1998 Chrysler Cirrus LXI from North America - Comments

Just purchased a 98 Cirrus with only 88,000 miles on it for my "handicapped" brother. Boy... wished I had seen this site before we purchased it. I almost "Didn't" let my husband purchase this vehicle for the problems I have had with Chrysler's products in the past...but...same start stall... now NO start... He had to "walk" 3 miles to home.. Being handicapped..because the car stalled and now won't start... He has had the car only 1 month... when we test drove it.. for at least 20 miles.. took it had it put on computer.. no defects were found..UGH..thought we were getting a deal... we got it alright... right in the "hiney".

The Cirrus is simply... a poorly designed car, the people who designed it should be kicked in the ass. I mean logically the design of the engine... heck just the whole car does not make sense...

I have serious electrical problems; nothing in-cab works... headlamps, radio, A/C... which has a mind of its own.

One time I was jump starting the car; bad battery and sparks shot out the A/C vents when I turned the key to the on position.

More minor repairs keep popping up, have no engine problems, but the electricals are all screwed up.

Have a 95 Cirrus LXI, purchased used. The car ran fine, till lately. The car stutters when taking off from a stand still. Thought it was the transmission, did a oil and filter change, (Oil had the burnt smell). Helped some, but now it appears that the motor is stumbling.

Found a lot of used engine sensors in the trunk, Checked all electrical connections and they appear good. Scan tool is no help (Shows no link, key on or engine running) and no MIL. Checked all fuses, and have a tech manual, still cannot figure it out.

No stalling problem yet...

I have a 1999 Cirrus LXi with 131k and have experienced most all of the symptoms previously described here... fuel line restrictions, tons of oil in spark plug tubes, erratic radio volume, factory alarm problems, intermittent cutting out with delayed or no restart, no bus, etc.

Like a lot of you, I read everything I could about this online and wasn't sure where to start. While changing out the valve cover gaskets and tube seals, I thought I would change out the Crankshaft Position Sensor as I had a little better access. Presto! It has been a week and the No Bus is gone, and the car starts every time! Good luck people!

I have a 1998 Chrysler Cirrus Lxi, they said my car was misfiring on cylinders 4&5. So I changed the spark plugs and wires, it still skips really bad. So now I am gonna try changing the distributor cap and rotor, hopefully that will correct the problem. The check engine light has stayed on and some times it flickers on and off. It sputters when idling and when taking off and feels like it wants to stall. Any suggestions that I should do if the distributor cap and rotor don't work?...

The first time my 1995 Chrysler Cirrus stalled was about 4 months ago while I was doing 50kmph. I did not even realize that the vehicle had shut down until crawled to a stop. I started it up and it fired up. My fuel light was on and I suspected that I must have run really low on fuel. I drove to a gas station few blocks away and topped up. The car drove fine that day. Next day on my way back from work it stalled again sitting at a red light. I was able to start it up within 10 seconds. Ever since the vehicle would stall at least once a day sometimes while doing 80kph on a freeway, or idling at a red light.

I looked up this site and was very surprised to see that there were so many Chrysler Cirrus out there having the same problem. One guy in this forum reported he had the crankshaft sensor replaced, which solved his stalling problem. I took my car over to this mechanic that I know through a friend. He said that they had done a road test and it did not stall on them. He, however noticed quite a bit of oil in the sparkplug tubes. He quoted about $800.00 to do a “tune up” of the vehicle which would include changing the spark plugs, sparkplug wires, fuel filter and spark plug tube seals. $800 seemed to much for me so I decided I would do it myself so I paid the guy his $80.00 diagnostics charge and left.

A week later I pulled the spark plug wires off, and lo and behold, one of the spark plug wires on the distributor side had corroded and broken off while another wire on the spark plug side had a thick layer of oil in it. I thought to myself that I must have found the problem. That day I ended up replacing the spark plug wires, spark plugs, spark plug tube seals, distributor cap and rotor, engine oil and filter, transmission oil and filter (by the way the transmission oil had turned brown in color) for about $300.

