, relatively speaking, and the latching system never seemed to want to work quite right. I only took them out twice in the six years I was sentenced to the car.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited January 2016
    At least your battery wasn't buried under the fender like my friend's old Chrysler Olds. Had to take the fender liner out to get to it.
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    stever said:

    At least your battery wasn't buried under the fender like my friend's old Chrysler. Had to take the fender liner out to get to it.

    It must be a Chrysler design feature. The battery was located beneath the front driver's side headlight assembly, about two-thirds of the way under the front fender, underneath the air intake box. To get to it, you had to take the air box off, lay it back, move the wiring loom out of the way, dislocate your elbow, chop off two fingers, and reach in at an awkward angle to loosen the battery cables. Then try to angle in to loosen the clamp that grabbed the battery at the bottom. Frankly, the second time I replaced the battery, I didn't put the clamp back on. There was no where for that battery to go. The space saver spare was also mounted odd. It hung below the bottom of the car, like on a pickup, but to get it, you had to open the hatch, expose a bolt head with the same diameter as the tire lugnuts, and lower it with the jack handle. Sadly, the spare's mount wouldn't take the full-size tire, so you're wasting your time trying to put the flat there. It has to go in the hatch to get everything dirty.

    What sort of Chrysler did your friend have?
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited January 2016
    I was afraid you were going to ask that - never can remember those kinds of details.

    Ah, luckily I posted about it a couple of years ago - it was an Olds Intrigue. (All sedans look alike to me and please don't ask me what year it was. B) ).
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    @stever : Oh...it was that rare Chrysler Oldsmobile Intrigue. I think they made those only from February 30th - February 31st, 1854. That's a rare car. I hope he held onto it. :smile:
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited January 2016
    Nah, she dumped it for a Cruze.

    Details, details. :D OT, but saw this hatch one road trip and really liked it.
  • nagantnagant Member Posts: 176
    stever said:

    schen72 said:

    I'm pretty sure the PT Cruiser in general was a dreaded, hated, and despised car.

    I've always rather liked them. Bit of retro in a nice wagon package with lots of storage that's low to the ground so you don't break your back loading and unloading stuff. But I like vans and wagons anyway and have little interest in muscle cars.

    We still love ours. With the flip/fold/remove rear seats and the front passenger seatback that folds forward the cargo space is huge for the size of the car. Only the most ignorant think it is not a wagon. Our Limited is still tight and quiet even at 9 years old and the heated leather seats are still perfect.
  • nagantnagant Member Posts: 176
    stever said:

    I was afraid you were going to ask that - never can remember those kinds of details.

    Ah, luckily I posted about it a couple of years ago - it was an Olds Intrigue. (All sedans look alike to me and please don't ask me what year it was. B) ).

    It was a Stratus/Cirrus/Breeze. I had one. The extreme "Cab Forward" design pushed everything to the extreme ends of the car. The cabin was HUGE for the cars size but a pain to work on.
  • nagantnagant Member Posts: 176
    Oh and that was rape for the battery. The last time I had a dead one, I called Allstate and within 20 minutes they had sent out a guy to jump the car (free with my insurance). We then drove to Batteries Plus where they installed the DuraCell for free (even with the PITA battery placement in the PT) for $98 plus tax. Total time about 60 minutes. The install is easier on ours because it has a CAI unit. The stock airbox does have to be removed usually.
  • kirkhilles1kirkhilles1 Member Posts: 863
    Yeah, I don't understand. Shouldn't it have been free to get a jump if you guys have AAA? If not, I bet you had Cross Country or something through your insurance. If it was one of the new cars, likely through warranty as well. Maybe you got a great battery, but a jump start and a trip to Walmart would've saved probably $100, right?
  • longtimelurkerlongtimelurker Member Posts: 455
    I said the same kind of thing about the front brake parts in that post, but the fact here is that the credit card says "Edmunds," not "Kurt Niebuhr."
  • moparfoolmoparfool Member Posts: 8
    Looks like the same battery layout as my 2009 Challenger. I decided last summer to replace the original battery before it died as it was 6.5 years old. It is somewhat difficult to change out the battery what with it being very heavy and far down in the trunk. Plus you need to remember to re-connect the battery vent tube or the battery fumes will corrode everything they can reach.
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