2000 Chrysler Intrepid from North America - Comments

Occasional dash cluster lights dim. difficult to view traffic beside and behind

Spacious interior, quiet and smooth. Lots of juice when you need it. I like power. Very comfortable and the whole family likes it.

Wait till the sludge maker extraordinare engine gets some more miles on it and blows itself up. Also beware the sludger auto transmission made and happily designed by Chrysler for their customer's driving pleasure.

Yeah, I'd rather swap out that 2.7 L engine and replace it with a 3.2 L engine, those are actually pretty reliable (I should know, my dad's old '99 Concorde had one and it ran great for more than 50,000 miles). Trust me, you'll spare yourself the headache later on.

I should save yourself the trouble of installing the more reliable motor from the 3.2 by simply not going within twenty feet of these Junkers to begin with. As a matter of fact after watching my Neibours frequent weekend battles trying to keep one on the road, I would not even touch this car with a long pole.

Do you personally have any bad experience with this car or motor type, or are you just talking BS? I've read a dozen of these "the sludge will kill the 2.7 before you know it", and it all seems to be based on what people have read, heard about etc. Few of these reviewers and commenters seem to have any first hand experience about this engine type. I have personally experience with the 2.7 as my current car is a Sebring v6, no problems with sludge or any other problems related to this car. The engine has even been internally inspected using an endoscope and it was totally clean.

There are so many people talking BS out there!

Take that endoscope and shove it you know where. The reason you're not having trouble with your 2.7L is because you have A SEBRING NOT AN INTREPID. Most of the 2.7 problems are with the Intrepids. Its because Chrysler put in a small engine in a big car. So the car is very underpowered and can't handle the load. As in the Sebring's case it's a smaller car, and is designed perfectly to fit the weight to power ratio.

The Sebring V6 Conv is only about 100 pounds lighter than the Intrepid. The exact number is of course depending on model year and equipment, but this is correct as an average. The reason is a heavy sub-frame that has been added to the Sebring Conv (like on most other convertibles) to ensure proper rigidity.

Also the drag coefficient for the Sebring Conv is somewhat higher than that of the Intrepid, meaning that the engine works slightly harder when cruising. Further, the same sludge claims are made for 2.7 equipped Sebrings as well.

I have a 2002 Sebring with the 2.7L V6. The engine sludged up at 95,000 km a year ago (Sep 2005). Regular oil changes at around every 5000 to 8000 km. I had receipts for 10 oil changes in the 3 years I owned the car prior to breakdown. I now call this car my very own personal POS. I had to buy a new engine, warranty would not cover problem.

I now use Mobil synthetic and grin and bear it when I get my $80 oil change. Buying this Sebring was the most expensive mistake I ever made, and I owned WorldCom stock. I will never buy another Chrysler and I warn everyone I know. I hope to get another 2 to 3 years out of this piece of crap and then am seriously considering blowing the thing up in a field somewhere or driving it off a cliff.

Chrysler now issues a warning with replacement engines indicating that synthetic oil is required or the warranty on the replacement engine will be voided. What kind of endorsement is that???

Don't go near the 2.7L engine. It is too risky.

I don't get it. Here in Europe synthetic oil has been specified for most cars at least for the last 10 years. Why don't just use synthetic in the first place? Sludging was a problem of the eighties for many car manufacturers, but I have never seen a single instance of sludge where synthetic oil has been used. And remember here in Europe we use high reving 1.6/1.8/2.0L engines, and there is practically speaking no speed limits on the motorways so the engines get a good thrashing. Synthetic oil IS much more expensive, but will typically last for 3 times the mileage. So in the end synthetic oil is cheaper, especially considering longer engine life.