The next two days the car drove with no problems and then one day it would`t even start. After few tries it fired up and the plaguing stall came back. I ended up changing the crankshaft sensor, by the way these little buggers cost about $140.00. The stall didn`t go away so I replaced the fuel filter. The next day I drove my car to work. At around noon the vehicle wouldn`t start. I had it towed to Canadian Tire since it was close to my work. When I told my friend about having my car towed to Canadian Tire, they said that they will screw me pretty bad. At this point in time I really didn`t care. I just wanted to get my vehicle diagnosed properly and fixed. The next day C/Tire calls and said that the vehicle started fine, and they also did a road test and it worked fine. They wanted me to go pick my vehicle up since they couldn`t find any thing wrong with it. As far as diagnostic charge, “nada” yup they did not charge me anything and as soon as I drove my vehicle out of the parking lot it stalled. I restarted and head my way home finally reaching my destination after two other stalls.

I looked up mechanics in my area and took it over to this company who’s logo has Detective Sherlock Holmes with a magnifying glass looking inside the hood of a car. I thought, “aaah! These guys should be able to figure out the problem” so on a Thursday I took my car there. The girl, a not so friendly one, said they they were booked up and told me to bring my vehicle back on Monday and they will charge $130.00 to hook up a computer to retrieve any codes. She said diagnostics would be extra. I called my first mechanic and asked if he could have a look at my vehicle again. He suggested I take it to a Chrysler dealership first to get it diagnosed for $120.00.

I took my car over and left it over night. Next day they called and said there was a stored code which indicated that the camshaft sensor was faulty. The girl, a very friendly one this time, said that it may or may not be the cause of stalling since it was a stored code from before. They initially quoted $160.00 to replace the sensor and I told them to proceed. They then called back and apologized that they had wrongly quoted the repair saying that the camshaft sensor is part of the distributor therefore the whole distributor will have to be replaced. The actual price was to $315.00 for the part and $240.00 for labor. Called C/Tire and they quoted $625.00 to replace the distributor so I told the dealership to proceed. The next day they called to say the vehicle was good to go. The girl also told me that the vehicle had failed to start the morning they were to replace the distributor. They said they were 100% certain it was the camshaft sensor that was causing the stalling problems. The paper work from the dealer read “ 164648 found stored DTC P0340, no camshaft position sensor signal at the PCM. Started engine numerous times, intermittently engine will stall due to a loss of cam sensor signal at the PCM. Installed new cam sensor, ran the engine and road tested vehicle, cam signal is no longer being lost at the PCM”.

This is day three since getting my car back and it hasn’t stalled. This is one of the things in my life that I will never miss, the problematic stalling. I am enjoying my car way better then before and it drives like a new car. I detailed it the other day and now even looks like a new car. I am not scared of taking this car out for drive any more as a matter look for reasons to go out just to drive the car. I wish you all good luck with your vehicle.

I "inherited" my 1999 Cirrus from my mother in law about two years ago. Car currently has 100K.

I've had to replace the alternator (did that myself).

Transmission pan gasket had to be replaced by dealer.

An inaccessable transmission gasket had to be replaced by the dealer (after one year, the transmission has now begun to leak again).

I've had to replace virtually every piece of the front suspension.

I have replaced the crankshaft sensor twice. If your car stops while driving for no apparent reason and then restarts, try replacing this sensor. It's difficult to locate and then access, but it can be done.

The car is currently in the driveway and will not start (engine is not turning over/no sounds or clicking). I replaced the starter and also the ignition switch and lock. Still won't start. I plan on trying the crankshaft sensor again, and then I guess I will have it towed to the repair shop.

Also I had a code read about a month ago, which indicated that it needs new plugs, wires, etc. The plugs on this thing are under the exhaust manifold! What a pain!

I have a 95 Cirrus that was running great up until 3 weeks ago! Stalled out on me while going 70mph on highway, didn't even realize it stalled until I gave it gas and realized the engine was off! It is amazing to see how many people are having this problem. My mechanics are at their wits end with my car. They have replaced the distributor and the computer with no luck... Anyone find a good result yet??

Hey.

