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Comments
My Intrepid is about to turn 110,000 miles, so I"m mindful of having them inspect components at each regular oil change. As I've shared in the past--I continue to use synthetic oil and a high quality filter and I've spaced my oil changes to 5000 miles. I've yet to put a quart in between oil changes which surprises me.
My water pump has never been changed--nor indicated it's needs to be--so I don't think I'd jump to have them all done at once unless it's indicated. As always, making certain that you have regular oil changes and follow some reasonable series of inspections for critical components is the most likely way to avoid problems. Within my extended family the two 2.7 liter engines (in a Stratus and a base level Intrepid) soldier on with no problems.
*One Infinity Speaker replaced (persistent
buzz)--2004
*The pinched gas filler issue from TSB--2003
I think
*Noise in right front suspension--2004
*All belts--2003
*Door seals (shrinkage) 2004
*Transmission fluid and filter (twice)
*Replace OEM Goodyear GA's with Goodyear
Integras from Sam's Club at 29K.. Replaced
Intergras with Goodyear GPS tires from
Sam's at roughly 101K
*Two sets of front pads--one set of rear--
lifetime replacement warranty on them.
Hmm...this has been a useful walk down memory lane. I noticed a question about plugs and wires--I THINK (but am not certain) that my plugs have been replaced. But never the wires. As of today my 2000 ES is 5 years, 4 months old and has 109,650 miles. Trip to Philly and around may bounce me to 110K... I have a four wheel alignment done once or twice yearly. Be well campers!
$240 to have this all done at Jiffy Lube. Is this over-priced?
I've been a bit more anal about my tranny services though, getting them done every 30,000 miles. My 30 and 60K services were around $100 each, as they were done by a different shop. Well, those guys retired in 2002, and I wasn't too crazy about the new guys running the place, so I took it to a local tranny shop, instead of a general mechanic.
Anyway, I'm over 101,000 miles now, and no complaints with the tranny...yet!
He said to just loosen the pan and let all the fluid drain out, then re-tighten it and add new fluid in. Just like they taught him at Jiffy Lube! :-/
So I take that to mean that at Jiffy Lube, or at least this particular one, your chances of getting a new gasket and filter with the deal were pretty slim?
I think you mentioned you returned your Trep to the leasing company in one of your previous posts. Just wondering how many miles were on the car.
My Intrepid had 72K miles on a 5 year, 75K mile lease...aside from minor repairs, it was in excellent shape for 72K miles...silver with grey leather interior...had every option available in 2000 except ABS brakes...while the blind spots were annoying, it performed well, and on the road would get 28-30.9 mpg...the Ram 1500 Hemi that replaced it gets 14 city, about 19 highway...oh, how I long for the days when $10-12 would fill the tank from the halfway mark...:):):):):)
Bob
Interesting....my Trep has the one option that your car didnt have.....ABS....I would not buy a new car without it!
As for brakes, I think the quality of the system itself is more important than whether the rear brakes are drum or disc. For instance, my '89 Gran Fury, a disc/drum setup, was vastly superior to my Intrepid's disc/disc setup. Shorter stopping distance, almost impossible to lock up, good control, etc. That may not be a totally fair comparison though, as the Gran Fury was an ex police car, and had oversized brakes. It only weighed about 3500 lb, within around 100 lb of my Intrepid, but the Gran Fury's brakes were just much beefier. I don't know what size discs were up front, but it had 11" drums in the rear. Some 4000 lb+ cars in the 70's didn't even have brakes that big!
I wonder though, if another part of the Gran Fury's advantage might have been the tires? It had 235/70/R15's, compared to 225/60/R16's for the Intrepid. I've heard that lower-profile tires with bigger wheels can sometimes get iffy in bad weather.
When you have ABS, does that make it any more difficult/expensive to change the brake pads?
Chnaging the pads on a car with ABS is no different that disc brake pads on a car w/out ABS. At least that's the way it is on the Celica and I believe the Trep is no different. However, maintenance costs can be higher and you have to make sure you completely change the brake fluid every few years or you could screw up the ABS pump.
That said, my Trep came with a defective ABS controller which was replaced at 500 miles.
The only other knock I have against ABS is the cost of repair once the car gets up in age. If the ABS goes out on my 94 GM, I can only guess of what that would cost.
However, the grim reality is probably that the abs will fail and cost more to fix than the ol' clunker is worth. Or you get into some minor 11 mph collision that happens to set off the airbags needlessly, and the added $500 or so per airbag ends up pushing your repair bill over the threshold and into totaled car territory.
