1992 Dodge Spirit from North America - Comments

8th Sep 2005, 11:39

"I'd buy another... and modify it"

What things have gone wrong with the car?

Typical things such as brakes, alternator, battery, belts.

Distance sensor blew and made my speedometer jump around like crazy and caused the transmission to be erratic. Disconnected sensor and drove without a speedometer for a year (used tach to measure speed).

A604 (4-speed, computer controlled) transmission is really a piece of junk. Previous owner replaced it around 150,000 km.

I broke the transmission around 220,000 km. Guess I shouldn't have raced that Camaro... It was actually a typical break-point on these transmissions that anyone who races with an A604 will eventually find out. Repair cost was $800 CDN.

Main belt kept slipping off around 250,000 km. Had to replace tensioner - which you have to be a contortionist to do yourself if you don't have the proper socket set attachments.

ECU became badly corroded over time and needed replacing at 350,000 km. I gave the car to someone who needed it who promptly parted it out after a stupid mechanic told her it wasn't worth fixing... that really ticked me off.

General comments?

As far as I'm concerned the Mitsubishi 3.0L V6 was bullet proof and would have gone another 350,000 km.

The A604 probably would be a decent transmission if it was babied - synthetic fluid, easy acceleration at all times, regular maintenance, proper ECU upgrades and training, etc.

Dodge should have offered this vehicle with the V6 and the manual transmission from the Daytona. Many people have sites on the internet describing how they performed this swap themselves. I had planned on doing it, but my wife suggested it was time for a newer vehicle.


9th Sep 2005, 08:52

Your wife sounds sensible.

Top Tip:

Disconnect your speed sensor a month after you purchase your vehicle and reinstall it a day before selling so the buyer thinks you've only done 2,000 km in 5 years.


10th Sep 2005, 01:25

Perhaps you can drop in a twin-turbo unit from a Maserati.


12th Sep 2005, 18:54

I was playing with the idea of dropping in a Stealth twin-turbo. The engine blocks are identical, but I recently heard they are mounted completely differently and it would be a lot of work to modify the Spirit to accept the Stealth engine.

Perhaps that's why the Spirit R/T wasn't powered by a Stealth TT... even though it should have been.

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