1985 Chrysler Laser XE from North America - Comments

Has leaked oil since I got it. Replaced the gasket twice myself, and had it professionally done once. Still leaks oil from the engine block itself in several places, small amounts though.

Just recently everything went to hell in a hand basket. It's got a cracked head and is leaking transmission fluid into the oil. This seems to be pretty normal on these cars though.

I got a short in the electrical system somewhere (still in the shop) and it slowly destroyed everything in it's path.

This includes:

Melting the ground wire on the alternator, which in turn shot my battery.

Intermittent wipers burned up

Coil died

Ate up a brand new distributor (rotor and cap were melting)

Melting wires here and there

Won't turn over anymore unless you wire the battery straight to the coil.

I had problems with the interior when I got it. The light only comes on with the passenger door.

The carpeting is falling apart. all the plastic screws have popped out on their own.

When I got it the electronics were less than functional. None of the buttons worked.

All in all it's been good to me despite it's flaws thus far.

I love it a lot, and I really hope I can fix the short in the wiring, or I'm going to have to sell it.

It's an extremely fast car even with just the stock parts in it. I've beaten all cars off the line that I've raced against and only lost a couple of races to some seriously expensive modified cars.

Granted I haven't done tons of racing with it, but I've done enough to know that it's the zippy'ist little car I've seen around town.

The back seats don't have a tons of room, but I like the design on them a lot and I really like how they fold down, very nice, makes for a Huge trunk.

It's very hard to find performance parts for this car until you realize that it's identical twin is the Dodge Daytona, and that car has enough parts available to keep you busy.

I also have an '85 Laser (albeit the XT version). The problem with the dashboard electronic buttons can be traced to the internal electrical connection in the pushbutton. The electrical connection is made by compressing a small piece of elastomeric rubber that is inside the switch. After a few years of the heat in the car, the rubber dries out and breaks. When the car was newer, I bought replacement switches, removed the rubber inserts, and put them in the old switches. This is MUCH easier than unsoldering the switches and putting the new ones in. However, in 2002 I spoke to the manufacturer of the switch itself, and they no longer make the switch, although they gave me the part number and indicated I could ask Chrysler if they still had any in stock. I've not done that, but I very much doubt they would. A more permanent solution, if you are going to keep the car for a while, is to take measurements off a switch, and look at the Digi-Key catalog to find something with the same or similar enough dimensions that has true metal contacts instead of the rubber. I've not done that because I am probably going to sell the car soon (not because it isn't in good shape, but just because it doesn't fit our lifestyle anymore!). Good luck.