Guess I'm going to be taking it to the shop soon to have it looked at, though. If I really wanted to, I guess I could probably change the hoses myself. But I just don't have that kind of patience anymore, and it looks like such a tight squeeze. The bruised knuckles and flared temper just isn't worth the "satisfaction" of doing it myself!
And, at 102,000 miles, I'm sure something finally had to let go!
It wasn't coming in fast or hard, but I guess that's something else I'll have to deal with. I might be able to simply adjust the rubber seal that goes around the door opening. Still, I thought it was pretty annoying. I thought they stopped making cars that take on water DECADES ago!
Hayneldan, thanks for the tip on the hose clamps. I'll try to give them a check before taking it into the shop.
Momx3, I dunno if I'd buy a '97 Intrepid today. From what I've heard, most of the kinks actually were worked out of them by '96-97. My understanding was that it was mainly the '93-95 models that were the most troublesome. But still, you'd be getting a car that's soon going to be 9 model years old, and no matter how reliable it was when new, could be really iffy now.
But if you can find a low-mileage one at a cheap enough price, you might be okay.
As for the leaking trans lines in the Trep, the first time the dealer either tightened or replaced the hose clamps at the radiator. They also said that they had to take out the headlight assembly in order to accomplish this. So much for DC engineering! The second time the line sprung a leak in the rubber portion, so they replaced both lines.
As far as the water leakage, keep in mind that you are driving a DC product.
I am just waiting for the lines to leak again?! My problem is that the car will hit three years way before the mileage becomes 36,000. So I am just hoping nothing goes wrong. Maybe wishful thinking.
Probably the biggest problem with the 3.3 is that, by today's standards it's just not that sophisticated or powerful compared to newer offerings. How many miles do you have on it?
I really like the setup of my '79 NYer though. Just 3 belts, and two of them are duplicates! The duplicates run around the alternator and air conditioner, while the single handles the power steering pump.
Finally after just shy of 4 years my replacement battery gave up the ghost. Had it replaced and had another oil change yesterday--unfotunately it was smack in the middle of the little "snow and ice event" we were having here in Pennsylvania.
When the LH cars were re-done for '98, at first the biggest available engine was a 3.2, which was derived from the 3.5, and converted to an aluminum block. Then when the 3.5 was re-released for '99, it also had an aluminum block.
So, the current 3.5, 3.3, and 3.8 engines can all be traced back to a common ancestry, even though the 3.3/3.8 don't have much in common with the 3.5 as it is today.
Oh yeah, I'm still on my original battery, which I've had now for nearly 5 1/2 years. Common sense it telling me it's time to change it, but it's still starting up just fine and not showing any signs yet of weakening. Of course, that means it'll probably fail completely some cold night when I really need it!
I'm going to run the car until it won't start - hopefully I'll be at home, since I have a back up car in the Grand Marquis.
I hesistate to let others replace it, as a lot of these guys at the cheapo repair shops are not highly experienced, and I can imagine their confusion when they try to figure out how to replace it.
I had gotten spoiled for awhile, because I used to go to a place that was run by two older guys who used to work for a dealership that sold DeSotos...so that tells you how long they were in the business! They were pros and knew how to do things right. Unfortunately, they retired a couple years ago, and the people that took over just weren't the same. Instead of trying to do the job right they'd try to over-sell you on needless junk that you really didn't need to pad the price as much as possible.
I did find another shop at a local Amoco station. They seemed honest and like they knew what they were doing. But then they closed that Amoco down, and the mechanics went to a new shop about 6 miles or so further away. The ironic thing is that they moved out to where I used to live. And when I lived out that way, I'd always bring my cars out to where I live now (that shop I dealt with for years, with the older guys, was about 2 miles from where I now live). Now it looks like I might have to go all the way out to where I used to live to get my cars serviced!
I did find another garage that's only a few miles away, that I tried out. They have a good reputation, but I just got a bad vibe from them when my '85 Silverado kept cutting out on me. They had the truck for a couple weeks at first, but then about 2 months later it left me stranded again. This time they had it nearly a month! The problem was the distributor, and for some reason every time they'd put a new one on it would die immediately.
When it comes to my 'Trep's battery though, I hate to say it but in addition to worrying about someone else messing up in changing it, I guess I also just don't want to admit that I can't even change a battery! :-)