I have a 97 Chrysler Cirrus LX, which has been stalling all the time! If I stop at a light, it stalls and it idles crazily! I took it to get a new inspection and they said it was reading out that my plugs were misfiring! I thought that was the problem, it just needed a tune up! But after reading all these comments, it seems that it could literally be anything. I want to fix it, but it's expensive to change all those parts out and then it still stalls! So I guess I'll just change the distributor and plugs and see if that helps. If not I'll just accept the fact that this car is a piece of crap and try to sell it!

If anyone has found a sure way of fixing this, please please let me know. I'll pay for the info if needed!!!

I have 95 Chrysler Cirrus. It started stalling out about a month ago. I have no idea why! It will run fine for 3 days, then it just stalls out and won't start. When I go back 5 hours later, it starts up again like nothing is wrong, then once again 3 days later stalls out again. Please, if anyone has any suggestions, please help davidjennamills@live.com

I am glad I found this page. I have a 1996 Cirrus LXi with 141K miles. Last November I had a leaking water pump replaced and they found a worn timing belt and replaced it. (You have to remove the timing belt to get to the water pump.)

The next day I was driving and it died for no apparent reason. The mechanic came to me and couldn't get it to start and since it was just after they had worked on it they towed it back to the shop and replaced the distributor and spark plugs and wires.

After that it would die at stoplights. So I got in the habit of shifting into neutral and keeping my foot on the gas to keep it from dying. After a while that problem stopped, but it occasionally wouldn't start the first try. This summer it got to the point where I would have to crank it several times. When I was working on my mechanic's house he heard me having trouble and said to bring it to the shop because it sounded like a fuel pump problem.

Three weeks ago it wouldn't start. I had to have it towed to the shop and sure enough the fuel pump was bad. $400 at a discount because I have helped him and he works with the used car dealership where I bought the car and work sometimes.

Unfortunately while the car now has fuel, it still dies at inconvenient times.

I noticed that it was dying at a specific temperature and sometimes wouldn't start again until it had cooled off completely. But if I was able to get it above that temp it would run and not die. I spent an afternoon last week at the dealership with their mechanic and GM after spending 2 hours fighting with my car to get it over there. We determined that it wasn't getting spark but could not figure out why. It died several times on me the next day on the way to work and a 35 min trip took 2:15 and a warning from the bridge policeman, who pushed me to a parking lot, that if I broke down on the bridge it would earn me a citation. Yesterday lunch turned into 2 hours of frustration and a push from a fireman and a policeman to get me out of the turn lane and into a parking lot.

Today I skipped work again and went over to the shop (it didn't die on the way even though I had to stop at a light just as it got to the critical temp) and spent 3 hours getting it to die and not start to demonstrate the problem for my mechanic. He checked to see if the injectors were getting signaled by the distributor (yes) and if there was spark (no). The next time I cranked it it started. He wiggled the PCM signal plug on the distributor and it died. Wiggled it back and it started. He disconnected the plug and showed me where the connectors which go over the distributor's pins were not making good contact. I tried to tighten the connectors but ended up cracking the plug. I got the plug back into place. Got the car started and headed for the junk yard to find a plug. It cooled off and died on the way. I re-seated the plug and it started back up. I got there and found a plug, but it was too late in the day to install it. I left the junkyard and my car died again even though it was above the critical temp. Re-seated the plug and it started. I hope I can get to work tomorrow in the rain and it stops long enough for me to cut the old plug out and splice the new one in.

If this doesn't work I will look into the crank sensor a few of you mentioned. I cannot afford to put too much money into this car. The recession has hit me very hard.

I had a problem with a 95 Cirrus that would not start. It would act like the battery was dead, but lights worked fine. Nothing on the dash, but the brake light would work. They replaced the ignition tumblers and it worked fine (for a while). 90 miles from home, my daughter had it happen again. The mechanic found a TSB that stated it was a high resistance problems. He removed and cleaned the positive and neg posts on the Lt shock tower and now it seems to be fine. I was told it was too much corrosion/paint that blew the ignition fuse (20 amp). Once he finished, it seemed to work. Just an idea.