Why Won't My 97 Cirrus Start?

[rhondayjenkins]

I Have A 97 Cirrus And It Ran Fine One Night. Got Up The Next Morning And It Wouldn't Start. I Had This Guy To Look At It And He Says The Coil Pack Is Bad And Need A New One. Well I Called The Dealership And A New One Would Be $900 Odd Dollars. Would It Be A Good Idea To Repair The Old One Or Buy A Used One? Please Respond Asap. My Car Havent Ran In A Month And Dont Really Know What's Wrong With It.

[dodgeservice]

If It Is A 2.5 Liter Engine, Don't Fool With A Used Or Aftermarket Coil Pack They Are Junk!!!! It Is Expensive But Go With The Chrysler Unit.

[rhondayjenkins]

Do A 97 Chrysler Cirrus V6 2.5 Have A Coil Pack Or A Distributor?

[dodgeservice]

You can call it whatever you want, it is basicly the same thing. In my shop we call them coil packs.

[ScrewyCirrus]

Originally Posted by dodgeservice

You can call it whatever you want, it is basicly the same thing. In my shop we call them coil packs.

My 97 2.5L V6 Cirrus was stalling while idoling and during slow driving. Then it stalled and will not start. It cranks but won't fire. At first I thought it might be the fuel filter. I didn't want to relieve fuel pressure, jack up the back and drop the tank. to put in a new filter when I'm not sure thats the prob.. Are you talking about the distributer or the distributer cap?

[Cirrusly Now]

Originally Posted by rhondayjenkins

I Have A 97 Cirrus And It Ran Fine One Night. Got Up The Next Morning And It Wouldn't Start. I Had This Guy To Look At It And He Says The Coil Pack Is Bad And Need A New One. Well I Called The Dealership And A New One Would Be $900 Odd Dollars. Would It Be A Good Idea To Repair The Old One Or Buy A Used One? Please Respond Asap. My Car Havent Ran In A Month And Dont Really Know What's Wrong With It.

Rhonda, if you know someone who can do the labor, you can go through O'Reilly Auto Parts to get a new or remanufactured distributor. Just do a search on their main page and follow the prompts.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/EW3/HomePage.do

I have used them numerous times before and have no complaints. Their remanufactured parts normally come with a limited lifetime warranty and they give you credit for turning in your core (original part). The new distributor they sell comes with a 1-yr warranty and "no core".

You know, this is exactly what happened to me! On a Sunday night, the car worked fine, I parked it in my covered spot as usual, and on Monday morning, it just wouldn't start. It turned, but no start.

Quick recap of 5 weeks of dealing with the repair shop: They first said my computer was shorted by water damage; that turned out to be a flat-out lie. Then they said my computer was in "theft mode" and they didn't know why. They ended up with the theory that someone had tried to break into my car and had damaged a sensor in the driver side door lock cylinder which put the computer in "theft mode". They said I had to take it to the dealer to get the problem fixed.

Now, after a second tow charge, the guy at the dealer's service department says the lock has nothing to do with anything and that (as far as he knows) the computer seems fine. He said the problems are a bad crank sensor and a bad cam sensor (part of the distributor). I am getting quoted $1,500 to repair these two things at the dealership. His opinion was that it's not worth putting that much money into a 10-year-old car. I agree; I paid $3,000 for it and have driven it for three years. All I wanted was to drive it another 6-12 months.

Before I pay the dealership's $75 "Refusal of Service" fee and yet another towing charge to have these two things replaced by my friend who sold me the car (and has done 90% of the repairs on it), could the problem possibly be something else, like bad wiring between the sensors and the computer? I just feel like I don't know who to believe anymore.

Thanks for any comments, ideas, or suggestions..

[sub006]

I feel your pain.

All my vehicles are Chevies or BMWs. I can do most maintenance and repair on them, and any good independent shop can handle the rest. I had a 1980 LeBaron 318 4bbl woody wagon for 10 years and it was a very good car. Now I'm bringing my mother-in-law's 21,000 mile '95 Cirrus into the motor pool (see my posts under "Stalling and Rough" and "95 cirrus engine kill").

These are great cars. They look good and handle as well as any of my 4 cylinder BMW 3 series, while getting the same high mpg plus all the extra room. I'll even forgive the inaccessibility of the 3 rear plugs, since replacement is so infrequent (why didn't they put an access panel on top of the dash? Lol!).

The Mitsubishi V6 is a thing of beauty when it runs and a time-gobbling nightmare when it doesn't. Even good independent shop techs scratch their heads over what should be simple issues. The high priests in the Chrysler service departments jealously guard their secrets, and charge accordingly.

It's a high-stakes crapshoot (emphasis on crap). You can pay the dealer $1000-$2000, mostly for ridiculously overpriced parts, and get a guaranteed fix, or run around for days (weeks) on your own or with independent shops, paying 50-75% of dealer price by the time you're done.

Your '97 has a big advantage over my '95. Your OBD II system gives much more detailed trouble code info than my OBD I.

Cerebrus-Chrysler just announced lifetime "powertrain" warranties on all new cars. Wonder if this covers distributors, sensors, etc. If so, I'd welcome the opportunity to spend $2000 to get one for my "new" 21,000 mile Cirrus!

If Chrysler stays in business...

[sub006]

Latest update.

The '95 started and ran flawlessly this afternoon. "Check Engine" light still on. I did notice that the temp gauge never moved, stayed on cold. Now THAT is the sort of thing that should cause a Check Engine light!

[taillight]

Pull the trouble codes and fix.

[Lvfirebird70]

Originally Posted by rhondayjenkins

I Have A 97 Cirrus And It Ran Fine One Night. Got Up The Next Morning And It Wouldn't Start. I Had This Guy To Look At It And He Says The Coil Pack Is Bad And Need A New One. Well I Called The Dealership And A New One Would Be $900 Odd Dollars. Would It Be A Good Idea To Repair The Old One Or Buy A Used One? Please Respond Asap. My Car Havent Ran In A Month And Dont Really Know What's Wrong With It.

My post
read the reply from me

[sub006]

Attention taillight, I had my independent mechanic run codes and three came back:
low voltage to MAP sensor
low voltage to intake temp sensor
low voltage to A/C

The air had stopped working a couple of days prior. He said it looks like the computer.

I drove the car to local Chrysler service department. They checked and agreed it needs a new computer. ZING! I just faxed them the receipt for the computer I bought from a Dodge dealer (since Chrysler dealer was out of stock) 11 months ago ($280) and their invoice for programming that computer and doing a "no-start" diagnosis ($302!).

We'll see if they cut me any slack because of the previous "investments"!

[jennajohnson]

you can get a distributor brand new from advanced auto for like 300 dollars, just buy the part then have the mechanic put it on but make sure you take out the old distributor and show the people at advanced auto it so they get the right new one for your car

[sub006]

I got a rebuilt distributor from a non-Chrysler aftermarket source for about $250. So far it works fine. It'll be a cold day in Baghdad when I pay eight or nine hundred dollars for a new, genuine Chrysler/Mitsubishi distributor!

For $300 I'm sure your Advance distributor should work just fine. I'm also sure it is a rebuilt unit. If anyone sells NEW Mitsubishi V-6 distributors for that price, all us cloud car owners want to know!